Jane Austen: Newly acquired letters go on show at museum

Two letters written by Jane Austen have gone on public display for the first time.

In one, she tells her sister she would "flirt my last" with a young Irishman, Tom Lefroy, and a later letter discusses a visit to London.

The newly acquired letters are jointly owned by the Bodleian Library and are on display at the Jane Austen House Museum in Chawton, Hampshire.

Director Lizzie Dunford described them as "windows into Jane's life"

The museum's Jane Austen in Love exhibition explores Jane's relationship with Tom Lefroy, a handsome young Irishman, when they were both 20 years old.

Soon after her flirtation with Lefroy, Jane began writing First Impressions - later published as Pride and Prejudice - and created the character Mr Darcy.

In the letter, dated January 1796 Jane told her sister Cassandra "I am to flirt my last with Tom Lefroy".

Museum curator Sophie Reynolds said: "It's thrilling to show Tom Lefroy's portrait alongside the very letter in which Jane Austen tells her sister she is going to 'dance her last' with him.

"It's a bright, sparkling letter that could have been written by Lizzy Bennet herself."

The other letter was written by the author, then aged 37, to Cassandra on 15-16 September 1813, from their brother Henry's house in Henrietta Street, Covent Garden.

In the long, chatty letter she reveals the details of everyday life, from shopping trips and visits to the theatre, to a hair appointment and a painful trip to the dentist.

The letters are part of the Blavatnik-Honresfield Library which was saved for the nation by the Friends of the National Libraries (FNL) which purchased and then donated every manuscript and printed book to writers' houses and libraries across the UK.

Jane Austen in Love and Jane Austen in London will be on display until 5 March 2023.

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