Jane Austen's Sailor Brothers

There is an extract from one of his letters to Jane at this time dated May 6 1815 from Palermo which shows something of the degree of popularity which her books had then attained. Books became the subject of conversation and I praised ''Waverley'' highly when a young man present observed that nothing had come out for years to be compared with ''Pride and Prejudice'' ''Sense and Sensibility'' &c. As I am sure you must be anxious to know the name of a person of so much taste I shall tell you it is Fox a nephew of the late Charles James Fox. That you may not be too much elated at this morsel of praise I shall add that he did not appear to like ''Mansfield Park'' so well as the two first in which however I believe he is singular.Early in 1816 Jane''s health began to fail and she grew gradually weaker until she died in July 1817. There is a letter from her to Charles dated from Chawton on April 6 1817 which is inscribed in his handwriting My last letter from dearest Jane. It is full of courage even through its weariness. Most of it relates to purely family matters but the tenor of it all is the samethat of patient cheerfulness:My DEAREST CHARLESMany thanks for your affectionate letter. I was in your debt before but I have really been too unwell the last fortnight to write anything that was not absolutely necessary. . . . There was no standing Mrs. Cooke''s affectionate way of speaking of your countenance after her seeing you. God bless you all. Conclude me to be going on well if you hear nothing to the contrary. Yours ever trulyJ. A.