Anna Austen Lefroy


Anna Austen Lefroy was the niece of Jane Austen, and a contributor to her life-history via the so-called Lefroy MS.
A keen if amateur writer herself, Anna was the recipient of the most revealing of Austen's letters on literary matters.

Life

Known in family tradition as a naughty child, Anna became a lively, outgoing and changeable adolescent - "quite an Anna with variations" as her Aunt put it.
At the age of twenty, Anna became engaged to a family connection, Benjamin Lefroy, and despite family opposition the pair were married in 1814. The marriage seems to have been a successful one, and by 1817 the pair had two young daughters, and Anna was apparently expecting again: "Poor Animal, she will be worn out before she is thirty", wrote her Aunt. The couple had seven children in all, before Anna lost her husband in 1829.

Writings

Niece and aunt had bonded over a love of 'bad' romantic fiction, such as that by Rachel Hunter; and when during her engagement Anna began writing a novel - known as Enthusiasm or Which is the Heroine? - it was natural for her to share it with her aunt.
Anna also tried her hand at continuing an early Austen story called 'Evelyn'; as well as the unfinished Sanditon.