Jane Austen: A Partial and Prejudiced Historian
On the 250th anniversary of her birth, Jane Austen still has lessons for readers of history.
Henry IV ascended the throne of England much to his own satisfaction in the year 1399.
As opening lines for a history go, this is an excellent one. Its author was the teenage Jane Austen, in a lively short piece she wrote for the entertainment of her family: The History of England from the Reign of Henry IV to Charles I, by – as Austen gleefully proclaims herself – ‘a partial, prejudiced and ignorant historian’.
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