Jane Austen Caught in the Act of Greatness
A Diplomatic Transcription and Analysis of the Two Manuscript Chapters of Persuasion and the Manuscript of Sanditon
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bridge towards that part of the Sussex
Coast which lies between Hastings &
being induced by Business to quit
E. Bourne,
road, &
were
'
half rock, half sand.
toiling up its’ long ascent '
1.1
First version:
A Gentleman & Lady travelling from Tunbridge towards that
part of the Sussex Coast which lies between Hastings & E. Bourne, were on
quitting the high road, & toiling up a very long steep hill through a rough
Lane overturned in toiling up its’ long ascent.
(This unique opening for one of her novels cost Jane Austen a great deal of
trouble. The jerky motion of the journey calls for a style of prose lacking
the polish and ease that characterized her earlier writing, but she has advanced
so much as a writer that she recognizes that the immediacy of dramatic narrative
takes precedence over elegance. The repeat of “toiling” is clearly
a problem as is that of “long.” The author offers no indication
of why the couple are traveling in such an uncomfortable manner. There are so
many changes following this first version that it is difficult to be sure of
their sequence. As in the Persuasion manuscript, our author writes
“its’” for “its.” Dr. Chapman consistently reads
the word as “it’s.”)
Possible next version:
A Gentleman & Lady travelling from Tunbridge towards that
part of the Sussex Coast which lies between Hastings & E. Bourne, being
induced by Business to quit the high road, & toil up a very long steep hill
through a rough Lane overturned in toiling up its’ long ascent.
(We now learn that the gentleman and lady are undertaking this uncomfortable
journey because of pressing business. The repeat of “toil” is still
here as well as that of “long.”)
Possible next version:
A Gentleman & Lady travelling from Tunbridge towards that
part of the Sussex Coast which lies between Hastings & E. Bourne, being
induced by Business to quit the high road, & attempt a very rough Lane,
overturned in toiling up its’ long ascent.
(The repeated “toil” and “long” have been removed. New
“attempt a very rough Lane” is simpler and directly to the point
of why the carriage overturned. Any lesser writer would have stopped at this
point.)
Final version:
A Gentleman & Lady travelling from Tunbridge towards that
part of the Sussex Coast which lies between Hastings & E. Bourne, being
induced by Business to quit the high road, & attempt a very rough Lane,
were overturned in toiling up its’ long ascent half rock, half sand.
(The closing phrases, “half rock, half sand” are characteristic
of this new, atypical descriptive style. Despite its length and complexity of
structure, the sentence is perfectly formed, not an easy achievement with all
the changes.)
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About the Book
This book is an attempt to refute Virginia Woolf’s comment on Jane Austen made in 1923 that "of all great writers she is the most difficult to catch in the act of greatness."
My rebuttal is based on close examination of the pair of remaining manuscripts that show Jane Austen at work on full-length novels, the two chapters of Persuasion in the British Library and the fragment known as Sanditon now housed in King’s College Library, Cambridge. The diplomatic transcriptions replace the flawed work published by R. W. Chapman almost eighty years ago.
In addition to the texts of these documents, I have analyzed the step-by-step process of composition, attempting to trace Jane Austen’s quill as she moved from first draft to "final" product, which may or may not have been what she would eventually publish. However, comparison of the Persuasion chapters with the text that appeared posthumously late in 1817 reveals many important similarities.
Contrary to Virginia Woolf’s pronouncement, I believe that we can catch Jane Austen in the act of greatness.
About the Author
Following early publications in John Milton—the divorce tracts, co-edited with J. Max Patrick, in The Prose of John Milton, New York University Press, 1968; and the articles on the divorce tracts and the poet’s three wives in the 8-volume Milton Encyclopedia, Bucknell University Press, 1978-1980—Dr. Axelrad turned his attention to lighter fare in On the Scent: A Visitor’s Guide to Sherlock Holmes’s London (Bullpup Press, 1984). While preparing a new edition of this work (issued under a nom de plume in 1999 as Hot on the Scent: A Visitor’s Guide to the London of Sherlock Holmes, Calabash Press), he published several articles on textual problems in Jane Austen’s work in Persuasions, the journal of the Jane Austen Society of North America.
Writing as Arthur M. Alexander, Dr. Axelrad is currently writing a visitor’s guide to the Finnish capital based on The Helsinki Chronicles, a set of six detective stories featuring Mr. P., the Wonder Dog, and his bipedal companions. Two more books on Jane Austen are taking shape in his computer.