Jane Austen and the Art of Writing

A brand-new permanent exhibition, Jane Austen and the Art of Writing celebrates Jane Austen as a ground-breaking and ambitious writer in the very house where she created her six beloved novels – directly linking Jane Austen’s creative process with the domestic space from which it came.

Drawing on the House’s extraordinary collection, this exhibition celebrates Jane Austen’s creative genius and shows how seriously she took her craft, animating and sharing the physical and mental processes she used to develop her works – from her earliest teenage writings to her mature novels, inspirations, pioneering techniques, and publication.

The exhibition showcases objects that are believed to have inspired her writings, including the topaz crosses that were gifted to Jane and her sister Cassandra by their sailor brother Charles in 1804, and which inspired the amber cross gifted to Fanny Price by her sailor brother William in Mansfield Park. It also explores Jane’s wide and eclectic reading, gleans details about Jane’s creative practice from the manuscript of The Watsons, held by the Bodleian Library, and explores the business of publishing.

 At the centre of the exhibition is a full set of first editions of Jane Austen’s novels – which are very rarely seen together.

Jane Austen and the Art of Writing opens on Wednesday 9 October 2024 and is free with House entry!