Talk:Eliza de Feuillide

Re-creation

I have restored this article, which I previously deleted, at the request of the editor to allow improvement. Please do not delete without giving time for this improvement to occur. --Anthony.bradbury^"talk" 11:22, 7 December 2009 (UTC)

Warren Hastings' daughter?

This Washington Post book review says so. Angus McLellan (Talk) 13:06, 7 December 2009 (UTC)

She quite possibly was. And the rumour was afloat in the British society in India at the time, as Robert Clive wrote to his wife: "In no circumstances whatever keep company with Mrs Hancock, for it is beyond a doubt that she has abandoned herself to Mr Hastings". And Warren Hastings settled £10,000 on Eliza (a huge amount at the time), learned to play the guitar for her sake, etc. So... --Azurfrog (talk) 09:53, 8 December 2009

(UTC)

Actually, Deirdre Le Faye, a well-known austenian scholar and the best authority on all issues dealing with either Eliza Hancock (I am currently reading her biography by le Faye) or her mother, believes that this rumour was sheer slander from one Mrs Jenny Strachey (who was moved possibly by jealousy), who did her best to discredit Mr and Mrs Hancock plus Warren Hastings, but only after they had left India. And Tysoe Hancock himself wrote at one point to his wife complaining about Mrs Strachey's attempts to estrange her from Lady Clive. Many other elements seem to concur to show that Eliza Hancock is indeed Tysoe Hancock's daughter ; as for the £10,000 settled on Eliza by Warren Hastings, this clearly was actually a gift to the dying Tysoe, to make him more comfortable as regards the future of both his wife and daughter (as he himself was bankrupt by now). --Azurfrog (talk) 08:21, 25 March 2011 (UTC)

Deirdre Le Faye is fond of making the facts fit what she wants to believe; I would not describe her as the best authority on Eliza Hancock at all. Or on anything to do with Jane Austen for that matter. It is very unlikely that Hastings would have settled £10,000 on Eliza Hancock to make Tysoe Hancock more comfortable - the two men did not even like each other every much. That was a vast sum of money at the time. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 78.151.80.32 (talk) 08:08, 17 February 2019 (UTC)

This article is very unsatisfactory as it stands

It does not explain how exactly Eliza was related to Jane Austen, or why Jane Austen disapproved of her. It needs to state both. The most likely explanation of the latter is that Eliza twice changed her religion, on her first marriage and again on her second. The text as I found it said that she had become a "Comet". I think the word is comtesse - or in English countess. —Preceding unsigned comment added by HenriettaVanLaer (talk • contribs)

• Is that some sort of a private joke? The article does (and did) explain from the very beginning the connection between Jane Austen and Eliza: Eliza Hancock "is writer Jane Austen's cousin" and the daughter of Philadelphia, the sister of Jane's father George Austen; she "is believed to have been inspirational for a number of Austen's works, such as Love and Freindship, Henry and Eliza, Lady Susan and Mansfield Park, and she may have been the model from whom the character of Mary Crawford is derived". I fail to see any ambiguity here.
• Moreover, I have not written anywhere that "Jane Austen disapproved of her", as this is not such an obvious proposition to make! George Austen did disapprove of Eliza's marriage to Count de Feuillide, this much we can safely state. But did Jane Austen herself disapprove of her "oulandish cousin"? From all I have read, I believe this is not the point; I would rather say she was fascinated by Eliza, far more than disapprove of her, even though Jane obviously did not approve of Eliza's flirtatious off-hand manners with men. And this fascination shows in her novels. Moreover, there are some scholars who claim that Eliza had more importance for Jane Austen's novels than even Cassandra! So the disapproval — if any — must have been mild, all the more as she cared for Eliza.
  Philadelphia Walter, on the other hand, disapproved of Eliza, and the reason why is clearly stated and sourced.
• Last, as regards correcting this elusive "Comet" (plus a number of other funny things), thanks for taking the article back to where it first started (well, nearly, not quite), since there seems to have been some vandalism in between. "Comet" indeed! That was a laugh anyway. --Azurfrog (talk) 11:48, 30 June 2010 (UTC)

Article moved to Eliza de Feuillide (previously Eliza Hancock)

I moved the article to Eliza de Feuillide, since she is best known under that name, as per Deirdre Le Faye, Jane Austen's 'Outlandish Cousin' (2002), p. 7: "Eliza de Feuillide, to give her the name by which she is best known to posterity[...]". --Azurfrog (talk) 09:08, 8 October 2011 (UTC)