Jane Austen

Jane Austen
Main aliases:	Jane Halidom
Species:	Human
Job:	Writer
Place of origin:	Earth
Spouse:	Rex Halidom
First mentioned in:	The Sorcerer's Apprentice
First appearance:	Frostfire
Appearances:	see list
Main voice actor:	Nathalie Buscombe

Jane Austen, also called Jane Halidom, was a novelist from 18th and 19th century England who was resurrected in the City of the Saved.

Biography

Jane Austen was born c. 1775. (AUDIO: False Coronets) She usually lived a quiet life in Hampshire, her native county. During her life, she would publish six novels; the first two of them, Sense and Sensibility and Pride and Prejudice, had already been printed before her first meeting with the Doctor, albeit anonymously.

In February 1814, as she was visiting her publisher in London, Miss Austen met the First Doctor, Steven Taylor and Vicki Pallister during the Frost Fair, at the tent where a sea captain showed his collection of objects from his travels, including the Phoenix's egg. Austen assisted Vicki when she fainted, because of the bird lurking at her from the egg; when she introduced herself, the Doctor showed great pleasure to meet her, and declared his admiration for all of her novels, to her greatest surpise. After witnessing the disappearance of the Phoenix's egg and the murder of its owner, she hosted the travellers at her brother's house (where she was staying) and accompanied them to Sir Joseph Mallard's (Deputy Warden of the Royal Mint) party, where she danced a gavotte with the Doctor and was a witness to the disappearance of Lady Georgiana, Sir Joseph's wife.

While the Doctor and Steven went looking for Ippolito Valzacchi (an Italian charlatan Vicki saw talk to Georgiana before), she and Vicki traced the egg at St. Cuthbert, a nearby church, with the help of a chimney boy, Jim. Valzacchi tried to hold them hostage for the egg, but the tempestive arrival of the Doctor and Steven, fetched by Jim, prevented that. Miss Austen later contributed to the definitive defeat of the Phoenix, by taking Jim's crowbar and jamming it into the wheel of the Royal Mint's furnace, whose heat the Phoenix was using to hatch the egg and be born. When they parted, she offered the three travellers her hospitality should they ever pass through Hampshire. (AUDIO: Frostfire)

The Sixth Doctor mentioned once having danced a cotillion with Austen, whom he said was a "nifty mover". (AUDIO: The Behemoth) The Eleventh Doctor said Austen was "not much of a kisser" (COMIC: Convention Special) while Clara Oswald later described Austen as a "phenomenal kisser". (TV: The Magician's Apprentice) Clara also said that she and Jane played pranks on one another, and said "Oh, she's the worst, I love her. Take that how you like." (TV: Face the Raven)

The Tenth Doctor visited Austen in Bath, and in a letter to River Song relayed how the two of them hunted werewolves together. The Doctor's description of Austen is uncharacteristically sadistic, keeping trophies from her "victims" and hating vampires on account of them not leaving any trace when killed with a stake. The Doctor is amazed that Austen is able to "wrestle a werewolf" without staining her white lace, and says the two went dancing together afterwards. He then goes on to describe how they overthrew a vampire countess leading "the Sect of Bahl and their deadly gambling den" together, with Austen fashioning a makeshift crucifix out of whalebone stays from her corset. He then says "the assassins of the Silent Shade came for her, but she dispatched them with a crumpet fork." He tells River he'd ask her aboard the Tardis like a shot "if it weren't for the fact she absolutely terrifies me." (AUDIO: Expiry Dating)

Jane was among the notable women of Earth's history who were invited by Missy to join MADAM. (PROSE: Girl Power!)

Cranford was Austen's "last book", which she left unfinished. As a result of its incomplete nature, it never rose to the same fame as other works such as Pride and Prejudice, even though it derived a degree of mystique from its unfinished nature and still had multiple attempted completions and film adaptations. Auteur had a copy of it in her office within the Town, and used it as an analogy to persuade Gideon that it would be a waste of resources laready spent to try and finish her grand ritual too early, even if it was costing the cult much to keep it running to completion. (PROSE: White Canvas)

She was 41 when she died. Jane was resurrected in the City of the Saved, where she appeared as roughly 35 years old and lived in the Sullipsar District. During the Civil War, Jane encouraged her husband Rex Halidom to accept Mayor Ignotus' military summons; when Una duplicated Rex during the mission, he worried that Jane would never learn to accept the fact that there were now two of him. (PROSE: A Hundred Words from a Civil War)

Jane and both versions of her husband were consumed by the Anonymity and restored to life in the second City of the Saved. (PROSE: God Encompasses)

Medium Cornelia Lively claimed that Jane Austen's spirt had inspired some of her published works. However, Cassandra was aware that these claims were fraudulent and the real spirt of Jane Austen wasn't happy. (AUDIO: Mystery Lady)

Undated events

At some point in Austen's life, she had a niece, Fanny Knight. (PROSE: Contributors)

Legacy

While on Avalon, Barbara Wright reminisced about being curled up in bed with a mug of cocoa and reading a treasured book, such as one by Jane Austen. (PROSE: The Sorcerer's Apprentice)

Charley Pollard had read lots of Jane Austen. (AUDIO: Seasons of Fear)

Clara was interrupted by the Twelfth Doctor during a lesson about Pride and Prejudice when he corrected her about the date of writing of the novel. She tried to guess about a rendezvous between the Doctor and the author, but the former countered he knew that as he had read her biography in a copy of the book. (TV: The Caretaker)

In the 79th century, Rex Halidom was a big fan of Austen's novel Persuasion. In 7883, Iris Wildthyme gave Halidom Jane Austen - Complete Works as a parting gift. (PROSE: Battleship Anathema)

Highbury District was largely populated by Jane Austen enthusiasts. (PROSE: Highbury)

Gillian Petra described Darcy Bennett's name as being "plucked straight from the pages of Jane Austen". (PROSE: Erasing Sherlock)

Many assumed that Helen Angove was a "Jane Austen fanatic", but in actuality, she was the reincarnation of Austen's niece, Fanny Knight. (PROSE: Contributors)

When Clara taught Pride and Predjudice to her class, she wrote a quote out from it on her classroom's whiteboard: "It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife." (TV: The Caretaker) Upon meeting Mary Shelley, the author of Frankenstein, Graham O'Brien began quoting the same excerpt, saying "It is a truth universally acknowledged...", but the Thirteenth Doctor stopped him before he got any further, saying that he had the wrong writer. (TV: The Haunting of Villa Diodati)

Emmeline Pepperdine enjoyed the works of Jane Austen. (AUDIO: The Quintessence ^[+]Loading...["The Quintessence (audio story)"])

Alternate timelines

In a timeline where River Song caused time to collapse when she refused to kill the Eleventh Doctor, (TV: The Wedding of River Song) Austen teased of a massacre in her book, Emmerdale, on social media. (PROSE: Just a Minute...)

The Doctor and Clara encountered her in an alternative timeline where Jane lived in a world where the King had been executed, about to be executed herself in 1815. Clara then encountered her in 1800 to stop the republic. (AUDIO: False Coronets)