In October 1791 one of Jane Austen's cousins, Philadelphia Walter wrote of another cousin: 'Poor Eliza must be left at last friendless and alone. The gay dissipated life she has long and so plentiful a share of has not ensur'd her friends among the worthy; on the contrary many who otherwise have regarded her have blamed her conduct and will now resign her acquaintance. I have always felt concerned and pitied her thoughtlessness. I have frequnetly looked forward to the approaching awful period, and regretted her manner of life ... I have just wrote to assure her she may command my services.' Poor Eliza - the Comtesse de Feuillide - had just lost her mother, her husband had been executed in the French Revolution and she was then alone with her adored, disabled son Hastings.

In Jane Austen's Outlandish Cousin Deirdre Le Faye uses Eliza's surviving letters to Philadelphia Walter to write 'a short biography ... almost in the form of one of the epistolary novels that were so popular, that gives Eliza her own place in late eighteenth-century society as well as showing how her adventurous life engaged with that of Jane Austen's family in the quiet country parsonage'. One can almost hear Austen listening and taking some of Eliza's comments for later use in her juvenilia, burlesques and perhaps Manfield Park's Mary Crawford. Eliza was a lazy correspondent and defended herself: 'Do not however suppose that I dislike receiving letters, for nothing gives me more pleasure, and if my friends would be contented to write without requiring answers I should like to hear from them seven times a week.' On temptation: 'I certainly do feel a very strange propensity towards revisiting that retired, quiet spot usually called Brighton and perhaps in this case as in many others the only effecutal means of getting rid of the temptation, will be to give way to it.'

Flirtatious, funny and charming as these letters are they also incredibly moving. Le Faye also includes letters from Eliza's father in India. Mr Hancock was ill and unsuccessful but all he could think of was his wife and daughter back in England when their letters took a year to arrive. Mrs Hancock's later painful death is movingly told through Eliza's letters. These are interludes of sadness in a minor but sparkling life of 'Tea drinking, Concert & Ball' and one in which, despite her cousin's predictions, she was never friendless or alone.

Jane Austen’s ‘Outlandish Cousin’ – is a collection of letters Eliza De Fueillide wrote to her and Jane Austen’s first cousin Philadelphia “Phylly” Walter throughout most of her adult life. Also included are Eliza’s mother Philadelphia Austen letters to her husband Tysoe Saul Hancock during Eliza’s childhood outlining his directions for her upbringing and education.

Born Elizabeth Hancock in Calcutta, India in December of 1761, Eliza’s family journeyed to England in 1765, her father later returned back to India, only to die in 1775 leaving Eliza and her mother with limited financial resources.

After Eliza’s father’s death, she and her mother moved to France where Eliza’s letters to Phylly begin in 1780 when Eliza was approximately nineteen years old.

In the first letter that was preserved Eliza writes of her visit to the royal court and of her description of Marie Antoinette. The richness and texture of the event’s description was all too brief as is her recounting of the first balloon launch at Versailles in 1784.

Unfortunately most of the significant events describing Eliza’s life, like her first marriage to De Fueillide, and her husband’s life in France after she, their infant son and her mother had left France for England in 1786, have been lost. As well as the circumstances surrounding her husband’s association with the royal family during the French Revolution and his subsequent death.

The letters that had been preserved by Phylly, mostly of Eliza’s life in England are however fascinating and at times I found myself forgetting that I was reading words written by a living person and not the life of one of Jane Austen’s fictional characters.

Eliza’s letters mirrors the eloquence and style of Jane Austen’s writings which only proves how incredibly accurate Jane was at depicting this period in English history both in language and sentiment.

The only slightly annoying aspect to this book is Eliza’s tedious tendency to constantly apologize to Phylly at the beginning of most every letter on her deplorable tardiness in answering Phylly’s letters.

The many gaps in the historical timeline are filled in by the author who does an admiral job at informing the reader of a brief history of what was going on at the time.

Overall, the book and Eliza’s letters give us an excellent look at everyday life in the social circle of the upper class in English society. I would recommend this book to anyone who is a Jane Austen fan or someone just interested in the time period. ( )

http://www.lonelymountain.net/books/dec03.html#lefayejaoc ( )