Sarah Austin

Sarah Austin [née Taylor], (1793-1867), translator and writer. Sarah Austin was the wife of John Austin. She was the finest translator of literature of her day, translating Grimm, Goethe, Kant, Schiller, Richter, Schlegel, Novalis, and Lessing. Her translations overshadowed her own critical essays on Goethe, Shakespeare, German and French literature, history, and politics, because translations earned more, and because she subordinated her talents to promoting her husband's troubled career. Her literary friends, John Stuart Mill and Thomas Carlyle, lauded her literary talents.