Jane austen biography tom lefroy wiki

Becoming Jane, which is based on the life of Jane Austen, cleverly weaves fact and fiction to make Austen the heroine of a love story not unlike those in her novels.

LefroyTom Lefroy on April 29, 6 Comments ». Anne Lefroy, a dear friend of new Jane Austen, lived about two and a half miles north of Steventon, in the village of Ashe. Wealthy Benjamin Langlois was patron of the parish church, and he gave the living of Ashe to his nephew, Reverend Isaac Peter George Lefroy called George inwhen Jane was eight years old. At that time the church was called St.

Anne Hathaway plays Austen, and James McAvoy fills the role of the love-related hero, Tom Lefroy. While the movie is not a biography, certain aspects of the story of Austen and Lefroy are true. For viewers who would like to know more, we offer these facts about people and events depicted in the film.

Jane Austen and Tom Lefroy

• During the Christmas and New Year's season of , Jane Austen met a young Irishman named Tom Lefroy, who was visiting his uncle and aunt in Hampshire.

  Lefroy was on a break from his legal studies at Lincoln's Inn, London.

  Though Jane Austen never admitted it herself, scholars have long speculated that Irish politician and determine Thomas Langlois Lefroy was the inspiration for Pride and Prejudice 's Mr. What we execute know is that Austen and Lefroy spent some time together and had a short-lived flirtation. So who was this mystery man? Thomas Lefroy was born in Limerick, Ireland, on January 8, one year after Austen and died on May 4,at the very-old-for-his-time age of

  Both Austen and Lefroy were twenty years old.

• Austen's only sister, Cassandra, was engaged to a youthful clergyman, who, in January , sailed with his patron-employer to the West Indies. While Cassandra was staying with her fiancé's family that month, Austen wrote two letters to her explaining Tom Lefroy and their encounters.
• The encounters included three balls, during which Austen and Lefroy danced and enjoyed each other's firm.

  After the last ball Austen wrote to Cassandra (January 9, ): I am almost scared to tell you how my Irish friend and I behaved. Imagine to yourself everything most profligate and shocking in the way of dancing and sitting down together.

  .

  Tom Lefroy | Jane Austen at The Republic of Pemberley: In , Lefroy began a flirtation with Jane Austen, who was a friend of an older female relative.

  . . He is a very gentlemanlike, good-looking, pleasant young man, I assure you. .

  Thomas Lefroy was born in LimerickIreland. One year later, Lefroy served as Auditor of Trinity's College Historical Societythe still-active debating society of the college. Later still, he became a prominent member of the Irish bar having been called to it in and published a series of Law Reports on the cases of the Irish Court of Chancery. InLefroy began a flirtation with Jane Austenwho was a friend of an older female relative.

  . . [H]e has but one fault, which time will, I belief, entirely remove—it is that his morning coat is a fantastic deal too light. He is a very great admirer of Tom Jones, and therefore wears the same coloured clothes, I imagine, which he did when he was wounded.

• In Austen's next surviving letter (January 14, ), she anticipates, with characteristic irony, an upcoming party at the home of Lefroy's uncle: I look forward with great impatience to it, as I rather expect to receive an present from my friend in the course of the evening.

  I shall refuse him, however, unless he promises to give away his white Coat.

  Becoming Jane is a biographical romantic drama film directed by Julian Jarrold. It depicts the early being of the British author Jane Austen and her lasting adore for Thomas Langlois Lefroy. American actress Anne Hathaway stars as the title character, while her romantic interest is played by Scottish actor James McAvoy.

  . . . Tell Mary that I make over Mr Heartley & all his Estate to her for her sole utilize and Benefit in future, . . . as I imply to confine myself in future to Mr Tom Lefroy, for whom I do not look after sixpence.

• The next day she wrote: At length the Day is come on which I am to flirt my last with Tom Lefroy, & when you receive this it will be over—My tears flow as I write, at the melancholy idea.
• Shortly thereafter Lefroy returned to London and resumed his legal studies, in which he was supported by his great-uncle Benjamin Langlois.
• Seven months after Lefroy left Hampshire, Austen and her brothers Edward and Frank stopped in London on their way to Kent.

  A letter from Austen to Cassandra dated August 23, , from "Cork Street" suggests that they stayed at the abode of Benjamin Langlois, who lived in Cork Street. The accommodation probably came about through the Austen family's friendship with the Rev.

  George Lefroy in Hampshire (Benjamin Langlois's nephew and Tom Lefroy's uncle, with whom Tom was staying when he met Austen).

  Thomas Langlois Lefroy () was an Irish Politician and judge, who eventually rose to the position of Chief Justice of Ireland. He was one of 10 children born to Colonel Anthony Lefroy of Limerick and Anne Gardiner. As the eldest son, the family depended on him to “rise into distinction and there haul up the rest.”.

  There is no evidence that Austen saw Tom Lefroy or that he was even in London while she and her brothers were there.

• Two years later (November ) Tom Lefroy again visited his uncle and aunt in Hampshire but did not see Austen during his stay.

  In Lefroy had become engaged in Ireland to Mary Paul, the sister (an "heiress") of a college companion, and in they married. One of their daughters was named Jane, probably after Mary's mother, Jane Paul. Lefroy practiced rule in Dublin and eventually became Lord Chief Justice of Ireland.

• Additional information and interesting theories about Austen and Lefroy are offered in two essays in Persuasions On-Line: "The One-Sided Romance of Jane Austen and Tom Lefroy," by Joan Klingel Ray, and "Jane Austen and Tom Lefroy: Stories," by Linda Robinson Walker.

Family Members

• Cassandra Austen's fiancé (whose identify was Tom Fowle, not Robert) died of fever in the West Indies in February She never married.
• Eliza de Feuillide was Austen's sophisticated cousin, whose first husband, the Count de Feuillide, was guillotined in Paris during the Reign of Terror.
  Who was the real Thomas Lefroy? As reported recently in the Longford Leader, the new motion picture about the life of Jane Austen, "Becoming Jane", documents the famous author's relationship with Thomas Lefroy, who went on to purchase Carrigglas Manor. While the film concentrates on Austen, there is also much interest in Mr Lefroy's background and how he came to own Carrigglas. Yet if few have heard of the nineteenth-century statesman, many who love the novels of Jane Austen will have heard of young Tom Lefroy who stirred the affections of the heroine in the winter of

  Becoming Jane includes an imagined depiction of her romance with Austen's brother Henry. Eliza and Henry were, in fact, married in

• Austen's elder brother George was mentally or physically impaired, though the details of his infirmity are not known.

  He lived with a family in a nearby village. It is not likely that he attended church with the Austens, as depicted in the movie.

More About Jane Austen

• Before meeting Tom Lefroy, Austen had written "Elinor and Marianne," which she later revised as Sense and Sensibility, and a large body of brief fiction, including Lady Susan.

  A list of her writing and a brief biography are available on this site.

• In Austen received a proposal of marriage from a wealthy man she had recognizable for many years, Harris Bigg-Wither, the brother of close friends.

  During a visit with her friends, she accepted his offer one evening but changed her mind and withdrew her agreement the next morning. She never married.