Jane Austen by Virginia Woolf

It is probable that if Miss Cassandra Austen had had her way, we should / have had nothing of Jane Austen's except her novels. To her elder sister / alone did she write freely; to her alone she confided her hopes and, if / rumour is true, the one great disappointment of her life; but when Miss / Cassandra Austen grew old, and the growth of her sister's fame made her / suspect that a time might come when strangers would pry and scholars / speculate, she burnt, at great cost to herself, every letter that could / gratify their curiosity, and spared only what she judged too trivial to / be of interest.

Hence our knowledge of Jane Austen is derived from a little gossip, a / few letters, and her books. As for the gossip, gossip which has survived / its day is never despicable; with a little rearrangement it suits our / purpose admirably. For example, Jane "is not at all pretty and very / prim, unlike a girl of twelve. Jane is whimsical and affected," / says little Philadelphia Austen of her cousin. Then we have Mrs. / Mitford, who knew the Austens as girls and thought Jane "the prettiest, / silliest, most affected, husband-hunting butterfly she ever remembers". / Next, there is Miss Mitford's anonymous friend "who visits her now [and] / says that she has stiffened into the most perpendicular, precise, / taciturn piece of 'single blessedness' that ever existed, and that, / until _Pride and Prejudice_ showed what a precious gem was hidden in / that unbending case, she was no more regarded in society than a poker or / firescreen. The case is very different now," the good lady goes on; / "she is still a poker -- but a poker of whom everybody is afraid. / A wit, a delineator of character, who does not talk is terrific / indeed! " On the other side, of course, there are the Austens, a race / little given to panegyric of themselves, but nevertheless, they say, her / brothers "were very fond and very proud of her. They were attached to / her by her talents, her virtues, and her engaging manners, and each / loved afterwards to fancy a resemblance in some niece or daughter of his / own to the dear sister Jane, whose perfect equal they yet never expected / to see. " Charming but perpendicular, loved at home but feared by / strangers, biting of tongue but tender of heart -- these contrasts are by / no means incompatible, and when we turn to the novels we shall find / ourselves stumbling there too over the same complexities in the writer.