I would not let Martha read First Impressions again upon any account, and am very glad that I did not leave it in your power. She is very cunning, but I saw through her design; she means to publish it from memory, and one more perusal must enable her to do it. Letter to Cassandra Austen, 11 June 1799
Jane Austen’s Biographer Claire Tomalin has a nice article in the Guardian today about how modesty and secrecy fueled Austen’s genius. Tomalin’s bio Jane Austen: A Life was published in 1997 and is one of my favorites. It’s good to see that she is still interested in writing about Austen after the publication of her book over ten years ago. It’s a short piece, but packed full of historical nuggets of Janeisms, and centered around Jane Austen’s now famous small writing table.
This fragile 12-sided piece of walnut on a single tripod must be the smallest table ever used by a writer, and it is where she established herself as a writer…having no room of her own, she established herself near the little-used front door, and here “she wrote upon small sheets of paper which could easily be put away, or covered with a piece of blotting paper”.
Reading her insights made me reflect on Jane Austen’s unique writing environment, and the odds of anyone ever producing anything of merit under such restrictions. It is amazing to think that the majority of her writing and re-writing transpired on one small wooden table, and that upon her death it passed to her sister Cassandra, and then out of the family to a servant. How it made its way back to Chawton Cottage intact must be a very interesting tale indeed!
I have not had the pleasure of seeing Jane Austen’s writing table personally, but for those of you who have made the pilgrimage, I would love to hear your story of your visit to Jane Austen’s last home in Chawton, how it felt to see her personal environment, and gaze upon the biggest little table in literary history.
Writer Claire Tomalin is an English biographer and journalist who was educated at Cambridge University. She has written several biographies; notably Thomas Hardy (2007), Samuel Pepys (2002), The Life and Death of Mary Wollstonecraft (1992) and Shelley and His World (1992). She is married to playwright Michael Frayn and lives in London. Of course, her most important work to date is Jane Austen: A Life!
Mark Twain House, Hartford, Conn. 
In Emily Auerback’s excellent book 
Mr. Darcy’s Diary, by Maya Slater
“Oh! certainly,” cried his faithful assistant, “no one can be really esteemed accomplished who does not greatly surpass what is usually met with. A woman must have a thorough knowledge of music, singing, drawing, dancing, and the modern languages, to deserve the word; and besides all this, she must possess a certain something in her air and manner of walking, the tone of her voice, her address and expressions, or the word will be but half deserved.” 
We see books and novels discussed frequently in her works as social and moral commentary. If you will note, many of her characters who read or collect books are often portrayed in a more sympathetic light; — Fanny Price in Mansfield Park with her affinity to poetry, Marianne Dashwood in Sense and Sensibility who “had the knack of finding her way in every house to the library“, and even Catherine Morland in Northanger Abbey, that Gothic fiction obsessive, all have their faults, but are overall portrayed postively, learn and grow throughout the story, and by the conclusion are endearing to the reader. On the opposite side of the spectrum, those characters that are negligent readers are unsympathetically slighted; — the odious Mr. Collins in Pride and Prejudice who “often observed how little young ladies are interested by books of a serious stamp, though written solely for their benefit“, Emma Woodhouse in Emma who “has been meaning to read more ever since she was twelve years old”, Sir Walter Elliot of Persuasion “who, for his own amusement, never took up any book but the Baronetage” and John Thorpe of Northanger Abbey who thinks novels are “the stupidest things in creation“. These, with the exception of Emma Woodhouse, all have a less favourable end.
If anyone out there has ever wondered where I get my inspiration to write continually about one subject – Jane Austen – for six months and counting, you might be amused at what from time-to-time inspires those brain cells into action. Many times, I will be Googling along and happen upon something that I was not searching for in the first place. Serendipity and all that! Often I get an inspiration while driving in my car! Go figure. Here is a meanderin’ tale of my trail of discovery and inspiration for this post today!
“The happiest people are those who think the most interesting thoughts. Those who decide to use leisure as a means of mental development, who love good music, good books, good pictures, good company, good conversation, are the happiest people in the world. And they are not only happy in themselves, they are the cause of happiness in others.” William Lyon Phelps
In 1890, Jane Austen was not widely read in American college curriculum. She had her small circle of admirers, and her fame had been slowly buildin
There are two possible explanations; one by a scholar and the other by a meteorologist. In the book 
Austenprose 
