Letters to Alice on First Reading Jane Austen: Letter 3 Summary & Analysis

Fay writes Alice another letter from Cairns, this one dated December. Fay sets out to inform Alice about Jane Austen’s life, beginning with her childhood. Fay relates that Austen was the youngest of eight children of a clergyman in Hampshire, England. Noting that many books about Austen paint her family as idyllic, Fay believes instead that their life together was as complex and gritty as any modern family. Still, Fay describes the Austen family as well-read, intelligent, and affectionate with one another. The family lived in a small town called Steventon, which may seem isolated by modern standards but was relatively close to London. Fay speculates that the Austens may have traveled often to the city and other nearby towns.

Fay goes on to contend that Austen probably knew a fair amount about politics and international relations, but that the Church would have instructed her to worry more about the afterlife than the ills of her society. Fay points to Austen’s interest in her own definitions of morality as evidence that she was “socially aware” by the definitions of her own time, if not by the definitions of the present day.

Fay also tells Alice the details of Georgian parenting practices, including sending children out of the home to be nursed or even raised through childhood. Fay notes that Jane Austen’s sister Cassandra was two and a half years older and known to have a temper, and then she goes on to tease Alice about Alice’s own childhood attempt to drown her new baby sister. Children, Fay concludes, are the same now as they were in Austen’s time, but there may have been less of an effort to save them from each other back then.

When Jane Austen and her sister Cassandra were children, they were sent away to be educated by an older widow, in whose care they both became very sick. They returned home with their parents soon thereafter but were then sent away to another boarding school. Fay speculates that such early trauma may have influenced the Austen girls’ development, but she believes that the Austen parents would not have viewed these experiences as traumatic.

Fay tells Alice that most of the brothers of the Austen family remained at home while Jane and Cassandra were away at school. The sisters were said to be “happy enough” at their school and returned home a year later. Fay admits to being “distressed for the child Jane,” worrying that these childhood tribulations may have driven Jane to invent the worlds of her novels in order to escape the pain of her lived reality.

According to Fay, Jane Austen would have also needed to learn how to take care of her home and manage her household’s servants. She notes that women’s work is commonly viewed as worthless, but warns Alice not to look down on domestic tasks, saying that they have real value and dignity. Fay also notes that Jane and Cassandra studied the classics and other academic subjects, and were likely well-behaved, as the clergyman’s daughters.

Reflecting on Austen’s seeming indifference to the “disease, hunger, and distress” of the world around her, Fay argues that Austen was actually trying to rise above these ills in a quintessentially English way, rather than complaining about them. She imagines the Austen household as “busy, cheerful, and self-disciplined,” but guesses that Jane nonetheless likely felt stifled by living with her parents and their expectations. Reflecting on the idea that Austen’s work may have been a reaction to this repression, Fay notes that this interpretation may be too simplistic. She suggests instead that a gifted writer like Austen would have felt compelled to develop her skills no matter what. “The writer’s life is work, and the work is the life,” Fay tells Alice.

Fay goes on to describe Austen’s first book, a satirical novel written at age fourteen. Fay admires Austen’s grasp of narrative and imagines how exhilarated she must have been to complete the novel, but also guesses that Austen’s family may not have been particularly admiring of it. Fay concludes her letter by telling Alice that she plans to return home to England soon, but that Alice should not be afraid of having to meet her. Fay encloses a population breakdown of Georgian England for Alice’s reference.