Juvenilia by Jane Austen Before she wrote about love and manners,
Jane Austen wrote with pure unrestrained mischief.
These short stories,
Lively,
Daring and delightfully exaggerated,
Showcase Austen's first experiments with a wit,
Irony and social observation that would later define classics like Pride and Prejudice and Emma.
From tales of outrageous heroines to comical love affairs and clever mockeries of literary conventions,
Juvenilia is a window into the young mind of a writer destined to change English literature forever.
I cannot imagine,
Said Sir Godfrey to his lady,
Why we continue in such deplorable lodging as these in a poultry market town when we have three good houses of our own situated in some of the finest parts of England and perfectly ready to receive us.
I'm sure,
Sir Godfrey,
Replied Lady Marlowe,
It has been much against my inclination that we have stayed here so long or why we should ever have come at all.
Indeed,
Has to me been a wonder as none of our houses have been in the least one to repair.
Nay,
My dear,
Answered Sir Godfrey,
You are always the last person who ought to be displeased with what was always meant as a compliment to you for you cannot but be sensible of the great inconvenience your daughters and I have been put to since the two years we've remained crowded in these lodgings in order to give you pleasure.
My dear,
Replied Lady Marlowe,
How can you stand and tell such lies when you know very well it was merely to oblige the girls and you that I left a most commodious house situated in the most delightful country and surrounded by a most agreeable neighbourhood to live two years cramped up in lodgings three pairs of stairs high in a smoky and unwholesome town which has given me a continual fever and almost threw me into a consumption.
As,
After a few more speeches on both sides,
They could not determine who was the most to blame they prudently laid aside the debate and having packed up their clothes and paid their rent they set out the next morning with their two daughters for their seat in Sussex.
Sir Godfrey and Lady Marlowe were indeed very sensible people and though,
As in this instance,
Like many other sensible people they sometimes did a foolish thing,
Yet in general their actions were guided by prudence and regulated by discretion.
After a journey of two days and a half they arrived at Marlhurst in good health and high spirits so overjoyed were they all to inhabit again a place they had left with mutual regret for two years they ordered the bells to be rung and distributed ninepence among the ringers.
Chapter the Second The news of their arrival being quickly spread throughout the country brought them in a few days visits of congratulation from every family in it amongst the rest came the inhabitants of Wilmot Lodge,
A beautiful villa not far from Marlhurst.
Mr Wilmot was the representative of a very ancient family and possessed besides his paternal estate a considerable share in a lead mine and a ticket in the lottery.
His lady was an agreeable woman.
Their children were too numerous to be particularly described it is sufficient to say that in general they were virtuously inclined and not given to any wicked ways.
Their family being too large to accompany them in every visit they took nine with them alternately.
When their coach stopped at St Godfrey's door Miss Marlow's hearts throbbed in the eager expectation of once more beholding a family so dear to them.
Emma the youngest who was more particularly interested in their arrival being attached to their eldest son continued at her dressing room window in anxious hopes of seeing young Edgar descend from the carriage.
Mr and Mrs Wilmot with their three eldest daughters first appeared.
Emma began to tremble.
Robert,
Richard,
Ralph and Rodolphus followed.
Emma turned pale.
Their two youngest girls were lifted from the coach.
Emma sunk breathless on a sofa.
A footman came to announce to her the arrival of the company.
Her heart was too full to contain its afflictions.
A confidante was necessary.
In Thomas she hoped to experience a faithful one for one she must have and Thomas was the only one at hand.
To him she unbosomed herself without restraint and after owning her passion for young Wilmot requested his advice in what manner she should conduct herself in the melancholy disappointment under which she laboured.
Thomas who would gladly have been excused from listening to her complaint begged leave to decline giving any advice concerning it which much against her will she was obliged to comply with.
Having dispatched him therefore with many injunctions of secrecy she descended with a heavy heart into the parlour where she found the good party seated in a social manner round a blazing fire.
Emma had continued in the parlour some time before she could summon up sufficient courage to ask Mrs Wilmot after the rest of her family and when she did it was in so slow,
So faltering a voice no one knew that she spoke.
Dejected by the ill success of her first attempt she made no other till on Mrs Wilmot's desiring one of the little girls to ring the bell for their carriage she stepped across the room and seizing the string said in a resolute manner Mrs Wilmot you do not stir from this house till you let me know how all the rest of your family do particularly your eldest son.
They were all greatly surprised by such an unexpected address and the more so on account of the manner in which it was spoken but Emma who would not be again disappointed requesting an answer Mrs Wilmot made the following eloquent oration Our children are all extremely well but at present most of them from home.
Amy is with my sister Clayton Sam at Eton David with his uncle John Jem and Will at Winchester Kitty at Queen's Square Ned with his grandmother Hetty and Patty in a convent at Brussels Edgar at college Peter at nurse and all the rest except the nine here at home.
It was with difficulty that Emma could refrain from tears on hearing the absence of Edgar she remained however tolerably composed till the Wilmots were gone when having no check to the overflowings of her grief she gave free vent to them and retiring to her own room continued in tears the remainder of her life.
The End
