Jane Austen and What Remains Of Her Notes

“Plan for a Novel, according to hints from serious quarters”

What remains of Austen’s notes? Quite a lot of satire, as it turns out.

On Monday, I posted a cheeky complaint against Jane Austen’s depiction of note-taking in her novels. Today, I explore the notes of Austen’s that remain. And while there isn’t as much as I’d like, we still have around 1100 manuscript pages written in her own hand—and this number doesn’t include her letters. These manuscripts cover nearly her entire life (from around the age of 11 to her death at 41), and they are delightful.¹

So, let’s explore what remains of Austen’s archive and what it reveals about our beloved author.