Free Jane Austen by Andrew Norman Page A

Austen to Francis Austen, 3 July 1813.
    6.­ Deirdre Le Faye, Fanny Knight’s Diaries (The Jane Austen Society, 2000), p. 27.
    7.­ Oscar Fay Adams, The Story of Jane Austen’s Life (USA: Chicago, 1891), p. 176.
    8.­ James E. Austen-Leigh, A Memoir of Jane Austen , p. 15.
    9.­ Letter from Jane Austen to Francis Austen, 25 September 1813.
    10.­ Letter from Jane Austen to Cassandra Austen, 14/15 October 1813.
    11.­ Letter from Jane Austen to Anna Austen, 9/18 September 1814.

18
‘Mary Crawford’:­ The Reincarnation of Eliza
    A clue that Jane may have had Eliza in mind when she was writing her novel Mansfield Park , is given by the fact that the fictitious Lady Bertram possesses a dog by the name of ‘Pug’, whom she dotes on and spoils unutterably. Eliza also possessed a pug (this being the generic name for a breed of toy dog) and treated the creature with the same indulgence. She came by it in the following way. On 7 November 1796 Eliza reminded her cousin Philadelphia Walter (‘Phylly’) that she had promised to acquire a dog for her. Eliza says, ‘I live in hope of dear Pug’s arrival. Pray get him for me if possible’. By the following month it is clear that Phylly has obliged, because Eliza states that she is now in possession of her Pug and ‘shall joyfully receive as many more as you can provide for me’. Not only that, but Eliza has consulted her doctor about the dog and the administration of ‘Vapour Baths, which he has prescribed for him’. 1 Eliza did, in fact, go on to possess several pug dogs. However, it was not Lady Bertram who Jane had in mind for Eliza, but another of the principal characters in the story: Mary Crawford.
    What similarities are there between the real life Eliza and the fictional Mary? Eliza, from her portrait, is an attractive woman with long, wavy, auburn hair and large brown eyes reminiscent of a painting by Rubens, but not, perhaps, a classical beauty; Mary is ‘remarkably pretty’. Eliza is comfortably placed, thanks to the generosity of Warren Hastings; Mary is ‘possessed of £ 20,000’. Both have good connections: Eliza is accustomed to mixing in the upper echelons of society at both the French and the English Courts; Mary’s brother Henry has ‘a good estate in Norfolk’. Both ladies are fond of London (and in Eliza’s case, Paris also); both play the harp and the pianoforte and love to sing; both participate in amateur theatricals. Moreover, both are strong-minded characters used to having their own way.
    Both Mary and Eliza are essentially townspeople who are not altogether comfortable in the countryside. For example, when Mary complains that she cannot find a wagon or cart for hire in the village on which to transport her harp, Edward feels obliged to point out that yes, indeed, this would be difficult in the middle of harvest time. How different this is from London, says Mary, where ‘every thing is to be got with money’. As for Eliza, she was accustomed to the French Court and later to the English Court, and yet her letters to Phylly indicate that in later years she had become more attuned to country living.
    Just as Eliza has lived in France and speaks the language fluently, so too in Mansfield Park does Mary show that she has a knowledge of that country and its people. Mary says, in reference to the vanity of a former French King:
    To say the truth, I am something like the famous Doge [Chief of State] at the court of Lewis [Louis] XIV; and may declare that I see no wonder in the shrubbery equal to seeing myself in it.
    And Mary tells her sister Mrs Grant:
    If you can persuade Henry [her brother] to marry, you must have the address of a Frenchwoman. All that English abilities can do has been tried already.
    (Is this Jane telling us in code that Eliza had tried, without success, to find a suitable English husband before she married the Count?) Apart from these superficial similarities, there is evidence that Mary was like Eliza in more fundamental