Sarah Austen

Sarah Austen (1795?-1887) was the wife of Benjamin Austen, a London solicitor and friend of Disraeli (they lived in Bloomsbury in the 1820s). They took the young Disraeli with them in 1826 on a tour of Switzerland and Italy and Mrs Austen kept a diary of the journey. An account of the trip taken from her diary appeared in the Quarterly Review in 1887.  Her father, named Rickett, was from Oundle, Northamptonshire. She was known for her beauty. (Information on her can be found in Wilfrid Meynell’s biography of Disraeli). She was best known for her publication, Characteristics of Goethe (London: E. Wilson, 1833).