Jane Austen Quote of the Week 204

The auction and selling of Jane Austen’s ring (I still ponder over its final value of GBP 152,450!) made me realise how fine Jane’s taste of exquisite things was. So I browsed around her letter today and found a letter she wrote to Cassandra, dated 1 November 1800, exactly 63 years before Eleanor Austen bequeathed the now-famous ring to Caroline Austen. Here’s the quote, taken from Le Faye’s Jane Austen’s Letters page 52:

‘Your abuse of our Gowns amuses, but does not discourage me; I shall take mine to be made up next week, & the more I look at it, the better it pleases me. – My Cloak came on tuesday,& tho’ I expected a good deal, the beauty of the lace astonished me. – It is too handsome to be worn, almost too handsome to be looked at. – The Glass is all safely arrived also, & gives great satisfaction.’

Now I’m wishing that the cloak Jane talked about here survived the age... but perhaps it’s a thinking too wishful for the reality. But I now am certain that Jane was a tad of fashionista herself. Perhaps not as lavishly as Marianne Dashwood would dress herself up, but certainly, Jane was not a plain Jane.

Pic: a pretty 1820s Regency cloak