Freya Johnston

Captain Harville, who her brother, Jane Austen's brother, Frank, thought might be in some sense a representation of him, or that they certainly had qualities in common.

He's depicted busy all the time making things.

building shelves, you know, fixing his fishing nets, doing things around the house that make everything work better and make everybody's lives more comfortable.

And those are the kinds of virtues that don't come in for much celebration, but which genuinely contribute to a sense of being truly happy.

To be happy at home, as again, Johnson said, is the result of all ambition.

And that seems to be something that comes across very clearly from Austen's letters, that they're just the happiness of life at Chawton once they're all settled there.

And that's not necessarily marital happiness.

It's just domestic happiness.

Yeah.