Anna Lefroy (née Jane Anna Elizabeth Austen; 1793–1872) was the niece of Jane Austen by her eldest brother James Austen, and a contributor to her life-history via the so-called Lefroy MS. A keen if amateur writer herself, Anna was the recipient of the most revealing of Austen's letters on literary matters.
[1] Known in family tradition as a naughty child,[2] Anna became a lively, outgoing and changeable adolescent – "quite an Anna with variations" as her Aunt put it (startled by the unexpected cropping of her niece's hair).
[4] The marriage seems to have been a successful one, and by 1817 the pair had two young daughters, and Anna was apparently pregnant again: "Poor Animal, she will be worn out before she is thirty", wrote her aunt.
[6] Niece and aunt had bonded over a love of 'bad' romantic fiction, such as that by Rachel Hunter; and when during her engagement Anna began writing a novel – known as Enthusiasm or Which is the Heroine?
[7] Anna also tried her hand at continuing an early Austen story called 'Evelyn';[8] as well as (later) the unfinished Sanditon.