A house of one’s own: Jane Austen’s ‘golden years’

Summary

History Extra Podcast: Jane Austen’s ‘Golden Years’ at Chawton

Episode Date: December 28, 2025
Host: Lauren Good
Guest: Dr. Lizzie Rogers

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Episode Overview

This episode delves into the pivotal period of Jane Austen’s life spent at Chawton Cottage, frequently described as her "golden years." Host Lauren Good is joined by historian Dr. Lizzie Rogers to discuss how newfound domestic stability enabled Austen’s most productive and successful years as a writer. The pair explore the family dynamics that shaped Austen’s experience, her financial circumstances, the close relationships that inspired her work, and her complicated brush with royal patronage.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Austen’s Life After Her Father’s Death

[02:07 – 05:45]

• Displacement and Instability: After her father’s death, Jane, her mother, and her sister Cassandra were dependent on male relatives for housing and support. The women moved between relatives’ homes, including stays in Staffordshire, Warwickshire, and cramped quarters in Southampton with their brother Frank.
  • “It’s a lot of movement without a specific home to go back to. Whereas when she was at Steventon, she had a home.” – Dr. Lizzie Rogers [03:35]
• Similarity to Fiction: Their transient lifestyle mirrors the experience of the Dashwood family in Sense and Sensibility, though Austen had already begun what was originally Eleanor and Marianne years before.

2. Chawton: A House of Their Own

[04:46 – 07:08]

• Arrival at Chawton (1809): Jane was 33 when her brother Edward offered them Chawton Cottage, an act which fundamentally changed her life.
  • “It would have represented kind of a cosy village living… It was somewhere that was theirs, which she hadn’t had in a long time.” – Dr. Lizzie Rogers [05:45, 07:08]
• Domestic Stability: The cottage housed Jane, Cassandra, their mother, and close friend Martha Lloyd. Martha’s surviving recipe book offers a glimpse into daily life, including making ink—vital for Jane’s writing.
  • “Having experienced all this upheaval, I don’t think we can rate that highly enough, what [stability] bought for her.” – Dr. Lizzie Rogers [07:08]

3. The Golden Years and Literary Success

[07:31 – 14:08]

• Sense and Sensibility (1811):
  • Published two years after settling at Chawton, sold out its first edition; Austen earned ~£140.
  • “Her father earned about 600 pounds a year… it makes her very comfortable.” – Dr. Lizzie Rogers [08:14]
• Pride and Prejudice (1813):
  • Published under its new title; the copyright was bought by the publisher, lessening Austen’s earnings but cementing her reputation.
  • Austen referred to the completed novel as “her own darling child.” – [12:56]
• Mansfield Park (1814):
  • Austen’s most profitable work up to that point, earning her around £350 [14:08]
• Emma (1815):
  • Garnered more critical attention; some reviewers noted “not much happens,” highlighting her focus on social nuance and character rather than overt drama.
  • “She writes really good characters and they really drive the story and the plot.” – Dr. Lizzie Rogers [17:54]

4. Relationships and Inspirations

[09:26 – 10:52]

• Cassandra Austen: Jane’s sister and confidante; their letters are the primary source of Austen’s private thoughts. Cassandra was Jane’s “true soulmate.”
  • “They were each other’s true soulmates… it can’t really be overstated how close they were as friends and sisters.” – Dr. Lizzie Rogers [10:35]
• Henry Austen: Her devoted brother and literary agent; his London connections helped launch her career.

5. Anonymity and Growing Fame

[14:37 – 15:00]

• Austen published anonymously during her lifetime, listed by phrases like “by the author of Sense and Sensibility.” Despite the anonymity, her authorship became an “open secret” in social and family circles.
  • “Henry, as the proud brother, was basically telling everybody that it was his sister who was writing them.” – Dr. Lizzie Rogers [14:44]

6. Royal Patronage and the Prince Regent

[21:37 – 30:53]

• Dedication of Emma: Jane was “strongly suggested” to dedicate Emma to the Prince Regent (future George IV), who was an enthusiastic admirer.
  • Austen privately disliked him for his notorious treatment of women. The dedication is notably formal and distant:
    • “This work is, by His Royal Highness’s permission, most respectfully dedicated by His Royal Highness’s dutiful and obedient humble servant, the author.” – Read by Lauren Good [27:06]
    • “There’s even a bit of sass.” – Lauren Good [27:30]
• Refusal to Be Directed: The Prince Regent’s librarian, James Stanier Clarke, urged her to write a historical romance about royalty. Austen, with her trademark wit, declined:
  • “I could no more write a romance than an epic poem.” – Jane Austen (via Dr. Lizzie Rogers) [26:12]
    • “I must keep to my own style and go on in my own way.” – Jane Austen [26:34]

7. Financial Troubles and the End of Stability

[30:53 – 32:35]

• The collapse of Henry’s bank following the Napoleonic Wars affected the entire family’s finances, introducing new anxiety and perhaps contributing to Austen’s declining health.
  • “It would have been a very stressful time for them. A lot of people suggest that this is when Jane’s health really starts to deteriorate because of the anxiety.” – Dr. Lizzie Rogers [32:02–32:20]

8. Lasting Impact of Chawton

[32:35 – 34:02]

• Chawton offered Austen the security and environment necessary for her creativity to flourish. Steventon may have been the “cradle of her genius,” but Chawton was where it came to fruition.
  • “Chawton becomes almost the new Steventon as I see it. She’s also experiencing success… there mustn’t have been a better feeling for somebody who’s written for most of their life.” – Dr. Lizzie Rogers [33:30–34:02]

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On Austen’s Life Mirroring Her Novels:

  • “She’s almost living out the plot of a novel she’s already written.” – Lauren Good [04:39]

• On Sisterhood:

  • “They were each other’s true soulmates… and I think that really translates into her novels.” – Dr. Lizzie Rogers [10:35]

• On Character-Driven Writing:

  • “She writes really, really good characters and they really drive the story and the plot. You almost can envision her thinking of these people and they play out in front of her because she’s developed them so well.” – Dr. Lizzie Rogers [17:54]

• Austen’s Literary Integrity:

  • “I could no more write a romance than an epic poem… I must keep to my own style and go on in my own way.” – Jane Austen via Dr. Lizzie Rogers [26:12–26:34]

• On the Chawton Years:

  • “I really feel like with Chawton, [her genius is] given time to mature and actually come to fruition. Again, it cannot be overstated how much… the stability of having a home must have really impacted the Austen women.” – Dr. Lizzie Rogers [32:58–33:10]

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Important Timestamps

| Topic | Timestamp | |----------------------------------------------------------|---------------| | Austen’s instability post-father’s death | 02:53–03:39 | | Chawton Cottage described and its effect | 04:56–07:02 | | Daily life at Chawton & the women’s household | 05:59–07:08 | | Early literary successes (Sense…, Pride…) | 07:31–13:06 | | On Cassandra Austen’s relationship with Jane | 09:26–10:52 | | Growing fame, anonymity, and style of publication | 14:37–15:00 | | Emma and the Prince Regent: Royal patronage, letters | 21:37–30:53 | | Financial troubles after Henry’s bank collapse | 30:53–32:35 | | Lasting significance of the Chawton years | 32:35–34:02 |

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Tone & Style

The conversation is warm, insightful, and tinged with affectionate humor—especially when discussing Austen’s wit, her “sass” towards the Prince Regent, and the day-to-day quirks of life at Chawton. Dr. Rogers and Lauren Good convey both admiration and familiarity with Austen, seamlessly blending scholarly knowledge with relatable anecdotes.

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For Further Exploration

A full list of reading, listening, and viewing recommendations for those interested in Jane Austen and the Regency period is available in the episode description.

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This summary encapsulates the key content of the episode for listeners seeking a detailed account of Jane Austen’s transformative years at Chawton, her literary successes, and the relationships—both tender and fraught—that shaped her enduring works.

Transcript

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[Dr. Lizzie Rogers]

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[Lauren Good]

Today on the History Extra podcast, we're going to return to Lauren Good with our latest Sunday series exploring the life and works of Jane Austen.

Chawton House was a country cottage which gave Jane Austen, who had been foisted from relative to relative upon the death of her father, the stability she craved. But it also offered far more than that. I'm Lauren Good and in this third episode of our four part series about Jane's life and writing, I'm joined by Dr. Lizzie Rogers to consider what can be described as the golden years of Jane's career. Lizzie before we look at Jane's years in Chawton, we end the last episode with Jane's father having died and she's left, along with her mother and sister Cassandra, as very much dependent on their male relatives for some support. They move around quite a lot at this point of their lives, don't they?

[Dr. Lizzie Rogers]

Yes. So they spend some time up in Staffordshire and Warwickshire with their mother's relatives. That's the furthest north she ever travels to, a small village called Hampstead Ridware. And I always mention that because I'm from Staffordshire, so I love the fact she's actually been there. But then they end up spending on and off time in Southampton, where they live with her brother Frank, who's in the navy, and they live in a house at Castle Squad, tenants of the Marquess of Lansdowne. So it's very changeable and it's not exactly like a tenable place to be. It's quite cramped. And they, of course, travel and stay with her other brother's kind of relatives and staying with them as they're having children and things like that. But it's a lot of movement without a specific home to go back to. Whereas when she was doing this, when she was at Steventon, she had a specific home to go back to.

[Lauren Good]

This does bear a striking resemblance to the plot of Sense and Sensibility. We might assume that the book was inspired by these experiences, but we know that she has been working on a manuscript, Eleanor and Marianne, earlier on. Do we know if this manuscript changed according to this new inspiration that Jane was experiencing?

[Dr. Lizzie Rogers]

So with Eleanor and Marianne, she actually does the bulk of editing of it to change it from a novel written in letters into the prose novel that we know today. She actually does that still in the 18th century. And when it's getting it ready for actual publication, towards when she's living at Chawton, she only updates, as far as we know, a few small bits to things like a lot changes in 10 years in terms of things like the price of the postal service, like the type of carriage that would be fashionable. So it's funny that that ends up kind of having parallels with her own existence, because she didn't really change it too much to lean into that, as far as we know, after she experienced it herself.

[Lauren Good]

So she's almost living out the plot of a novel she's already written.

[Dr. Lizzie Rogers]

I know, it is a little bit scary, isn't it? It's scary. Wow.

[Lauren Good]

But much like Eleanor and Marianne's situation again, Jane's brother Edward offers them Chawton house to live. What was this house like?

[Dr. Lizzie Rogers]

So the cottage at Chawton had kind of been as part of this estate for a little while. It had been purchased by the Knight family for their bailiff to live in originally. It had previously been a coaching inn. Now, this was one of the many. So Many. And one of the few estates that Edward had as part of his knight inheritance, the main one being Godmishon park in Kent. But this was a comfortable cottage. It was straight onto the road, so they did a little bit of work to kind of move some of the windows and kind of make it a little bit more comfortable. But it would have represented kind of a cosy village living. It wasn't too far from Steventon. It was quite close to, of course, when the knight family were in residence at Chawton House. If you've ever visited today, you'll know it's a small walk down a lane. It would have been absolutely lovely as kind of a hub for the Austens to be in. And it brings her back to Hampshire, which she really, really loved.

[Lauren Good]

How old is Jane when they do move into chawton?

[Dr. Lizzie Rogers]

So she's 33 at this point, and.

[Lauren Good]

We know that we will delve more into it, but she does write an awful lot at Chawton. What would her life have looked like?

[Dr. Lizzie Rogers]

So Chawton, I think life would have looked very much like the domestic life of women. This was a household of women. So Jane's there, Cassandra's there, their mother, Mrs. Austen there, but also their friend, Martha Lloyd, really, really good friend, who actually ends up later on marrying after he's widowed, when she's in her 60s, which I think is lovely. But also what Martha's really important for is she actually gives us some insight into what daily life was like at Chawton. So she leaves behind a household recipe book, which is in their collection, and it's got recipes for things like curry, for wine, even for making ink, which, of course, must have been very important for Jane, doing all that writing there. But it would have, I think, been a life of kind of contentment, so security, like these women kind of together and kind of having a space where they could all rely on. You know, Edward gives them this cottage to live in in perpetuity, and actually they end up all of them kind of living in it, apart from when Martha marries Frank, they all end up living in it until they die. Apart from kind of periods spent visiting other people.

[Lauren Good]

Is it safe to say that in this bustling house of women, Jane enjoyed this period of her life at Chawton?

[Dr. Lizzie Rogers]

It definitely seems to have brought contentment. I know we've mentioned the word stability a lot, but I think for her being in her 30s, having kind of experienced all this upheaval, I don't think we can kind of rate that highly enough what that bought for her, even when she was kind of traveling to stay with different family members, she had this place to come back to, and it was somewhere that was theirs, which she hadn't had in a long time.

[Lauren Good]

It seems to suggest that she's contented because she does experience so much writing success at Chawton. I mean, it is incredible. I think we could safely. If you describe these as the golden years of her career, we see Sense and Sensibility published first in 1811 by Thomas Egerton, with her brother Henry acting as the literary agent, again supporting her. What sort of success did Sense and Sensibility have in its earliest form?

[Dr. Lizzie Rogers]

So Sense and Sensibility comes out in 1811. She's been at Chawton for two years at this point, and the first edition is sold out by the summer of 1813, and it was published on commission, so she had to upfront some of the costs. But she did make around £140 from it.

[Lauren Good]

How much would £140 have been?

[Dr. Lizzie Rogers]

So if we think about it kind of in terms of comparable money wages, because it doesn't sound all that much when you think that Mr. Darcy has £10,000 a year, but actually, for Jane, that would have been significant. I mentioned in an earlier podcast, a housemaid could be expected to earn around 10 to 12 pounds a year, which sounds pitiable to us now, but with inflation and kind of the value of money. Her father earned about 600 pounds a year and he had to support a whole family, so actually makes her very comfortable. In her letter, she mentions kind of going shopping jokingly, but that she actually has this kind of freedom and comfort a little bit. And, I mean, the pride in that being her own money must have been immense.

[Lauren Good]

Do you think she would have supported the household with that money?

[Dr. Lizzie Rogers]

It definitely would have gone into the household as well. And it's also worth mentioning that actually Cassandra had some of her own money. So when her fiance died, he went away to the West Indies, and. And before he left, even though they weren't married yet, he was like, oh, I'll kind of put you in my will. Which must have been kind of a really not foreseeing that it would actually be necessary. So she ended up having this small annuity from him as well. So she bought some money into the household, too. But that would have been a significant injection.

[Lauren Good]

We should step away from James Rider for just a moment because Cassandra is coming up an awful lot in this series. We mentioned in the very first episode that these two sisters are so close and they don't really leave each other's side, do they, throughout their lives?

[Dr. Lizzie Rogers]

No. And it's interesting that the letters that are left behind, most of them are to Cassandra. They were constantly updating each other. They kind of run on with stories and thoughts and gossip. And it really does seem like they were kind of. They're each other's true soulmates, you know, they were there for everything. And Cassandra outlives Jane by almost three decades. It must have been very lonely once she was gone to have had her as that kind of support that, you know, they were about two years apart in age, so really not all that much, two to three years. And so she didn't really remember a time without Jane. They really kind of were supportive of each other. Cassandra gave us our only known portrait from Life of Jane, the watercolor National Portrait Gallery. I don't think it can really be overstated how close they were as friends and sisters. And I think that really translates into her novels. You find a lot of sisterly, close female friendships and even an exploration of when sisterly relationships aren't great. You know, that kind of sense of female friendship and sisterhood is really integral to most of the novels. I think it's really, really lovely to kind of see them together, you know, as these two unmarried sisters who end up kind of supporting each other.

[Lauren Good]

We did mention that Henry by this point is acting as her literary agent. She is very close to him too. Perhaps not in the way that she is with Cassandra, but there is a close relationship there. Do we know why he has become her literary agent at that point? What sort of career would he have had outside?

[Dr. Lizzie Rogers]

So Henry spent time in the Oxford militia in 1790s, and then in the early years of the 19th century, he co founds a bank called Austin, Maude and Tilson, which is quite successful for a long time. Unfortunately, it does go bust in 1816. And he then gets ordained in the church. So he then takes a leap into the role that his father had. His oldest brother James also was in the church. So Henry kind of jumps about a bit in terms of careers. He also marries their cousin Eliza, who we mentioned in the first podcast, who kind of was born in India, she spent time in France. Really vivacious, exciting character. They MARRY When Henry's 27, Eliza's 37, she's already a widow with a son. And they never have any of their own children, but by all accounts were incredibly happy. Lived in London together. And part of that kind of sense of him being in London, close to all these publishers, having kind of legal contacts and being with the bank gave him a lot of leeway to act as her literary agent.

[Lauren Good]

And her literary success does continue. In 1813, we see first Impressions is published as Pride and Prejudice by the same publisher. Was this initially a success?

[Dr. Lizzie Rogers]

So this was successful. And actually Thomas Egerton bought the copyright for this novel rather than having her pay upfront to do it, which meant she made a little bit less money on it. But he did reasonably well out of it. And yet this. I mean, it's funny to us thinking now that this is the novel she's probably always best remembered for. It's funny thinking about that, Jack. January 1813, coming out. She writes in her letters that the night before she calls it her own darling child, her author's copy, she receives it and they read aloud the first half of the first volume. It would have been in three volumes at Chawton. They read it aloud and then it kind of makes its entrance upon the world and it sells pretty well.

[Lauren Good]

So, again, £110 is a significant amount of money for Jane. We are seeing her become more financially successful as well.

[Dr. Lizzie Rogers]

Yes. Yeah. She is starting to bring kind of more money in. But it's worth reminding her her writing earnings never go over £1,000 in her lifetime. I don't think they even get close to that. If you did the maths on adding them all up, it's really interesting. And again, it sounds so funny to us now because, you know, spending power's different and inflation. But even so, that would have been a lot of money for her, even though she didn't make too much of it in her lifetime. But she was very comfortable through what she made.

[Lauren Good]

So I guess if we contextualize that her dad is on 600 pounds a year as a reverend, so that's not even two years wages.

[Dr. Lizzie Rogers]

It's kind of crazy to think about it in that context, and especially when you think about her characters, when she talks about these eligible young men. You know, Mr. Bingley's got 5,000 a year, Mr. Darcy's got 10,000. Mr. Rushworth in Mansfield park has 12,000. You know, it's very different.

[Lauren Good]

And mentioning Mansfield park, this is published in 1814, again by Thomas Egerton. Am I right in saying that this was her most profitable work up to this point?

[Dr. Lizzie Rogers]

She makes about 350 pounds from this. So, yeah, very much her most profitable work at this point. Point, yeah.

[Lauren Good]

She's doing. She is doing very well.

[Dr. Lizzie Rogers]

She is. And, you know, she's getting a bit of a following and each novel is kind of Published the first one's by a lady. Pride and Prejudice comes out as by the author of Sense Sensibility. Mansfield park is by the author of Pride and Prejudice and so on. So people are starting to kind of pull those novels together and know her style, kind of know what she's writing about, even if they don't know her.

[Lauren Good]

That's interesting. So she's remaining anonymous, but she is allowing her readers to follow her work as it comes out.

[Dr. Lizzie Rogers]

Yeah, very much so. And it's worth mentioning, even though publicly she was anonymous, it was very much an open secret in family circles who she was who was writing these novels. Henry, as the proud brother, was basically telling everybody that it was his sister who was writing them.

[Lauren Good]

I love this idea of the whispers.

[Dr. Lizzie Rogers]

Yes, it's Jane.

[Lauren Good]

So this is a pretty continuous success. But it's interesting, when looking at her life as a whole, that actually Austen has been working on these novels for a very long time. I think it would be easy to assume that she's just writing one, then moving on to the other. But we have seen, for example, with Sense Sensibility, she's been working on Eleanor and Marianne right back until, I guess was her early 20s.

[Dr. Lizzie Rogers]

So. Yes. So when she's about to hit 20, that's when she first begins Eleanor and Marianne. So, you know, 1795 to 1811, that's 16 years difference from beginning to publication. What I always think of it like is that for aspiring writers who have spent a long time in slush piles and getting their novels off the ground, Jane Austen didn't hit it first time. I think that's the thing. Like, these novels took a while, they took refinement, but once she really hits her stride, she's writing quickly. You know, she. I mean, she writes. She wrote very quickly these first drafts anyway, but she's kind of hitting on all these ideas and bringing them in. She's editing the previous ones. You know, she must have been pretty industrious at Chawton, you know, working at her writing table.

[Lauren Good]

She is very industrious because we see Emma published two years after Pride and Prejudice. Was this a success?

[Dr. Lizzie Rogers]

Emma was successful. In fact, Emma got a lot of public reviews. Walter Scott wrote about it, although he wrote anonymously. Thomas More, the Irish poet, he wrote about it, too. It wasn't always, like, glowing, glowing reviews those two were. Some people suggested, which I think is really interesting, that it didn't have much of a plot, even though they really liked it. Which is funny, because my favorite review I've ever read of a Jane Austen Novel, I think it was Pride and Prejudice was. Somebody wrote. I think it's like an Amazon review or something that's quite famous. Somebody wrote. This is just people going to each other's houses. They're not wrong. This is the thing. But it's one of those. She does daily life and really subtle plot lines. Like, I would never say that nothing happens in a Jane Austen novel. Actually, a lot happens, but you don't kind of. You're so ensconced in it that you kind of go along for the ride with it and it feels like real people acting it out. It's so interesting. I think that then some people read it and they're like, well, not much happens. But actually, if you look at Emma, a lot happens. You know, she's kind of matchmaking all these people. We start and she's matched her governess to a local landowner. We begin with their wedding and then she kind of makes friends with this kind of impoverished girl at the local girls school, Harriet Smith. She tries to like, steer her in a direction. We see the. This burgeoning relationship with Mr. Knightley. There's actually quite a lot going on that feels very gentle. And I think she writes in a way that feels so real because of that as well.

[Lauren Good]

If you look at literary fiction today, there's so many books that aren't very plot driven.

[Dr. Lizzie Rogers]

Yes. They're all character driven and personality driven. And I think there are many things I could say that I love about Jane Austen, but one of the things I really love about her is her ability to flesh out a character and it doesn't feel too contrived. She deals so well in personality types, but without making them seem like characters or, you know, really forced. She writes really, really good characters and they really drive the story and the plot. You almost can envision her thinking of these people and they play out in front of her because she's developed them so well.

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Now.

[Lauren Good]

The content of this book isn't the only interesting thing about it. There is a dedication to the Prince Regent. Before we explore this story, could you please explain the context of this? Who was the Prince Regent at this time?

[Dr. Lizzie Rogers]

So the Prince Regent, I mean, really fascinating figure in British history. It's the only time we've had a Regency and a Regency is when somebody rules in place of the crown. So in this case, George III, who'd been on the throne since the 1760s, he suffered from mental illness and occasionally it left him incapacitated to rule. In the 1780s, they'd had kind of a Regency crisis to the point where they thought his son George, the Prince of Wales, would potentially have to step in. But then he recovered. Unfortunately, when it came to the early years of the 19th century, he again has a snap of illness and it becomes pretty clear he's not going to recover this time. So the beginning of 1811, his eldest son, George, who is the heir to the throne, is sworn in as the Prince Regent and his job is to rule, but in his father's place as his father's representative. So he is not the King, he is very much acting on his behalf. And actually Queen Charlotte, his mother, George III's wife, It was her job to kind of look after the body of the King, so to speak. So she also had a role. But the Prince Regent, he was an interesting figure, very divisive figure, who loved culture, loved the arts, didn't necessarily love ruling people, which his father very much had done. So they were quite a contrast in personalities. But he was so into the theatre, arts, literature, architecture. I mean, you only have to look at Brighton Pavilion, you know, things like that. But he read a lot of works and supposedly was a. A really, really big fan of Jane Austen's work.

[Lauren Good]

Now, he was a fan of Jane Austen, but we're not sure if that was reciprocated. Yes. Before we touch on the exact wording of this dedication, there is a really interesting correspondence between Jane and the Prince Regent's librarian, isn't there?

[Dr. Lizzie Rogers]

Yes, there is. So to kind of jump back a little bit as to how this dedication comes about, in 1815, Jane is staying in London with her brother Henry. Now Henry becomes quite ill and he's attended by a physician called Dr. Bailey. Henry being Henry and proud of his sister tells Dr. Bailey, oh, this is my sister, Jane Austen. She's the author of these novels, you know. And Dr. Bailey says, you do realize the Prince Regent is a huge fan of the author of these novels, and supposedly he kept a copy in each of his residences, Supposedly. And Henry's like, oh, my gosh, that's incredible. So Dr. Bailey goes back and he tells the Prince Regent, and the Prince Regent speaks to his librarian, a gentleman called James Stanier Clark, and he says, you know, arrange for this Ms. Austen to come to Carlton House, which was his residence on the Mall. Come to Carlton House and see the library. He didn't meet her himself, but she comes in November of that year to go visit the library. And their letters are quite funny. He writes to her around the time she comes and says, you late works, madam, and in particular Mansfield park, reflect the highest honour on your genius and your principles. In every new work, your mind seems to increase its energy and powers of discrimination. The Regent has wrecked and admired all your publications. I mean, you can't really get a higher fan than that. But what's interesting is she does this visit. She goes around Carlton House, she sees the library, and in between, she dedicates Emma to him, which is kind of strongly suggested to her that she should, because of this, you know, this great honor that's been bestowed on her. But James Stanier Clark writes her some more letters. So the following year. So in March 1816, he writes her a letter saying basically suggesting things that he thinks she should turn to for her next novel. Now, us kind of knowing Jane Austen quite well at this point, especially throughout this podcast, we kind of know that she probably wouldn't like that. And he writes her this letter that says, perhaps you may choose to dedicate your volumes to Prince Leopold. Any historical romance illustrative of the history of the august house of Coburg would just now be very interesting. Now, we know that Jane Austen does not do big, sweeping historical romance epics. It's very much kind of Walter Scott's area, and she really likes Walter Scott's writing, but it's not her. And so she writes back very quickly, it's a couple of days later, saying that romance founded on the House of Saxe Coburg might be much more to the purpose of profit or popularity than such pictures of domestic life in country villages as I deal in. But I could no more write a romance than an epic poem, which I think is so great. And she kind of says, you know, I couldn't do it unless I had to save my life. And even it wouldn't be great. I must keep to my own style and go on in my own way. And I just think the strength of character there, to go back and be like, no, this is what I write. And she occasionally was jokingly dismissive of what she wrote. You know, here. I mean, pictures of domestic life in country villages. Her novels are so much more than that. I mean, when we get into her legacy, we'll see the reach they have globally over 200 years later. I mean, but it's just so funny the way she does it. Like, we read it and we are like, oh, gosh, she's so witty, so clever. He must have read it and thought, oh, wow, you know, she's right. She can't honour these subjects. You know, it's really, really clever. I also don't think she would have enjoyed taking direction from the Prince Regent's librarian anyway, because she really didn't like the Prince Regent, even though she'd been bestowed upon this great honour. But, yeah, and she does dedicate it.

[Lauren Good]

Who, we can assume, I think this man she privately dislikes. And the dedication goes to His Royal Highness, the Prince Regent. This work is, by His Royal Highness's permission, most respectfully dedicated by His Royal Highness's dutiful and obedient humble servant, the author. I mean, I think it's fair to say there's a bit of cynicism here. There's even a bit of sass.

[Dr. Lizzie Rogers]

Yeah, it's. It's not the most kind of enthusiastic dedication you've ever read. It's not. Madam, you are a phoenix. Like, with the beautiful Cassandra in her jewel. It's. She openly said in one of her letters to a close friend that she hated the Prince Regent, and she uses the word hate. And it's because the Prince Regent famously had a lot of mistresses. That isn't necessarily why, but he famously had a lot of mistresses, had a lot of affairs with actresses and didn't necessarily treat a lot of women very well at all. And he actually privately, secretly married a Catholic actress who was twice widowed called Maria Fitzherbert in 1785. Now, this was legally void because she was Catholic and it hadn't been okay by the Crown, but it got to the 1790s, and George, future Prince Regent's parents, were sort of saying to him, you know, we really need to get you married off. We need a legitimate heir. They didn't have a legitimate heir at this point. I think there are many illegitimate heirs running around or crawling around, but they decided to marry him After Princess Caroline of Brunswick, Caroline arrives in England. Her and George hate each other on site, by all accounts. He gets incredibly drunk. She's kind of repulsed by him, he's repulsed by her. They have one daughter who's born nine months to the day after their wedding, and then they legally separate. He doesn't treat her very well. She doesn't treat him very well. But to be honest, he wields his power to really kind of turn people against her. And she writes a letter to the press, kind of appealing. And the letter where Jane says she hates him is in response to that. And she kind of says, I'm paraphrasing, but was the effect of, poor woman, I shall support her as long as I can because she's a woman and because I hate her husband. So it must have been really under duress that she felt like she had to go to Carlton House. But that's kind of the extra backstory behind why that dedication is not so enthusiastic.

[Lauren Good]

There's a real hatred.

[Dr. Lizzie Rogers]

There's a real hatred there. As I mentioned, he was an incredibly divisive figure. I mean, he, when he was younger, had a great relationship, by all accounts, with his parents. But as he got older, the pressures of him being the heir to the throne was very, very strict upbringing. And, you know, what do people do when they have a strict upbringing? They're either kind of really browbeaten or they rebel. And he really rebelled. And he said himself that by about 16, 17, he was rather too fond of wine and women. And we see this throughout the rest of his life. And Jane did not like that about him, as I'm sure many other people didn't either.

[Lauren Good]

How do you think this dedication would have been viewed by the general public? Do you think people would have perhaps seen the little bit of cynicism there?

[Dr. Lizzie Rogers]

Perhaps, if they knew her work very well, they may well have done. It was very respectful. I think that's the main thing. We can read it now with all the context, with us knowing exactly who wrote it all her backstory to her kind of, I don't wanna say relationship with the Prince Regent, but her kind of understanding of him. We can read it very much as kind of tongue in cheek and almost, you know, forced pen to paper. But it would have been seen as quite respectful. And, you know, I'm sure it probably wouldn't have been the done thing either, to be over the top gushing about royalty. It was very much kind of a respectful, distant dedication that people would have, you know, seen and been like, wow, that's impressive, especially because she includes this by his permission. You know, I mean, again, what more endorsement could you get?

[Lauren Good]

Despite her having this hatred of the Prince Regent, she has been asked to dedicate a novel to a royal, and she is experiencing an awful lot of success. But we do sadly see things begin to tumble downhill for Jane when her brother, he, Henry, who she has seemed to depend on for an awful lot, especially for the more commercial side of her writing career, has a financial setback. You did talk a little bit about this earlier, but what exactly happened?

[Dr. Lizzie Rogers]

So banks in general really struggled following the end of the Napoleonic Wars. Actually, a lot of people got very rich out of war, and the banks, unfortunately, really struggled. And by March 1816, Henry's Bank, Austin Morden Till at Tilsa, collapses. Previous branches. There's one in Alton, which is very close to Chawton, had already collapsed, but it went completely down under, unfortunately. I mean, Jane lost a little bit of money. I mean, I think it was something like 13 pounds. But his brother Edward, who, of course has all these estates and a richer uncle had invested kind of thousands of pounds in it, which they lost. So it was a big, stressful thing to happen in the Austen family.

[Lauren Good]

How would this have affected the Austen women?

[Dr. Lizzie Rogers]

It would have been a very anxious time for them. I mean, particularly with Edward losing money. Of course, like, they rely on Edward living at Chawton Cottage, but also it's Henry's livelihood he's lost that he kind of does a pivot. He becomes ordained later that year. But it would have been a very stressful time for them. And a lot of people suggest that this is when Jane's health really starts to deteriorate because of the anxiety. Even though we know she still loves him, she still supports him, it still wouldn't have been a great time for them.

[Lauren Good]

We'll be exploring her failing health in the next episode, but can we take a moment to reflect on Jane's time at Chawton? What do you think it was about this house or this period of Jane's life that led to so much writing success?

[Dr. Lizzie Rogers]

So I think it's in her nephew's memoir of her, James Edward Austen Leigh. He calls Steventon the cradle of her genius.

[Lauren Good]

Like the.

[Dr. Lizzie Rogers]

That's where kind of the sparks really lit. And I really feel like with Chawton, it's given time to mature and actually come to fruition. Again, it cannot be overstated how much, like, the stability of having a home must have really impacted the Austen women, because then there's not the anxiety kind of hanging over them of where's the money going to come from? Where are we next going to stay? Are we overstaying our welcome anywhere because they're past kind of marriageable age? Although we've seen that some women do marry later, as indeed Martha does with Frank in her 60s. But I think Chawton really gave her somewhere to center herself again, rather than kind of feeling like she's split between a lot of places. You know, she spent a lot of time in Bath, but she clearly she didn't have that same attachment as she did at Steventon. And Chawton becomes almost the new Steventon as I see it. I think it's a place where she's also experiencing success. Things are back on the up and she's actually seeing her novels out in the world. I mean, there mustn't have been a better feeling feeling for somebody who's written for most of their life literally since they could.

[Lauren Good]

That was Dr. Lizzie Rogers speaking to me. Lauren Good Lizzie is an historian of the 18th and early 19th centuries. If you want to go beyond the podcast and find out more about Jane Austen, her works, and the Regency period she wrote in, I've compiled some essential reading, listening and viewing from the History Extra and BBC History Magazine archive to deepen your understanding. You can find a link to that in the description of this episode.

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