A Memoir of Jane Austen

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Observations on the Novels
the bee has sucked; yet it is not a reproduction of the odour or
flavour of any particular flower, but becomes something different
when it has gone through the process of transformation which
that little insect is able to effect. Hence, in the case of painters,
arises the superiority of original compositions over portrait painting.
Reynolds was exercising a higher faculty when he designed
Comedy and Tragedy contending for Garrick, than when he
merely took a likeness of that actor.° The same difference exists in
writings between the original conceptions of Shakspeare and
some other creative geniuses, and such full-length likenesses of
individual persons, ‘The Talking Gentleman’ for instance, as are
admirably drawn by Miss Mitford.° Jane Austen’s powers, whatever
may be the degree in which she possessed them, were certainly
of that higher order. She did not copy individuals, but she
invested her own creations with individuality of character. A
reviewer in the ‘Quarterly’° speaks of an acquaintance who, ever
since the publication of ‘Pride and Prejudice,’ had been called by
his friends Mr. Bennet, but the author did not know him. Her
own relations never recognised any individual in her characters;
and I can call to mind several of her acquaintance whose peculiarities
were very tempting and easy to be caricatured of whom there
are no traces in her pages. She herself, when questioned on the
subject by a friend,° expressed a dread of what she called such an
‘invasion of social proprieties.’ She said that she thought it quite
fair to note peculiarities and weaknesses, but that it was her desire
to create, not to reproduce; ‘besides,’ she added, ‘I am too proud
of my gentlemen to admit that they were only Mr. A. or Colonel
B.’ She did not, however, suppose that her imaginary characters
were of a higher order than are to be found in nature; for she said,
when speaking of two of her great favourites, Edmund Bertram
and Mr. Knightley: ‘They are very far from being what I know
English gentlemen often are.’
She certainly took a kind of parental interest in the beings
whom she had created, and did not dismiss them from her
thoughts when she had finished her last chapter. We have seen, in
one of her letters, her personal affection for Darcy and Elizabeth;°
and when sending a copy of ‘Emma’ to a friend whose daughter