Meet Jane Austen’s Mystery Lover!

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oi-Staff

By Staff

Tuesday, July 7, 2009, 17:19

The classic novelist Jane Austen's novels have always fired speculations about her private passions. Now, a new book tracing the life of legendary author Jane Austen has allegedly identifies her mystery suitor. He was the one who broke her heart and sparked off a rift with her sister.

The 2007 film 'Becoming Jane' explored her youthful flirtation with a handsome Irishman named Tom Lefroy. He was the inspiration for the rugged Mr Darcy in 'Pride and Prejudice'. However, a literary historian has claimed that her true love was a clergyman, who first caught Austen's attention in 1798 when he was a guest of their mutual friends, the Lefroys.

In 'Jane Austen: An Unrequited Love', Dr Andrew Norman has revealed the clergyman as Dr Samuel Blackall. His letters to friends disclose his romantic interest in the young author. However Austen took his uncertainty as a snub.

Jane Austen once wrote to her sister Cassandra, "There seems no likelihood of his coming into Hampshire this Christmas, and it is therefore most probably that our indifference will soon be mutual, unless his regard, which appeared to spring from knowing nothing of me at first, is best supported by never seeing me." Nothing else was heard until Jane and her parents went down to the South Devon coast in 1802. After four years the couple renewed their relationship when they accidentally bumped into each other in the market town of Totnes, Devon.

Not many of Austen's letters between 1801 and 1804 are available, which makes it difficult to substantiate the veracity of the relationship. However Austen's novels and poems from around this time support the Blackall theory. There was even a rift between the author and her sister Cassandra as they tried to battle for his affections.

In Norman's opinion, Austen's 1804 book 'The Watsons', detailing a woman's love affair that was destroyed by a sister with "no faith, no honour, no scruples, if she can promote her own advantage" was based on their dispute.