Overview
Jane Austen and Cassandra Austen were the closest of sisters from early childhood. Cassandra was the most important person in Jane’s life. Jane admired and depended on her older sister, who was deeply devoted to her in return.
The sisters shared the same education, interests, friends, and Christian faith, and they supported one another through emotional upheavals and family difficulties. Most importantly, Cassandra, who was entrusted with Jane’s rich imaginative world, encouraged and sustained her literary ambitions throughout her life.
The Austen Girls explores the lives of the Austen sisters and traces their relationship across Jane’s lifetime and literary career, ending with her premature death at the age of forty-one. It also examines Cassandra’s life after the loss of her beloved sister.
“I, Jane Austen of the Parish of Chawton, do give and bequeath to my dearest Sister Cassandra Elizabeth everything of which I may die possessed, or which may hereafter be due to me. I appoint my said dear Sister the Executrix of this my last Will and Testament.” —Jane Austen, 27 April 1817
The bequest included the manuscripts of Jane’s unpublished and unfinished novels, placing Cassandra at the heart of her sister’s literary legacy.
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