In addition to works written by women, Chawton House Library houses the Knight Collection, which is the private library belonging to the Knight family for over 400 years. The majority of the collection dates from the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.
At one time, Jane Austen’s brother Edward, who was adopted into the Knight family, owned this collection and as such it was a library known to and used by Jane Austen herself. There have been many changes to this collection since 1900 but it remains a fascinating example of a country house library.
Only a small part of the collection has been catalogued but we have just uploaded the database listing all the books in the collection. It can be accessed here.
If you wish to consult any material here at Chawton House Library, you will find more details here.