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An ordinary, small table holds immense significance for visitors of Jane Austen’s House. Lizzie Dunford, the director of the house museum in the village of Chawton, Hampshire, reveals that many people are moved to tears when they see it.
This unassuming wooden table, positioned under the dining room window where stagecoaches used to pass between London and Winchester, is the very spot where Austen wrote and revised her six famous novels. These novels continue to inspire adaptations on stage and screen. Interestingly, a doll on display at the museum is merchandise linked to the 1990s film turned television series, Clueless, which is a modern interpretation of Austen’s Emma.
While visitors pause at the furniture and imagine the creation of beloved characters, it is the red-brick house itself that played the central role in Austen’s literary life. According to Dunford, “It was a permanent home, and that made it vitally important to Austen’s writing”
Austen, born in 1775, lived in Steventon, Hampshire, before moving to Bath following her father’s retirement in 1801. However, after her father’s death in 1805, Austen, along with her mother and sister Cassandra, experienced financial hardships and uncertain living arrangements. It was Edward, the third of Austen’s six brothers, who offered them free use of a house, providing them with the stability they needed.
Dunford notes that although Austen wrote extensively in Steventon, her writing productivity decreased during the following eight years. However, when she moved to Jane Austen’s House, she immediately took out her work, Sense and Sensibility, and commenced revisions. This sense of security and settledness seems to have played a significant role in her creative process.
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