The History of England is a 1791 work by
Jane AustenJane Austen was an English novelist, whose realism, biting social commentary and use of free indirect speech, have earned her a place as one of the most widely read and most beloved writers in English literature....
, written when the author was fifteen. It is a
burlesqueBurlesque is a genre of entertainment also known as Travesty. Prior to Burlesque becoming associated with striptease, it was a form of musical and theatrical parody in which an opera or piece of classical theatre is adapted in a broad, often risqué style very different from that for which it was...
which pokes fun at widely used schoolroom history books such as
Oliver GoldsmithOliver Goldsmith was an Anglo-Irish writer, poet, and physician known for his novel The Vicar of Wakefield , his pastoral poem The Deserted Village , and his plays The Good-Natur'd Man and She Stoops to Conquer...
's 1771
The History of England from the Earliest Times to the Death of George II. Austen mockingly imitates the style of textbook histories of English monarchs, while ridiculing historians' pretensions to objectivity. Her
History cites as sources fictional works such as the plays of
ShakespeareWilliam Shakespeare was an English poet and playwright, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's preeminent dramatist. He is often called England's national poet and the "Bard of Avon"...
and
SheridanRichard Brinsley Sheridan was a playwright and poet and long-term owner of the London Theatre Royal, Drury Lane. For thirty-two years, he was also a Member of Parliament aligned with the British Whig Party. Such was the esteem he was held in by his contemporaries when he died that he was buried...
, a novel by
Charlotte Turner SmithCharlotte Turner Smith was an English poet and novelist. She initiated a revival of the English sonnet, helped establish the conventions of Gothic fiction, and wrote political novels of sensibility....
and the opinions of Austen's family and friends.
The History of England is a 1791 work by
Jane AustenJane Austen was an English novelist, whose realism, biting social commentary and use of free indirect speech, have earned her a place as one of the most widely read and most beloved writers in English literature....
, written when the author was fifteen. It is a
burlesqueBurlesque is a genre of entertainment also known as Travesty. Prior to Burlesque becoming associated with striptease, it was a form of musical and theatrical parody in which an opera or piece of classical theatre is adapted in a broad, often risqué style very different from that for which it was...
which pokes fun at widely used schoolroom history books such as
Oliver GoldsmithOliver Goldsmith was an Anglo-Irish writer, poet, and physician known for his novel The Vicar of Wakefield , his pastoral poem The Deserted Village , and his plays The Good-Natur'd Man and She Stoops to Conquer...
's 1771
The History of England from the Earliest Times to the Death of George II. Austen mockingly imitates the style of textbook histories of English monarchs, while ridiculing historians' pretensions to objectivity. Her
History cites as sources fictional works such as the plays of
ShakespeareWilliam Shakespeare was an English poet and playwright, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's preeminent dramatist. He is often called England's national poet and the "Bard of Avon"...
and
SheridanRichard Brinsley Sheridan was a playwright and poet and long-term owner of the London Theatre Royal, Drury Lane. For thirty-two years, he was also a Member of Parliament aligned with the British Whig Party. Such was the esteem he was held in by his contemporaries when he died that he was buried...
, a novel by
Charlotte Turner SmithCharlotte Turner Smith was an English poet and novelist. She initiated a revival of the English sonnet, helped establish the conventions of Gothic fiction, and wrote political novels of sensibility....
and the opinions of Austen's family and friends. Along with accounts of English kings and queens which contain little factual information but a great deal of comically exaggerated opining about their characters and behaviour, the work includes material such as charades and puns on names. It was illustrated with coloured portraits by Austen's elder sister
CassandraCassandra Elizabeth Austen was an amateur English watercolorist and the elder sister of Jane Austen.-Childhood:...
, to whom the work is dedicated.
The first page of the
History reads:
The History of England
from the reign of
Henry the 4th
to the death of
Charles the 1st
By a partial, prejudiced, & ignorant Historian
To Miss Austen, eldest daughter of the Revd. George Austen,
this work is inscribed with all due respect by
The Author
N.B.: There will be very few Dates in this History.
Some years after writing it, Austen compiled
The History of England and 28 other of her early compositions by copying them into three notebooks which she called "Volume the First", "Volume the Second" and "Volume the Third".
The History of England is in "Volume the Second" (as are
Love and FreindshipLove and Freindship [sic] is a juvenile story by Jane Austen, dated 1790, when Austen was 14 years old. Written in epistolary form, like her later unpublished novella, Lady Susan, it is thought to be one of the tales she wrote for the amusement of her family...
and four other works) occupying 34 manuscript pages. Cassandra's 13 illustrations were done after the copying was completed. "Volume the Second" passed to Cassandra at Austen's death in 1817, and on Cassandra's death in 1845 to
Francis AustenAdmiral of the Fleet Sir Francis William Austen, GCB was a British officer who spent most of his long life on active duty in the Royal Navy, rising to the position of Admiral of the Fleet.-Background:...
, with whose descendants it remained until it was sold to the
British LibraryThe British Library is the national library of the United Kingdom. It is located in London and is one of the world's largest research libraries, holding over 150 million items in all known languages and formats; books, journals, newspapers, magazines, sound and music recordings, patents,...
in 1977.
Publication History
None of Austen's youthful works were published in her lifetime. Francis Austen's granddaughter, the then owner of "Volume the Second", in 1922 permitted
Chatto and WindusChatto and Windus has been, since 1987, an imprint of Random House, publishers. It was originally an important publisher of books in London, founded in the Victorian era....
to publish the entire notebook under the name
Love and Friendship. The
History was included in volume VI of R. H. Chapman's
Oxford University PressOxford house Press is the largest university press in the world. It is a department of the University of Oxford and is governed by a group of 15 academics appointed by the Vice-Chancellor known as the Delegates of the Press. they are headed by the Secretary to the Delegates, who serves as OUP's...
edition of Jane Austen's complete works and since then has been published in several new editions and imprints.
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