1870 Memoirs - JANE AUSTEN - MARY MITFORD

Title: Miss Austen and Miss Mitford.

Author: Margaret Oliphant
Publisher:London: Blackwoods, 1870

Notes & Condition:    The author compares the lives and works of two great female English novelists, Jane Austen and Mary Mitford, highlighting the advantages which enabled refinement of each of their talents, versus personal hardships overcome. She further contemplates the reveal of the writers' personal characters in their popular novels. Narrative is 24 pages. These are original text pages printed in 1870, attractively bound booklet style in modern blue paper covers with label. Some foxing, otherwise in very condition. A captivating memoir.

Jane Austen (1775-1817), was a brilliant English novelist whose realism, biting social commentary and masterful use of free indirect speech, burlesque and irony have earned her a place as one of the most widely read and best-loved writers in English literature. From 1811 until 1815, with the release of Sense and Sensibility (1811), Pride and Prejudice (1813), Mansfield Park (1814) and Emma (1815), she achieved success as a published writer. She wrote two additional novels, Northanger Abbey and Persuasion, both published after her death in 1817, and began a third, eventually titled Sanditon, but died before completing it. Like those of Samuel Johnson, one of the strongest influences on her writing, her works are concerned with moral issues.

Mary Russell Mitford (1787 - 1855), was an English novelist and dramatist. She was born at Alresford, Hampshire. Her place in English literature is as the author of "Our Village." This series of sketches of village scenes and vividly drawn characters was based upon life in Three Mile Cross, a hamlet in the parish of Shinfield, near Reading in Berkshire, where she lived. Some of her other famous works include, "Rienzi", "Belford Regis" and "Atherton." Her writing has all the charm of unaffected spontaneous humour, combined with quick wit and literary skill. She met Elizabeth Barrett Browning in 1836, and their acquaintance ripened into a warm friendship. The strain of poverty told on her work, for although her books sold at high prices, her income did not keep pace with her father's extravagances. In 1837, however, she received a civil list pension, and five years later her father died. A subscription was raised to pay his debts, and the surplus increased Mary's income. She eventually moved to a cottage in Swallowfield, where she remained for the rest of her life. She is buried in the churchyard there.