In the spring of 1801 Jane Austen was coming to terms with the imminent loss of her home at Steventon Rectory and the dispersal of her father’s library. Jane had been allowed free range of her father’s collection of books since she was a small child and the necessity for their sale must have caused her great distress.

There is a distinct bitterness in some of the comments she makes in her letters to Cassandra at this time - ‘my father has got above 500 Volumes to dispose of; - I want James to take them at a venture at half a Guinea a volume’ (James was her eldest brother and was to take over from their father as rector at Steventon, moving with his family into the Rectory when his parents and sisters departed for Bath).

‘Mr Bent seems bent upon being very detestable, for he values the books at only 70£. The whole World is in a conspiracy to enrich one part of our family at the expense of another’. (Echoes of the Dashwoods here….?)

I think we can all sympathise with the 25 year old Jane in her unhappiness at saying goodbye to all those companions of her youth. I know I would miss my ever-growing shelves and teetering piles of books (photo below).