Bibliofemme News
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01/06/2005
Austen letter goes on display for first time
A letter from Jane Austen to her sister, which mentions Pride and Prejudice, has gone on display for the first time at the former Austen house in Chawton, Hampshire, according to a report in The Guardian.
Jane and Cassandra corresponded on a regular basis, exchanging a letter almost every day that they were not together.
What makes this particular one - dated Friday, 29 January 1813 - stand out is a postscript written on the back of the page.
"I want to tell you that I have got my own Darling Child from London," Austen writes. "For your sake I am as well pleased that it shd be so, as it might be unpleasant to you to be in the Neighbourhood at the first burst of the business."
The "Darling Child" that Austen referred to was her own copy of Pride and Prejudice, a novel that often tops surveys as the best loved book of all time.
Chawton was where Austen lived with her mother and sister from 1809 until 1817. It has been a museum since the late 1940s.
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