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00:00Jane Austen is Britain's most celebrated female novelist.
00:30She left behind timeless masterpieces, including Pride and Prejudice, Sense and Sensibility,
00:36and Emma, revealing the inner lives of men and women in a way that still speaks to us
00:42today.
00:45But getting into her own mind isn't easy.
00:52In her lifetime, Austen wrote thousands of letters to her beloved sister, Cassandra,
00:57sharing her innermost thoughts.
01:01But after Jane's death, at the age of just 41, her sister burned them.
01:07We have to ask ourselves why?
01:10What was at risk there?
01:12In the letters she could be so funny and wicked and outrageous, but some of them are so offensive.
01:20Cassandra knew they would cause a lot of upset.
01:27But a handful of letters survived.
01:31Now, with the help of writers, experts and actors, we can piece her extraordinary life
01:40back together.
01:51Jane Austen was a writer teeming with new ideas, who revealed profound truths about the world
01:57she lived in.
01:59There is writing before Austen, and there is writing after Austen.
02:03That achievement is enormous.
02:07Jane Austen is the greatest comic novelist we have ever produced.
02:14At a time when women were supposed to know their place, Jane ripped up the rulebook.
02:19She's not just writing about romance.
02:22We should see her as a political novelist.
02:25Telling young women, I see you and I hear you, which I think is such a modern thing.
02:32Austen's life is a tale of ambition, struggle and tragedy.
02:37A genius cut down in her prime.
02:40She's really good at the light, the ironic, the beautifully observed.
02:44And then life drives a truck into that.
02:47This is the story of how a self-taught country girl from a Hampshire village defied the conventions
02:53of her day to become one of the greatest novelists who ever lived.
02:59Her voice is so strong and funny and perceptive.
03:03And her work's still being copied and stolen by people like me.
03:08She did what she wanted to do, and it makes me feel like I can always do what I want to do.
03:14She did what she thought.
03:311793. King George III is on the throne.
03:36It's an age of trade, slavery and empire where vast fortunes are being made.
03:42being made. It's also a time of danger with the risk of destitution and the
03:48poorhouse, where your position at birth dictates the shape of your life.
03:55But that world is starting to change. Ideas of progress and equality are
04:03breaking down old assumptions. And for those who take the risk, opportunities
04:09are there to be had.
04:25Jane Austen is 17 years old. She has grown up in the village of Steventon in
04:32Hampshire, with six brothers and one older sister, Cassandra.
04:39Jane is in a sort of perfect petri dish for a writer in that she's got a lot of
04:46siblings, a lot of brothers. There's a huge amount of stimulation and fun. Lots of things
04:55to talk about, things to see, things to watch going on. And her siblings will become her
05:01first fully realised characters.
05:07Her father George is the clergyman of the village. The job doesn't pay well, but it does come
05:14with a home.
05:16her family. They don't own the place they live in. Nonetheless, as a rector, he has social
05:22status, doesn't have any money though. And he is using multiple jobs to try to make ends meet.
05:29They have just enough money, but there's always the risk that they could sink downwards.
05:35This is the worry that hangs over the heads of the Austens.
05:41The Austen family may not be rich, but they do have something of value.
05:47It's a modest home. But most importantly, it's got a library. It contains some 500 books.
05:59This is unusual. It's remarkable for a family with limited finances to have this many books.
06:05And the library is full of these ideas. You've got the great classics of the time, history,
06:12this world of literature, this world of politics. It's at her fingertips.
06:17And there's an inspiring new kind of book on her father's shelves. The novel. A form of writing
06:24which takes the reader into the worlds of vivid fictional characters.
06:30Of course, all of this is fuel for her future genius. This is where she's made, in this library.
06:38From childhood, Jane's love of reading fuels an obsession with writing stories of her own.
06:48We know that from a very young age, Jane is writing these exuberant, energetic, satirical little skits.
06:58She's very funny. She's very witty. They're full of people falling down dead drunk, especially women.
07:05They're just about what women should get up to or not get up to.
07:11One of Austen's earliest known stories is titled The Beautiful Cassandra.
07:17Jane hero-worships her sister. Famously, her mother said if Cassandra was going to have her head cut off,
07:22Jane would have her head cut off too. She's obsessed with Cassandra.
07:26The heroine is a mischievous adventurer who storms around London, causing trouble.
07:31When Cassandra had attained her 16th year, she was lovely and amiable.
07:38She then proceeded to a pastry cook's where she devoured six ices, refused to pay for them,
07:43knocked down the pastry cook and walked away.
07:45For Jane to have girls punching pastry chefs and watching people falling over drunk,
07:54you can see that she's being playful, but also it's that rebellious streak running through Jane Austen.
08:01What distinguishes her teenage writing is its mastery of form and its mastery of parody.
08:09I think if you've got five older brothers and an older sister, you do quite a lot of listening, don't you?
08:15She's obviously got a great ear, and that's a great thing for a writer.
08:21By the age of 17, her stories have only been read and enjoyed by family and friends.
08:27Jane Austen wants more.
08:29We know from the letters that she is ambitious.
08:34She knows herself. She wants to be a writer.
08:39But as a young woman in Georgian Britain, Austen's options are limited.
08:44Women in the 1790s have no rights.
08:47What little education is afforded them is really just training for being a wife.
08:52Girls are expected to live a life of domestic obedience as wives and mothers.
08:59And so Jane finds herself a chess piece to be moved around the board to support other family members,
09:06to help with births, marriages and deaths, as is convenient to the family.
09:11The 16th of December, 1793, Jane has been sent to Southampton.
09:24Southampton is a very busy port. It has that kind of rough and ready vibe.
09:30You're seeing all sorts of different nationalities, people of colour, men and women.
09:35Sailors, soldiers, mercenaries.
09:37All different classes mingling in these hustling, bustling spaces.
09:44As a young woman and as a writer, this is incredibly exciting,
09:48and she's storing up these experiences like any creative person.
09:53It's Jane's 18th birthday, but she's not here to celebrate.
09:58She's here to help her cousin Elizabeth, who is going into labour.
10:02To be dispatched to support the birth of a family member with no experience,
10:09no real understanding of what's going on.
10:13I mean, talk about being chucked into the deep end.
10:18The reality of giving birth in Georgian England is messy,
10:22it's bloody, it's dangerous. A woman can die and the baby can die.
10:29Four of Jane's relatives die in childbirth.
10:34To see that at 18 must have been mind-blowing.
10:40She would not have discounted the fact that this was going to be her fate too.
10:43Jane Austen is probably looking at this woman and thinking about her own life,
10:49thinking, is this what I want?
10:52We know that Jane Austen can be very, very savage, very, very brutal.
10:57There's an excruciating moment in one of the letters,
11:00where there's a searingly cruel comment about a woman who has a miscarriage.
11:04Jane Austen commented that the woman miscarried because her husband was so ugly,
11:07she took one look at him and aborted. I mean, that's horrible.
11:11You know, these are the kind of awful things the sisters would say to each other in confidence.
11:24Jane wants to be more than just marriage and childbirth material.
11:31Then, in 1794, she encounters a new kind of role model.
11:37The arrival of cousin Eliza is big news.
11:43She's just this fabulous creature that swans into Stevenson,
11:48bringing with her a whole hinterland of exotic, mysterious, fabulous and foreign excitement.
11:59Eliza had been married to a nobleman.
12:01During the French Revolution, he'd been arrested and thrown into jail.
12:08But worse followed.
12:14Her husband has been guillotined.
12:16And she relates this to Jane Austen.
12:24It's one thing to know that the French Revolution has taken place and that it's tipped over into bloodshed and chaos.
12:29It's quite another to have that presence, that bloodshed, walk right through your door and tell it to your face.
12:35Your cousin's husband is beheaded.
12:42This is not reading about it in the newspaper.
12:45Can you imagine being told this news while Eliza's there?
12:48This causes her so much fear, it sort of seeps into her subconscious.
13:04As well as these tales of horror, Eliza brings radical new ideas.
13:10Eliza gives Jane Austen books.
13:12She said women will not be put down any longer.
13:16Statements that would have been such a huge influence on how Jane Austen perceived women's rights.
13:24And this is catnip for Jane Austen.
13:27I mean, like any teenage girl, when a cooler, slightly older woman walks into the room, that's kind of electrifying.
13:35The unfortunate death of her husband leads to some interesting possibilities.
13:40Jane sees a widow as someone with a certain amount of freedom.
13:46You are your own woman, with your own means and resources, and you are able to do what you would like to do with those.
13:53And if that means you want to sleep with other men, you do it.
13:56It gives women of the time a certain amount of freedom that maybe Jane had never witnessed before or never thought existed.
14:02I think we can't underestimate the excitement to her fizzing, curious mind of this astonishing figure that's travelled around, that's been in a revolution.
14:12She's had sex, she's got money.
14:16You know, could this be the beginnings of a character that she might want to explore?
14:20Inspired by the presence of cousin Eliza, Jane Austen writes her first long-form work.
14:35Lady Susan tells the story of a recently widowed seductress who is looking for a new husband.
14:41Lady Susan is beautiful, she's clever, she's manipulative, and she knows how to get what she wants.
14:51She is a force of nature and she is just doing what she needs to do to survive.
14:56Lady Susan. Lady Susan Vernon.
14:59How dare you address me, sir?
15:01Lady Susan. Be gone, sir. I will have you whipped.
15:05Outrageous. Have you never met him?
15:08No, I know him well. I would never speak to a stranger like that.
15:12Lady Susan has a problem. A teenage daughter who she needs to marry off.
15:18She arranges for a wealthy but dim suitor to visit them at Churchill Manor.
15:24Churchill. That's how you say it.
15:28All together like that. Churchill.
15:31Oh, well, that explains a lot.
15:33You see, I'd heard Church and Hill, but couldn't find either. All I could see was this big house.
15:40I played Sir James Martin.
15:43He's a fucking idiot, but he's a likeable fucking idiot.
15:47He walks through life with his gold shoes on going, isn't this marvellous?
15:53How jolly. Tiny green balls.
15:55Mm, yes. Good tasting. Quite sweet. What are they called?
16:04Peas. Oh, yes. No, I knew that.
16:06To honour means, among other things, to listen with respect to a parent's sincere counsel.
16:12When her daughter tries to reject Sir James, Lady Susan callously ignores her feelings and piles on the pressure.
16:20An offer as splendid as Sir James's is not likely to come around again.
16:24He has offered you the one thing he has of value to give. His income.
16:28It's very funny, because her attitude to her daughter is just so awful, and she is the world's worst mother.
16:34The destitute. Is that what you want?
16:37No. I can see Sir James is a kind man, and if it weren't a matter of marriage, I'm sure I could like him.
16:43But marriages were one's whole life. Not in my experience. Meanwhile...
16:50Lady Susan is the hand grenade that Jane Austen is lobbing into Georgian society.
16:57Women are meant to present in a certain way, and she did away with all of that, and she created
17:04complex, three-dimensional characters who had massive flaws, massive contradictions,
17:12and this was written by a teenage girl.
17:17It's unfathomable.
17:20Lady Susan's plan fails, and she shows her true nature as she rails against her own daughter.
17:26If my daughter were not the greatest simpleton on earth, she would be engaged to him now.
17:30What?
17:31She refused him. A baronet with 10,000 a year. It's all so provocative.
17:36This is your daughter. It's one of the moments where we go,
17:40oh, no, she isn't. No, she is a nasty piece of work, actually, isn't she?
17:46In the end, Lady Susan marries her daughter off happily to another aristocrat.
17:51Oh, no, no, no, no.
17:53And she takes the rich fool for herself.
17:59What is truly remarkable is that a young girl could understand the ways of the world so
18:05intricately to create a monster, a creature like Lady Susan. You know,
18:12precocious talent is not the word for it.
18:18She is a rebellious, modern spirit.
18:23She's just standing up for women as human beings
18:26and refusing to bow to the oppressive stereotypes.
18:37It will be years before Lady Susan reaches a reading public.
18:43For now, Jane's only audience is her family.
18:49Girls like her aren't expected to have careers.
18:52Unlike her brothers.
18:57War brings opportunities for the Austin boys.
19:01Henry joins the militia, while Frank and Charles serve in the Navy.
19:07The Navy, of course, supported you and made all your provisions.
19:10The other great joy of the Navy was it opens people's horizons.
19:15And as a young officer, you were part of it.
19:18The Royal Navy at that stage was charting the world.
19:22We were leading this scientific research.
19:25But even better than that, if you were lucky and competent,
19:29you could make an immense amount of money.
19:32Jane Austen, of course, was privy to all of this life at sea
19:36because of the letters from her brothers.
19:37This was like a window, a ray of light, showing her what was going on in all these places.
19:42And being as bright as she was, she absorbed this and understood it and learnt about it.
19:47And I think she used it in what she wrote.
19:50But it must have been quite frustrating sometimes for Jane Austen.
19:55The opportunities available for a genteel, middle-class woman were about zero.
20:02But Jane has one person who believes in her, her father.
20:09I do think that George Austen recognised that his daughter was something special.
20:17She is writing in a different way.
20:19She is thinking in a different way to everybody else.
20:22He clearly valued her for who she was and for her intelligence.
20:28There is that total acceptance and support for her.
20:32To encourage his daughter, on Jane's 19th birthday, he buys her a special gift.
20:41He gives her a portable writing desk that he's bought from a cabinet maker in Basingstoke.
20:48An investment in her talent for writing.
20:53I mean, she's only 19.
20:55It's almost impossible to imagine what this would have meant to her.
20:58It gives her permission to be an author. That's what he gives her.
21:09Despite her father's approval, with no family money to fall back on,
21:14Jane is still expected to find a husband to support her.
21:18And a traditional place for meeting a man is the ballroom.
21:21The Georgian marriage market is a very ruthless place.
21:28It was important for people to like one another in a marriage,
21:31but more important was their social standing.
21:35And courtship will be watched, eagle-eyed, by both families.
21:39I think the pressure was enormous.
21:43Balls aren't just for husband hunting.
21:45They are also an opportunity for young people to let loose.
21:51The party goes on until the candles burn out.
21:55Sometimes until 6am.
22:00The dancing can be so relentless, guests bleed through their shoes.
22:06Ladies use their fans as cheat sheets, concealing the latest dance moves.
22:11To get ready for one of these balls is a real deal.
22:22You've got to wear corsets.
22:25You've got to have your hair done in a certain way.
22:27You are there to be seen.
22:31If you even look at their dresses, they were really low cut with heaving bosoms.
22:36And the dancers were, I mean, obviously no one was grinding or twerking, but they were very sexual.
22:43Jane wants to be a writer, but she also loves going to balls.
22:49And she's a wonderful dancer.
22:51Men want to dance with her.
22:53She's just excited and happy.
22:56So she's having the time of her life.
22:57In December 1795, at the Hampshire County Christmas Ball, Jane locks eyes with a handsome Irishman.
23:10His name is Tom Lefroy.
23:12He's connected to one of her best friends, Madame Lefroy.
23:14So he's not a stranger completely, but he's strange enough for her to be excited and thrilled.
23:22And I think she really genuinely has a big crush on him.
23:28And he has a crush on her.
23:31Austin writes about her feelings to her sister, Cassandra, in her earliest surviving letter.
23:38This is a really exciting moment.
23:41We hear her voice.
23:43We're inside her head for the first time.
23:46It's such an intimate conversation she's having.
23:49My dear Cassandra, I'm almost afraid to tell you how I behaved.
23:57Imagine to yourself everything most profligate and shocking in the way of dancing and sitting
24:02down together.
24:03He is a very gentleman-like, good-looking, pleasant young man.
24:08I think Jane's being very naughty here.
24:11Sitting with someone for a long time was one thing.
24:13Sitting too close with them, holding their hands, touching wasn't done at all.
24:17So it sounds like it's getting all a little bit heady.
24:21She definitely fancies him.
24:26There's just one problem.
24:30The Lefroy family don't think Jane's family come up to scratch.
24:33They don't have enough money.
24:35They're not going to make a good match, and therefore they're forced to part.
24:38When Tom's family decided this was not a good idea,
24:48she feels that she's perhaps not good enough.
24:52She's not even able to say, I reject you.
24:54The choice is taken away from her.
24:56And she has a strong sense of pride.
25:00She feels the fact that she doesn't have a lot of money.
25:03She feels it deeply.
25:06All sorts of emotions would have been running around her at this particular moment.
25:12Feeling a lack of voice, a lack of autonomy.
25:14That she's powerless in this situation.
25:33She writes this really beautiful letter to Cassandra.
25:35The first thing we see is her amazing sense of tragic irony.
25:46At length, the day has come on which I am to flirt my last with Tom Lefroy.
25:52And when you receive this, it will be over.
25:55My tears flow as I write at the melancholy idea.
25:57My tears flow at the melancholy idea.
26:04I love the fact that she's so dry and ironic in the way she describes her own reactions.
26:10This is typical Jane Austen, sort of expressing something and then
26:14putting it in perspective and slightly laughing at herself.
26:19So we see her here, aping the sentimental heroine who's been let down.
26:25She's mocking herself.
26:27But I really do believe that behind that, there is a genuine sense of hurt and disappointment.
26:41Bruised by the Tom Lefroy affair, Austen channels her frustration
26:46into a new novel that she calls First Impressions.
26:51She finishes a draft at the age of just 21.
26:54Her father, George, is captivated.
26:59He decides it's time to approach a publisher.
27:03George Austen is making a great vote of faith in the abilities of his daughter.
27:09He's very ambitious for her.
27:11He realises that this is a publishable novel.
27:15He realises that it could be a success.
27:17That must have been a huge boost, because up until that point she has read to her family.
27:23They've all listened to these first novels, but he is the person who actually thinks this
27:30is something that is professional.
27:32George Austen writes a letter offering Jane's work to a top publishing house.
27:38The letter is sent for the consideration of Thomas Cadell,
27:45London publisher of some of the most famous writers in the country.
27:49In the capital, the publishing industry is taking off.
27:58New printing techniques and rising literacy rates mean business is booming.
28:03To drive profits, books are sold in multiple volumes,
28:11so readers have to pay to read each new instalment.
28:17And publishers are on the lookout for the next big hit.
28:20Rejection.
28:34All writers keep the rejection slips, those first knockbacks.
28:40It's despicable to be rejected.
28:44The publisher has sent George Austen's letter back,
28:47with a line saying, declined by return of post.
28:52They haven't even read it.
28:54I think that that's going to be the thing.
28:58She feels angry, because she knows she's good.
29:02There is something about knowing that you're good,
29:04and the world around you not understanding yet.
29:08That is going to drive her.
29:11And I think it's critical that they are outsiders.
29:13They're outsiders to the publishing and cultural elites,
29:17and the power that's held by London.
29:25Although stung by the rejection,
29:27Jane has the unfailing support of her sister, Cassandra.
29:31Deemed the pretty sister, Cassandra had been engaged to marry a young chaplain.
29:39But in early 1797, more bad news arrives.
29:46Cassandra knows that very well when she sees the black seal on the letter,
29:52on the notice of death. She knows what that represents.
29:57Cassandra's fiancée has died on a voyage to the West Indies, his body buried at sea.
30:05Jane Austen is heartbroken for her sister. She sees the pain her sister is going through.
30:10And James says, I've never seen anybody behave with such grace and such fortitude and such courage,
30:24in the light of this absolutely heartbreaking news.
30:31Cassandra resolves from this point on, she's not going to find another love,
30:35and that's it for her.
30:37Cassandra's vow to remain unmarried will have a profound impact on the lives of both women.
30:48I think there is a part of her that also feels a sense of relief.
30:52She's not going to be parted from me. We can be together. We can stay together.
30:55It's an absolutely pivotal moment in the life of Jane Austen. It opens the doorway for Jane Austen
31:03to think about a life in which she may not get married.
31:08It's almost as if they're in it together now. So she must now be thinking, writing.
31:15How can I be secure and independent through my writing? That's her project.
31:24And every project needs a great idea.
31:26From her own extensive reading, Jane knows what makes a bestseller.
31:34There's a real fashion for gothic novels at the time. The racy gothic novels with the shivering,
31:39shuddering, swooning heroine.
31:42Gothic fiction features beautiful heroines, often trapped in mysterious settings,
31:47and facing terrifying dangers.
31:49For some, these racy page turners are a cause for concern.
31:55There's lots of quite stiff writers in the 18th century, male writers usually,
32:01who are very worried about the influence that these terrible trashy things are going to have
32:06on women's imagination. The idea that a young woman might read this and
32:11think that all these things are going to happen to her.
32:14Austen comes up with a masterstroke. She takes the idea of the novel as a bad influence,
32:23and runs with it.
32:31In Northanger Abbey, Austen creates a teenage heroine,
32:35Catherine Morland, who is obsessed with reading gothic horror.
32:39Both Jane and the character of Catherine Morland's father were rectors, and you could really see
32:46that Jane is putting a lot of herself into this character.
32:51She's plain. She comes from a large, undistinguished family. Her father's not rich.
32:55Her mother's sensible, but not particularly anything else. And yet,
32:59she's the one we're going to follow, and proudly. Jane is holding a standard for her and says,
33:05come with me. This person's worth watching. Austen is subverting the idea of what a heroine is,
33:11or should be. For when a young lady is to be a heroine...
33:16...swept up in her gothic novel obsession, Catherine is prone to dramatic daydreams.
33:21A tumult of emotion stirred in the bosom of Adeline, and fear gripped her heart,
33:25that at any moment ruffians would fly upon the carriage and return her to the ignominy of her captive state.
33:30Oh, my God, Mrs. Allen!
33:42Back in the real world, Catherine is invited to the family home of her suitor, Henry Tilney.
33:55Arriving at Northanger Abbey, a looming gothic pile, Catherine's imagination runs riot.
34:01Catherine is always looking for the gothic horror. She's looking in the cupboards, in the drawers,
34:07you know. She wants all the horror of the typical Abbey.
34:13The night was dark, and the rain still beat violently against the windows.
34:17Catherine's heart beat quick, but her courage did not fail her. With a cheek flushed by hope,
34:22and an eye straining with curiosity, her fingers grasped the handle of a drawer and drew it forth.
34:29It was entirely empty. Stylistically, this is the high gothic style. I think what
34:35makes me laugh about this is the sort of main character energy that Catherine stars in the film
34:42of her own life. You know, everything she does has significance. You can hear the soundtrack.
34:47And then when the drawer is empty, is that meaningful? Or is that a disappointment?
34:51It's dramatic. Whatever it is, it's dramatic.
34:57To marry Henry Tilney, Catherine must win the approval of his sinister father, General Tilney.
35:04Miss Moreland, welcome to Northanger Abbey.
35:08When she finds out the general's wife died, she concludes he murdered her.
35:15Catherine's imagination is running absolutely wild here. She says to Henry Tilney,
35:20he is a murderer. I cannot help believing it. There's always this monstrous,
35:25barren figure in these romances. And she thinks that General Tilney has murdered his wife.
35:31And there'll be corpses hanging up in his bedroom. But actually what he does is much more monstrous.
35:38My father insists on your leaving immediately. As soon as you can make yourself ready.
35:45The carriage will take you to meet the public stagecoach. No servant will accompany you.
35:51I have to travel all night, alone.
35:58General Tilney had believed Catherine was rich. When he learns she's a penniless clergyman's daughter,
36:04he ruthlessly casts her out of the Abbey.
36:08That's it. She's out. She has no money. She has no means of getting home.
36:13She's completely betrayed by what should have been his duty of care.
36:16So it turns out it is a book full of monsters. But actually, you know, they live amongst us.
36:23In Northanger Abbey, Austen uses the gothic fantasy to expose an uncomfortable truth about society.
36:31She's played with a very, very popular literary movement. And she's looked behind the spooky
36:38velvet curtain of shivery horrors. And she's shown us a real monster,
36:42which is the kind of man that would treat women that way.
36:47Austen gives her heroine a fairytale ending. Catherine and Henry Tilney marry and live happily ever after.
36:59But her own future is far from settled.
37:04And in the winter of 1800, her world is turned upside down.
37:08Jane's father is growing old. He has decided to give up his position as the village clergyman.
37:17She comes back from staying with a friend. And she walks into her home. And her mother blurts out
37:25that they're going to leave. She's turfed out of the family home. And it's such an overpowering shock.
37:35Her father passes the living at Steventon to his eldest son, James.
37:43The rectory will now be his home.
37:45She's being uprooted. And Jane cannot conceal her resentment about this.
37:52She writes,
37:53The whole world is a conspiracy to enrich one part of our family at the expense of another.
38:00This is about the unfairness of male inheritance that her elder brother James gets the house.
38:05It's just this wonderfully succinct, angry comment. She feels at this moment that sense of powerlessness.
38:17Does nobody ever consult my feelings? Am I important or am I just dispensable?
38:25It's a move by the family that really doesn't consider her needs at all. And it screws her up.
38:32I just can't begin to imagine what that represented for her. The pain of not being able to have those
38:48books around you, not being able to find that refuge that she's always had. It's like it's one
38:53body blow after another. And she has to pack up and move on.
39:05Jane and her sister are forced to move with their parents to Bath.
39:09It is hoped here, the two girls will find husbands.
39:15At this point, she's 25, which seems very young to us. But at that time, she's getting to the end of
39:21marriageable age. It's sort of a bit like the 30s panic in Richard Jones. That's not an easy time
39:27for her. It's potentially humiliating.
39:30It's a daily occurrence in Bath, going to a visitation, attending things in public with a
39:40very strong sense of urgency about finding a marriage match. Jane writes about the social
39:47engagements she's made to attend. Another stupid party last night. Perhaps if larger,
39:52they might be less intolerable. I cannot continue to find people agreeable. She's starting to have
40:00difficulty in crowds in general. This is too much.
40:08She's shy. She's introverted. Having to make conversation with a few people in intense ways
40:13really tires her out. And her situation becomes intolerable. We associate Jane Austen with Bath,
40:20but the fact is she hates it.
40:26In the summer of 1801, Jane manages to escape to the seaside. Invited by family friends,
40:33she spends several weeks in Sidmouth.
40:36Sidmouth is this beautiful, genteel, Georgian beach town. It's just gorgeous. It was known as the
40:43English Riviera. So it's a great place to go, and she's really happy to be there.
40:48And she meets a man. And she falls in love.
40:56We know he was a clergyman.
40:59It's pretty serious, and he makes his intentions pretty clear. What's infuriating for us is we just
41:06don't know anything about him. We don't know what his name was. He's very shadowy.
41:10The only source of information about the romance is from Austen's sister, Cassandra.
41:18Cassandra tells us later this might have been the love of her life.
41:21She said he had the charm of person, mind and manners that made him worthy to possess her sister's love.
41:30We think that this could lead to a proposal.
41:37To meet someone she falls for at that point in her life is huge.
41:43I imagine she would think, yes, you know, it's all going to be all right after all.
41:48The pair agree to meet again. In the meantime, Jane returns to Bath.
41:56Something awful has happened.
42:14The love of her life has died.
42:17It's probably making her think that she's lost all her chances now.
42:26This could have been the last one.
42:31It's clearly huge for her.
42:35But the sense of pain that she must feel, that's the sort of fuel that a writer needs.
42:41And it channels itself into one of the greatest novels ever written.
42:47So the opening line of Pride and Prejudice is one of the most famous opening lines in literature.
42:58It is a truth universally acknowledged that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife.
43:04That's already funny.
43:06It also is the painful truth behind the whole novel,
43:09that if your family doesn't have any money and you're a woman, you have to marry a rich man.
43:15I have any choice.
43:16When the wealthy and single Mr Bingley arrives in the neighbourhood,
43:20the five Bennet sisters are thrilled.
43:23Lizzie!
43:24Kitty, what have I told you about listening at the door?
43:25Shh!
43:26Never mind that.
43:27There's a Mr Bingley right from the north.
43:28I've seen 5,000 a year.
43:30I'm single.
43:32He's single.
43:33Who's single?
43:33A Mr Bingley apparently.
43:34Pshh!
43:35Mr Bennet owns an estate, but when he dies, it will pass down the male line.
43:43With no inheritance in sight, the Bennet girls face poverty unless they marry well.
43:49When you die, Mr Bennet, which may in fact be very soon,
43:52our girls will be left without a roof over their head, nor a penny to their name.
43:56Oh, Mama, please, it's ten in the morning.
43:59Pride and Prejudice.
44:00It's full of an abundance of females that no one knows what to do with.
44:04How on earth do you get shot of them all?
44:06I mean, it's almost like a send-up of her own life so far.
44:09What do we do with these women?
44:11The novel's heroine is the proud and fiercely independent Elizabeth Bennet,
44:17another young woman who loves reading.
44:20I always imagine Elizabeth is the closest to actual Jane of all of her heroines.
44:26She's funny, she's smart, she's kind, she's full of spirit, she's modern, she's independent.
44:32And so you're gunning for her from the start.
44:36Love every man in the room, if not end the evening in love with you,
44:39then I am no judge of beauty.
44:40All men?
44:42No, they are far too easy to judge.
44:44They're not all bad.
44:45Luminous poppycocks are my limited experience.
44:47One of these days, Lizzie, someone will catch your eye and then you'll have to watch your tongue.
44:55In this particular scene, we see the dance from Elizabeth's perspective.
44:59Part of Austen's genius is she slowly brings you in,
45:02a very close study of what somebody sees, feels, hears, remembers, notices,
45:10that you as the reader will slowly be pulled in,
45:13in a sort of an immersive way, into that person's consciousness.
45:18But that takes extraordinary skill.
45:22Lizzie is determined to marry for love.
45:26Enter the dangerous Mr. Darcy.
45:28Darcy is one of her strange, silent types that come from your dreams.
45:41The sense that somehow or other, there's no reason to speak because the aura that's been
45:47given off by this male figure is so filled with sort of pungent sexuality that it doesn't really
45:54matter what he says.
46:00With his sex appeal, fortune and sprawling ancestral mansion,
46:04Darcy seems to have everything. But he's far from perfect.
46:09He needs fixing, you know, he's rude, he's arrogant, and crucially, he's rude to her.
46:14But her sister Elizabeth is very agreeable.
46:17Fairly tolerable, I dare say.
46:19You're not handsome enough to tempt me.
46:21You'd better return to your partner and enjoy her smile.
46:23You're wasting your time with me.
46:25And they both need to learn some things.
46:28So Jane Austen plots the dynamic between Darcy and Elizabeth really precisely,
46:34and that's the narrative drive of the book.
46:36The arrogant Mr. Darcy and the proud Lizzie are in denial over their intense mutual attraction.
46:43Mr. Wickham is blessed with you.
46:45While they smoulder, an obstacle arrives.
46:50Mr. Collins at your service.
46:52Mr. Collins is the male heir to the Bennet estate.
46:56He shows up at their home hoping to choose a wife from one of the Bennet daughters.
47:02What a superbly featured room and what excellent boiled potatoes.
47:07Many years since I've had such an exemplary vegetable.
47:09To which of my fair cousins should I compliment the excellence of the cooking?
47:14Mr. Collins is another one of Austen's idiots, but he is not lovable.
47:21He is a proud, boastful, odious, charmless little toad of a man.
47:28After dinner, I thought I might read to you all for an hour or two.
47:32I have with me Fordyce's sermons, which speak very eloquently on all matters moral.
47:40Are you familiar with Fordyce's sermons, Miss Bennet?
47:43And you can see what he's trying to do.
47:45He believes, literally, it is his God-given right to go round to this house and pick a daughter.
47:52What a prick.
47:53Later on, of course, Mr. Collins will ask Lizzie to marry him.
47:58And now, nothing remains but for me to assure you in the most animated language of the violence of my affection.
48:04Mr. Collins!
48:05And that no reproach on the subject of fortune will cross my lips once we're married.
48:09You are too hasty, sir. You forget that I have given no answer.
48:12Please understand me. I cannot accept you.
48:17Lizzie is affronted by Mr. Collins' proposal and abruptly turns him down.
48:22Then Darcy makes his move.
48:26Please do me the honour of accepting my hand.
48:29He is actually trying to propose to her at this point, and Darcy says...
48:34Could you expect me to rejoice in the inferiority of your circumstances?
48:37And those are the words of a gentleman.
48:40It's a bit of a cack-handed proposal.
48:43He is very open about his awareness of her inferiority, but Lizzie responds with usual fire.
48:52And, um, wit and defiance.
48:56From the first moment I met you, your arrogance and conceit, your selfish disdain for the feelings of others...
49:00...made me realise that you were the last man in the world I could ever be prevailed upon to marry.
49:04You have money, you have class over me, but you can still never be the person that I am.
49:12Lizzie will never ever be told that she's not as good as anyone else.
49:15She's amazing.
49:17Jane Austen is doing something brilliantly subversive here, because she's going against the hierarchical nature of society, of class, of class divide.
49:26Jane Austen's project was to make public the idea that women's imagination and women's minds were not just subtle and graceful, but sharp, with enormous integrity and seriousness.
49:40There were no other images available of how women thought and felt.
49:46It wasn't as though it was happening in opera.
49:49You know, it wasn't happening in poetry.
49:51But she managed to create an extraordinary sense not only of life in the protagonists, but also of sharp intelligence, tact, wit, knowledge.
50:03Despite her defiance, Lizzie seems truly devastated.
50:11As a writer, you always want your characters to be like Lizzie and Darcy in a place where you think,
50:17we are not coming back from this, there is no way, but we always need a journey to go on.
50:25In the end, Darcy proves himself worthy of Lizzie's love.
50:30They finally surrender to their feelings.
50:34I would have to tell you.
50:36You have bewitched me, body and soul, and I love, and love, and love you.
50:41I never wish to be parted from you from this day on.
50:55Well then.
50:59Your hands are cold.
51:07It's a really beautiful ending.
51:10We all have to have someone who sees us and loves us.
51:15He is probably the only person that sees Lizzie.
51:25Jane has written for us a character and a story that we need as readers.
51:31She's writing the happy ending that she needed.
51:57Jane Austen is about to turn 27.
52:00She's still living with her parents.
52:04One suitor's family rejected her.
52:07The man she loved has died.
52:10And nothing she's written has been published.
52:13Then, in December 1802, Jane and her sister are invited to stay with some family friends.
52:25Wealthy members of the landed gentry.
52:27The man she loved.
52:29During Austen's stay, she does receive an offer of marriage from the improbably named Mr. Big Wither.
52:39It's straight out of one of her novels.
52:40She doesn't love him and he clearly doesn't love her.
52:46It's hard to have to marry someone you don't love because that's the only way you can survive financially.
52:54And she thinks, I'll be rich.
53:01How tempting is that?
53:04Why shouldn't she have security and respectability and money?
53:07Jane accepts Big Wither's proposal.
53:14And then that night, she thinks about it.
53:27And she must have thought, you know, what are the ups and downs?
53:30Could I still write?
53:31And what cost would it come at?
53:36This is a real fork in the road for her.
53:41She speaks with her sister.
53:45And she decides, I cannot go through with this.
53:50She just couldn't make herself marry someone that she did not or could not imagine herself loving.
53:58And that is the mantra in the novels.
54:00Her heroines say, I will not marry without love.
54:04So she's actually living what she's preaching.
54:09And she's pretty brave to say yes to him and then say no.
54:15That's a real independent spirit.
54:17This is a defining moment and it determines the rest of her writing life.
54:32She chooses to take the route of being an independent woman to pursue her dream of being a writer.
54:46That is the moment when she says, my life's going to be different.
54:56And I think there was almost a real pledge, an internal pledge to the life that I am choosing for myself.
55:04Jane has gambled, she's gambled everything on writing.
55:20All of her chips are down.
55:23This is just a whole new chapter in her life.
55:28She's thinking, this is just all going so well for me.
55:34Then suddenly everything goes wrong.
55:37This is an absolute gut punch.
55:40What was I thinking?
55:41What was I thinking?
55:43Thinking I could be a writer.
55:44I'm thinking I could be a writer.
55:46I'm thinking I could be a writer.
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