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It is a truth universally acknowledged that Jane Austen was, from her teens, a great admirer of Mary, Queen of Scots. Austen’s The History of England(1791), together with her marginalia in Vicesimus Knox’s Elegant Extracts, shows her reaction both against the prevalent view of the Scottish queen and against the two types of historical writing seen in the late-eighteenth century: one is what Catherine Morland famously calls “‘real solemn history’” (NA109) and the other, new type of historical writing like Hume’s, Robertson’s, and Goldsmith’s. Probably because her enthusiasm for the queen is so obvious in these works, there hasn’t been much study of her interest in the queen. Critics mostly have considered it as an example of Jane Austen’s sympathy for the Stuart cause rather than an interest in Mary as an individual. For instance, Brigid Brophy points out Jane’s interest and self-identification with Mary but treats the queen as representing the tragic fate of the Stuart monarchy (27).
I will explore Jane Austen’s early writings to clarify how her interest in history from an early age had a lasting influence on her works, with particular focus on her enthusiasm for Mary, Queen of Scots. Although young Jane passionately reacted against any critical comments on the Scottish queen in the excerpt from Robertson’s popular The History of Scotland in Elegant Extracts, we can clearly see its influence on her own historical writing in The History of England. She adopts the romanticized image of Mary created by Robertson: Mary as an attractive, open-hearted, and passionate woman. Furthermore, the figure of Mary takes a new turn and is made into a fictional character, the heroine of a novel Catharine, or the Bower (1792). Examining the similarities among Robertson’s Mary, Austen’s Mary, and Catharine will help us think about why Jane Austen was so much attracted to the historical figure of Mary, Queen of Scots, and allow us to trace how Austen’s interest in historical writing develops into a new direction for her fiction.
Catherine’s and Eleanor’s views on historical writing
In Northanger Abbey, Catherine’s country-bred naïvet and inexperience are often comically dramatized. The conversation while walking round Beechen Cliff is also part of an episode that contrasts her immaturity in...