...by a partial, prejudiced, and ignorant historian...
A portion of Jane Austen's manuscript, featuring illustrations by her sister, Cassandra. Source: The British Library
Dearest Janeites, hello and welcome to the Austen 250 Reader series!
Today, we turn our attention to an absolutely marvelous work from "Volume the Second" of the Juvenilia. "The History of England" is up next! It is an uproariously comic gem– both subjective and opinionated– with Young Austen, who provides the disclaimer that "there will be very few dates in this history" detailing the life, times, reigns, and deaths of English monarchs from"Henry the 4th" to "Charles the 1st".
Readers are provided with one date at the very end: Saturday Nov: 26th. 1791. This means Austen completed her "History of England" when she was nearly sixteen years old. The accompanying portraits– which resemble friends and members of the Austen family– were deftly crafted by Cassandra Austen, who would have been nearly eighteen.
What follows below will look a bit different than previous posts in this series. I hope you are in the mood for some theatrics! The featured video– Jane Austen's "The History of England", adapted by JASP's own Adam McCune and recorded for the stage– may be familiar to some of you. (It was a highlight of the virtually-held 2021 summer program.)
Should you not have a copy of the chronicle available for your reading enjoyment, fear not. An online edition can be found (including original illustrations) on the Jane Austen Centre's blog. I cannot implore you enough, dear Janeites, to explore "The History of England." It is difficult to fully capture Austen's biting humor, brilliance, and historical prowess in synopsis and analysis, so I invite you to view or peruse the work for yourself.
Now, that's quite enough from me. I will let Jane take it away...
Stay tuned for more Juvenilia-related content. If you enjoyed this article, please consider making a donation to keep all online Jane Austen Summer programming free to the public.
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