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This exhibition explores the life, work, and legacy of Jane Austen (1775-1817), regarded as one of the greatest English novelists. Over the past two decades, numerous successful motion picture and television adaptations of Austen's novels have led to a resurgence of interest in her life and work. Providing a close-up portrait of Austen, this show achieves tangible intimacy with the author through the presentation of her manuscripts and personal letters, which the Morgan has not exhibited in a generation.
The Morgan's collection of Austen's manuscripts and letters is the largest of any institution in the world and includes the darkly satiric Lady Susan, the only surviving complete manuscript of any of Austen's novels. The exhibition also includes first and early illustrated editions of Austen's novels as well as contemporary drawings and prints depicting people, places, and events of biographical significance. In addition to the literary influences that inspired and informed Austen's works are responses by later writers as diverse as Auden, Kipling, Nabokov, Scott, Woolf, and Yeats. A highlight of the exhibition is a specially commissioned film of contemporary authors and artists, including Fran Lebowitz, Colm Tobin, and Cornel West, commenting on Austen's work and influence will also be shown in the gallery.
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