Pride and Penury

By

Pride and Penury

ByMary Greene

Dr. Lucy Worsley takes a trawl through Jane Austen’s homes and discovers just how close the impoverished novelist came to a slice of a huge inheritance. 露西·沃斯利博士对简·奥斯丁的故居进行了一番研究，发现这位贫困的小说家曾与巨额遗产仅一步之遥。

Jane Austen danced the night away at the Earl of Portsmouth’s country ball at Hurstbourne Park in Hampshire—and woke up with a terrible hangover1hangover宿醉。the next morning.

[2] Oh dear, not the kind of behaviour the nation expects from our favourite lady novelist.

[3] “I believe I drank too much wine last night ... I know not how else to account for the shaking of my hand today,” a 24-year-old Jane wrote to her sister Cassandra that morning in November 1800.

She was scathing2scathing严厉批评的。about her dancing partners and mean about the ladies, especially three to whom “I was as civil ...as their bad breath would allow me”.

[4] Poor Jane; by this point she must have been well aware that she had little chance of meeting a Mr Darcy among her limited social circle in Hampshire,where she’d lived all her life (another dazzling engagement that same week involved dinner with neighbours, card games and being read to aloud from a pamphlet on cow-pox).

[5] A ball could mean simply rolling back the carpet and inviting a few neighbours for a dance.

“This meant that when Jane went to balls she wasn’t always meeting new people. There were a lot of familiar faces,” says historian Lucy Worsley,who looks at the houses Jane lived in to show how they in fl uenced her in a new BBC2 documentaryJane Austen: Behind Closed Doors.

[6] Unfortunately, when Jane had met an interesting man at a ball in 1796—an Irish law student, Tom Lefroy, who was visiting on holiday—it had quickly become apparent they had no future together.

As an eldest son with ten siblings,Tom had to marry money. Jane, a country parson’s daughter, could only be a youthful fl irtation.

“I don’t think it’s a coincidence,”says Lucy, “that this is the year Jane wrote the fi rst draft ofPride and Prejudice. In fi ction she could make sure the poor but clever heroine won both the man and his impressive house.”

[7]The Austens struggled fi nancially;they were gentry without the money to fund a genteel lifestyle. They had rich relations but their hopes of a substantial inheritance were never ful fi lled.

“Jane Austen’s novels revolve around homes lost and mansions gained, the threat of poverty and the promise of wealth,” explains Lucy, whose latest bookJane Austen At Home—released for the 200th anniversary of her death—charts3chart记录。Jane’s experiences as a poor relation.

[8]Her life began in 1775 at Steventon Rectory in Hampshire where she would spend 25 years—more than half her life—living in the house where she was born. George Austen, her father,was a clergyman-farmer and boosted his income to £1,000 a year by running a boarding school.

[9]There were servants, but Jane’s mother still had her hands full with eight children. Not that they were all at home. Jane’s brother Edward was adopted as a teenager by wealthy childless cousins—common at the time to advance a relative’s prospects—who made him their heir. Another brother, George,who was epileptic, lived with a foster family, paid for by the Austens.

[10] As a young woman, Jane had an allowance of £20 a year from her father,which had to cover everything except board and lodging. When Mr. Austen decided to retire to Bath in 1801, when Jane was 25 and Cassandra 28, they had no choice but to tag along. Jane fainted when she was told.

[11] They took lodgings at 4 Sydney Place, still available to rent today as holiday flats. The £150 annual rent made quite a dent in Mr. Austen’s income, and when the lease ran out they moved down-market to a house they had rejected as being damp. Soon Mr.Austen fell ill, possibly from malaria,known as ‘the ague’ and rife in Britain then. He died in January 1805.

[12] It was the start of a downward spiral4spiral逐渐加速上升（下降）。for his widow and daughters,who were reduced to living on the charity of their male relations. They left Bath in July 1806 for Southampton, on the very same day that a wealthy old lady died: the Honourable Mary Leigh,mistress of Stoneleigh Abbey in Warwickshire and a distant cousin of Jane’s mother.

[13] The women hurried there in an unedifying5unedifying讨厌的。scramble6scramble争抢。to claim part of this potentially life-changing inheritance.

“It was far and away the grandest mansion in Jane’s life,” says Lucy.There were two prospective heirs: Mrs.Austen’s wealthy cousin the Rev Thomas Leigh and her rich brother James.

[14] Jane’s uncle James struck a deal to give up his claim to Stoneleigh in exchange for the enormous sum of£24,000, plus £2,000 a year for life. The bulk of the estate, which by the mid-Victorian era was worth £30,000 a year,went to the cousin and the Austens left without a penny.

[15] At the lowest ebb of her fortunes,Jane became a ‘visiting aunt’, earning her keep on long stays with her brother Edward by entertaining his children.Edward had an income of £15,000 a year thanks to his adoptive family; more than Jane’s fi ctional Mr. Darcy.

[16] Jane enjoyed the luxury of his home, Godmersham Park in Kent(thought to be the inspiration for Mr.Darcy’s Pemberley), but was embarrassed at being unable to tip the servants properly. Even the visiting hairdresser noticed and gave her a cut-price haircut.

[17] After the death of his wife, Edward decided to spend more time at his other property, Chawton House in Hampshire, and offered his mother and sisters a rent-free cottage nearby. Here was a home at last. In 1811, Jane’s fi rst book was published—Sense and Sensibility, the story of sisters who lose their home. It made £140, enough to keep her for three years.

[18] And yet Jane could have married and had a home of her own. She had her chances. As Lucy points out,she accepted one proposal from Harris Bigg-Wither, heir to a large estate, then turned it down in a panic.

[19] When it came down to it, Jane Austen was no romantic: a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife—a single woman of ambition might get along better without him.

朴茨茅斯伯爵一家在其位于汉普郡的赫斯特伯恩庄园举办舞会，简·奥斯丁跳了一夜舞，第二天早上醒来，宿醉得厉害。

[2]英国人民万万想不到，他们最喜爱的女作家竟会如此。

[3] 1800年11月，就在那天早上，24岁的简写信给姐姐卡桑德拉：“我想我昨晚喝多了……不然今天我的手不会那么抖。”

她在信中斥责她的舞伴们，对女士很刻薄，尤其是其中的三位：“我受不了她们的口臭，但又不能失了礼节。”

[4]可怜的简；想必那时，她就已清楚意识到，想要在汉普郡有限的社交圈子里遇见她的“达西先生”，恐怕没什么指望了，她这一辈子都是在汉普郡度过的。（那个星期，除了那次舞会，她的另一场社交活动就是和邻居共进晚餐、玩玩牌，还听人朗读了关于牛痘的小册子。）

[5]所谓舞会，可能就是把家里的地毯卷一卷，邀请三五邻里跳上一曲。

BBC2频道新推出的纪录片《简·奥斯丁：作家与故居》中，历史学家露西·沃斯利走访了简的故居，试图发现故居对简的影响。露西说：“也就是说，简去参加舞会，看到的大多是熟人，很少有新面孔。”

[6] 1796年，简在舞会上认识了一个有趣的年轻人汤姆·勒弗罗伊。汤姆是爱尔兰人，法学学生，当时在汉普郡度假。不幸的是，他们俩显然不会走到一起。

汤姆有十个兄弟姐妹，作为家里的长子，他得娶个富家女，而简只是一个乡村牧师的女儿，所以也只能和她玩玩罢了。

露西说：“简那年刚好写了《傲慢与偏见》的初稿，我认为这不是巧合。至少在小说中，她能确保贫穷但聪明的女主人公可以赢得那个男人以及他的大房子。”

[7]奥斯丁一家经济上十分窘迫，虽是乡绅家庭，却没钱过上体面的生活。他们也一直想从富有的亲戚那里继承一笔可观的遗产，可惜好梦从没做成。

露西解释说：“因此，简·奥斯丁的小说都会涉及失去房子与得到庄园、贫困造成的威胁与财富带来的希望。”为纪念简·奥斯丁逝世200周年，露西发表了新作《简·奥斯丁的家庭生活：一部传记》，讲述了简作为穷亲戚的一些经历。

[8]简·奥斯丁于1775年出生于汉普郡斯蒂文顿镇，随后在出生的房子里住了大半辈子（25年）。她的父亲乔治·奥斯丁是一位农民兼牧师，还经办了一所寄宿学校，年收入由此增至1000英镑。

[9]虽然家里有仆人，但简的母亲依然还是围着八个孩子忙得团团转。不过，不是八个孩子都住在家里。简的哥哥爱德华年少时被有钱无子嗣的表亲家领养做继承人，以延续香火，这种情况在当时很常见。另一个哥哥乔治患有癫痫症，由家里出钱寄养在另一户人家。

[10]作为未出嫁的女儿，简每年只有父亲给的20英镑零花钱，用作吃住以外的所有开销。1801年，奥斯丁先生决定退休并搬去巴思住。刚得知父亲的决定时，简和卡桑德拉都很难过，简甚至晕了过去，但两姐妹别无选择，只能跟随父母去巴思。那年，简25岁，卡桑德拉28岁。

[11]奥斯丁一家搬到巴思后住在悉尼公寓4号（目前该公寓还在，可租用度假）。租金每年150英镑，花掉了奥斯丁先生收入的好大一部分，所以租期一到，奥斯丁一家便搬到了另一处住所，那里要低一个档次，当初他们曾因这处房子潮湿而没有租赁。没过多久，奥斯丁先生就病了，得的可能是当时正肆虐英国的疟疾。他于1805年1月去世。

[12]在那之后，奥斯丁夫人和女儿的境遇每况愈下，最后只能靠男性亲戚接济度日。1806年7月的一天，她们离开了巴思，前往南安普敦。正是在那一天，奥斯丁夫人年迈的远方表亲玛丽·利女士去世，她是沃里克郡斯通莱庄园的女主人，非常富有。

[13]母女三人急忙赶去，企图争夺部分遗产，虽然很不光彩，但却可能改变她们的生活。

露西说：“那是简这辈子见过的最宏伟的庄园。”庄园的继承人有两位：奥斯丁夫人的表亲托马斯·利牧师和她哥哥詹姆斯，两人都十分富有。

[14]简的舅舅詹姆斯最后放弃了斯通莱庄园的继承权，以换取一笔24000英镑的巨款，另外，在他有生之年，每年还能获得2000英镑。就这样，这栋在维多利亚时代中期年收入高达30000英镑的房产最后由托马斯继承，奥斯丁一家空手而归。

[15]日子最艰难的时候，简长期住在哥哥爱德华家，照顾他的孩子，做起了“陪同姑姑”并以此度日。爱德华继承了养父母的遗产，年收入多达15000英镑，比她小说中的达西先生还多。

[16]简很喜欢爱德华的豪华住所——位于肯特的古德汉姆庄园（被认为是达西先生彭伯利庄园的原型），但是因为无法给仆人合适的小费，简有些尴尬。即便是上门服务的理发师也注意到了，帮她理发时还给了优惠价。

[17]妻子去世后，爱德华决定在其位于汉普郡的查顿庄园长住，还在附近为他的生母和两个妹妹提供了一座村舍，没要租金。母女三人总算又有了家。1811年，简的第一本书《理智与情感》出版，讲述姐妹俩失去住房的故事。简拿到了140英镑的稿费，够她三年的生活费。

[18]事实上，简本来是有机会结婚并拥有自己的家庭的。露西指出，简曾接受巨额遗产继承人哈里斯·彼格-威瑟的求婚，但随后又慌忙拒绝了。

[19]归根结底，简·奥斯丁并不浪漫：“凡是有钱的单身汉，总想娶位太太”，而有抱负的未婚女不嫁，也许过得更好。

傲慢与贫穷

文/玛丽·格林译/谭云飞

（译者单位：对外经济贸易大学英语学院）