Jane Austen's House
Chawton · UK
Jane Austen's House in the Hampshire village of Chawton is the modest red-brick cottage where Austen lived from 1809 until 1817, the eight years in which she revised and published all six of her major novels — Sense and Sensibility, Pride and Prejudice, Mansfield Park, Emma, Northanger Abbey, and Persuasion. She worked at a small twelve-sided writing table in the dining parlour, rising early before the rest of the household, writing on small pieces of paper that could be easily concealed.
The house is particularly notable for the survival of personal objects: the original writing table, letters, a turquoise beaded ring, a lock of hair. The interiors have been carefully restored to their Regency appearance and the garden recreated with period-appropriate planting. The influence of the close, watchful Hampshire society that Austen observed and transformed is evident in the domestic scale of every room.
Visiting Jane Austen's House is one of the most intimate literary experiences in England. The scale is domestic, the atmosphere warm, and the connection between the rooms and the fiction quite direct. Allow ninety minutes to two hours.
Reviews
The writing table — where she sat every morning before breakfast to revise her novels — is deeply moving. Small, domestic, and completely real. One of England's most important literary houses.
Everything you hope for. The rooms are beautifully presented and the personal objects bring Austen out of the literary pantheon and into vivid human reality. The garden is lovely too.
A wonderful, intimate museum. The guides are knowledgeable and passionate. The village of Chawton itself is pleasant to walk around. Pair with a visit to Winchester Cathedral to see Austen's grave.
The writing table — where she sat every morning before breakfast to revise her novels — is deeply moving. Small, domestic, and completely real. One of England's most important literary houses.
