le for her biographers. Of these fresh sources of
knowledge the set of letters from Jane to Cassandra, edited by Lord
Brabourne, has been by far the most important. These letters are
invaluable as _memoires pour servir_; although they cover only the
comparatively rare periods when the two sisters were separated, and
although Cassandra purposely destroyed many of the letters likely to
prove the most interesting, from a distaste for publicity.

Some further correspondence, and many incidents in the careers of two of
her brothers, may be read in _Jane Austen's Sailor Brothers_, by J. H.
Hubback and Edith C. Hubback; while Miss Constance Hill has been able to
add several family traditions to the interesting topographical
information embodied in her _Jane Austen: Her Homes and Her Friends_.
Nor ought we to forget the careful research shown in other biographies
of the author, especially that by Mr. Oscar Fay Adams.

During the last few years, we have been fortunate enough to be able to
add to this store; and every existing MS. or tradition preserved by the
family, of which we have any knowledge, has been placed at our disposal.

It seemed, therefore, to us that the time had come when a more complete
chronological account of the novelist's life might be laid before the
public, whose interest in Jane Austen (as we readily acknowledge) has
shown no signs of diminishing, either in England or in America.

The _Memoir_ must always remain the one firsthand account of her,
resting on the authority of a nephew who knew her intimately and that of
his two sisters. We could not compete with its vivid personal
recollections; and the last thing we should wish to do, even were it
possible, would be to supersede it. We believe, however, that it needs
to be supplemented, not only because so much additional material has
been brought to light since its publication, but also because the
account given of their aunt by her nephew and nieces could be given only
from their own point of view, while the incidents and characters fall
into a somewhat different perspective if the whole is seen from a
greater distance. Their knowledge of their aunt was during the last
portion of her life, and they knew her best of all in her last year,
when her health was failing and she was living in much seclusion; and
they were not likely to be the recipients of her inmost confidences on
the events and sentiments of her youth.

Hence the emotional and romantic side