Free Jane Austen by Andrew Norman

brother Francis a long letter in early July. In it, she said that the previous January she had learnt, from the newspaper, that the Revd Samuel Blackall had married Susannah, ‘eldest daughter of James Lewis Esq. of Clifton, late of Jamaica’. 3 The previous year Blackall had achieved his wish of becoming Rector of North Cadbury, Somerset and could therefore now afford a wife.
    Jane had previously described Blackall as ‘a peice of Perfection’ and someone whom she would ‘always recollect with regard’. Now, in respect of his new wife, she stated as follows:
    I would wish Miss Lewis to be of a silent turn & rather ignorant, but naturally intelligent & wishing to learn; fond of cold veal pies, green tea in the afternoon, & a green window-blind at night. 4
    This smacks of sour grapes on Jane’s part. She knew that Blackall was a lively and intelligent man, so if she had had his best interests at heart, she would naturally have wished for his partner to be of a similar nature. Instead, she expresses the hope that Susannah Lewis will prove to be dull and staid. In other words, Jane hopes that Blackall will be punished for not choosing her instead; she who had all the requisite qualities.
    So why had he not married Jane? After all, she was still a single woman and in good health. Was it, as has already been suggested, because of intervention by Cassandra?
    Despite receiving this piece of portentous news about Blackall, Jane still found it possible to think of her brother. She wrote to Francis:
    My Dearest Frank …
     
    God bless you. – I hope you continue beautiful & brush your hair, but not all off. – We join in an infinity of love.
     
    Yrs very affectly,
    Jane Austen. 5
    At about this time, Jane’s niece Frances (‘Fanny’) Knight observed that her Aunt Jane ‘suffered sadly with her face’. 6 Years later, Fanny’s sister Elizabeth (‘Lizzy’) recalled seeing Jane walk
    with head a little to one side, and sometimes a very small cushion pressed against her cheek, if she were suffering from face-ache, as she not infrequently did in later life. 7
    What the Knight sisters were observing in Jane were attacks of trigeminal neuralgia, caused by a dysfunction of the trigeminal (or 5th cranial) nerve which supplies the face. The pain is severe and comes in paroxysms, and the disorder is believed to be due to compression of the nerve in the bony canal between the brain and the face, in which it lies.
    Jane told Cassandra that their mother had improved and was ‘no more in need of Leeches’. (A leech is a large aquatic blood-sucking worm used by the medical profession for thepurpose of blood-letting, which was considered to be beneficial.) Nevertheless, James E. Austen-Leigh declares that during the last years of her life, Mrs Austen ‘endured continual pain, not only patiently but with characteristic cheerfulness’. (In fact, she lived on until 1827). 8
    In September 1813 Jane sent Francis an even longer letter, packed with news and addressed to: ‘Captain Austen, HMS Elephant , Baltic.’ 9
    The following month gave Jane the opportunity of seeing her youngest brother, Charles, when he and his wife Frances arrived at Godmersham Park, where she was staying. She said warmly:
    Here they are, safe and well, just like their own nice selves, Fanny (Frances) looking as neat & white this morning as possible, and dear Charles all affectionate, placid, quiet, chearful good humour. 10
    In a letter to her niece Anna Austen, written in mid-September 1814, Jane gave a clue as to how she obtained ideas for the characters of her novels when she said, ‘3 or 4 Families in a Country Village is the very thing to work on’. 11

    Notes
    1.­ Letter from Jane Austen to Cassandra Austen, 29 January 1813.
    2.­ Letter from Jane Austen to Martha Lloyd, 16 February 1813.
    3.­ The marriage was reported in the Hampshire Telegraph of 11 January 1813.
    4.­ Letter from Jane Austen to Francis Austen, 3/6 July 1813.
    5.­ Letter from Jane