Jane Austen Letters

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Reading the review of Emma

Jane returns the Quarterly Review to its publisher, John Murray. She is pleased with its treatment of Emma but disappointed that it says nothing about Mansfield Park. The reviewer was Walter Scott, writing anonymously; this letter does not establish that Jane knew his identity. The review appeared in March 1816 in an issue dated October 1815. This fuller printed version also asks Murray to write directly to Chawton after Henry’s banking business failed in Henrietta Street. The review’s publication history helps explain the apparently conflicting dates.

Jane Austen to John Murray
APR 1, 1816

‘Chawton, April 1, 1816.

‘Dear Sir,—I return you the “Quarterly Review” with many thanks. The Authoress of “Emma” has no reason, I think, to complain of her treatment in it, except in the total omission of “Mansfield Park.” I cannot but be sorry that so clever a man as the Reviewer of “Emma” should consider it as unworthy of being noticed. You will be pleased to hear that I have received the Prince’s thanks for the handsome copy I sent him of “Emma.” Whatever he may think of my share of the work, yours seems to have been quite right.

‘In consequence of the late event in Henrietta Street, I must request that if you should at any time have anything to communicate by letter, you will be so good as to write by the post, directing to me (Miss J. Austen), Chawton, near Alton; and that for anything of a larger bulk, you will add to the same direction, by Collier’s Southampton coach.

‘I remain, dear Sir,

‘Yours very faithfully, ‘J. Austen.’

The final paragraph changes the address for business communications after Henry’s bank failed (Life and Letters).

The Memoir prints more text than Life and Letters. Jane does not name the reviewer here; Walter Scott’s authorship is established independently.

Source: A Memoir of Jane Austen (1871), p. 132.