Edward Knight Archives -

England Authors, Chawton Cottage, Chawton House Library, Edward Knight, England, Historic Homes, History, Jane Austen

At Home at Last: Jane Austen in Chawton Cottage—Part 3

by Indu Sundaresan November 7, 2018 1 Comment

(Part 1 here; Part 2 here)

Jane, her sister Cassandra, and their mother moved into Chawton Cottage in 1809, thanks to her brother Edward Knight’s generosity. One other person came to live with them. Martha Lloyd was a longtime friend, and a few of Jane’s surviving letters are written to her. She was the sister of Jane’s oldest brother James’ second wife, Mary. Got all that? (James took over the rectory at Steventon when their father retired; his son by his second wife, James Edward Austen Leigh, is the one who wrote Jane Austen’s first official biography. So both Martha and Jane were aunts to James Edward Austen Leigh). Continue Reading

England Authors, Chawton Cottage, Edward Austen, Edward Knight, England, Historic Homes, History, Jane Austen

At Home at Last: Jane Austen in Chawton Cottage—Part 2

by Indu Sundaresan October 9, 2018 4 Comments

(Part 1 here)

The front of Chawton Cottage, where Jane Austen spent the last eight years of her life. Source: Jane Austen: Her Homes & Her Friends, by Constance Hill.

How Edward Austen became Edward Knight: Austen’s Emma begins with a marriage between Emma’s governess, Miss Taylor and Mr. Weston, with Emma bemoaning the fact that her companion had now disappeared—moving a whole half mile away to her own house, her own husband, her own occupations. ‘…Emma was aware that great must be the difference between Mrs. Weston only half-a-mile from them, and a Miss Taylor in the house…’ Continue Reading