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Jane Austen

1775–1817 · Novelist

…the little bit (two inches wide) of ivory on which I work with so fine a brush, as produces little effect after much labour.
How could I possibly join them on to the little bit (two inches wide) of ivory on which I work with so fine a brush, as produces little effect after much labour?
Jane Austen · letter to her nephew, 1816

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Jane Austen wrote this in December 1816 to her nephew, who was writing a novel of his own. His chapters were bold and broad, she teased; hers were miniatures, painted on a little bit of ivory, slowly.

She described her own novels this way: small, exact, and made with great care.

Letter to her nephew James Edward Austen, Chawton, 16 December 1816. William and Richard Arthur Austen-Leigh, Jane Austen: Her Life and Letters, a Family Record (London: Smith, Elder, 1913), p. 378.

The originals

Pencil and watercolour sketch of Jane Austen in a cap, arms folded — **The likeness**DRAWN BY CASSANDRA AUSTEN · c. 1810Our portrait is painted after it.Public domain (pencil and watercolour by her sister, c. 1810, National Portrait Gallery, London; the NPG claims copyright in its photographs, which Commons does not accept).

The title page of Pride and Prejudice, 1813, by the author of Sense and Sensibility — **Pride and Prejudice, 1813**The first edition, published without her name: "by the author of Sense and Sensibility". Her books appeared anonymously in her lifetime.Pride and Prejudice, vol. I, first edition (London: T. Egerton, 1813), title page. Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.