Jane Austen
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Jane Austen (December 16, 1775 – July 18, 1817) was an English novelist whose work is considered part of the Western canon. Her insights into women's lives and her mastery of form and irony have made her arguably the most noted and influential novelist from her era (though she was only moderately successful during her lifetime).
Life
Jane Austen was born at the rectory in Steventon, Hampshire, in 1775, daughter to the Rev. George Austen (1731–1805) and his wife Cassandra (née Leigh) (1739–1827). She lived in the area for most of her life and never married. She had six brothers and one older sister, Cassandra, to whom she was very close. The only undisputed portrait of Jane Austen is a coloured sketch done by Cassandra which resides in the National Portrait Gallery in London. However a full length painting owned by a family member traditionally held to be of Jane as a teenager is now increasingly considered authentic by the authorities. Her brothers Frank and Charles went to sea, eventually becoming admirals. In 1783, she was educated briefly by a relative in Oxford then Southampton. In 1785–1786, she was educated at the Reading Ladies boarding school in the Abbey gatehouse in Reading, Berkshire. In general, she received an education superior to that generally given to girls of her time, and took early to writing, her first tale being begun in 1789.
Austen's life was a singularly uneventful one and, but for a disappointment in love, tranquil and happy. In 1801 the family moved to Bath, the scene of many episodes in her writings. In 1802 Austen received a marriage proposal from a wealthy young man named Harris Bigg-Wither, whom she first accepted, but then refused the next day. Having refused this offer of marriage, Austen never subsequently married. After the death of her father in 1805, Austen, her sister, and her mother lived with her brother Frank and his family for several years until they moved in 1809 to Chawton. Here her wealthy brother Edward had an estate with a cottage, which he turned over to his mother and sisters. (Their house today is open to the public.)
Austen continued to live in relative seclusion and began to suffer ill-health. It is now thought she may have suffered from Addison's disease, the cause of which was then unknown. She travelled to Winchester in 1817, to seek medical attention, but so rapid was the progress of her malady that she died there two months later and was buried in the cathedral.
Work
Adhering to contemporary convention for female authors, Austen published her novels anonymously. Her novels achieved a measure of popular success and esteem yet her anonymity kept her out of leading literary circles. Although all her works are love stories and although her career coincided with the Romantic movement in English literature, Jane Austen was no Romantic. Passionate emotion usually carries danger in an Austen novel and the young woman who exercises rational moderation is more likely to find real happiness than one who elopes with a lover. Her artistic values had more in common with David Hume and John Locke than with her contemporaries William Wordsworth or Lord Byron. Three of Austen's favorite influences were Samuel Johnson, William Cowper and Fanny Burney.
Her posthumously published novel Northanger Abbey satirizes the Gothic novels of Ann Radcliffe, but Austen is most famous for her mature works, which took the form of socially astute comedies of manners. These, especially Emma, are often cited for their perfection of form, while modern critics continue to unearth new perspectives on Austen's keen commentary regarding the predicament of unmarried genteel English women in the early 1800s. Inheritance law and custom usually directed the bulk of a family's fortune to male heirs.
Her novels were fairly received when they were published, with Sir Walter Scott in particular praising her work:
- That young lady has a talent for describing the involvements of feelings and characters of ordinary life which is to me the most wonderful I ever met with.
Austen also earned the admiration of Macaulay (who thought that in the world there were no compositions which approached nearer to perfection), Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Robert Southey, Sydney Smith, and Edward FitzGerald. Nonetheless, she was a somewhat overlooked author for several decades following her death. Interest in her work revived during the late nineteenth century. Twentieth century scholars rated her among the greatest talents in English letters, sometimes even comparing her to Shakespeare. Lionel Trilling and Edward Said were important Austen critics.
Negative views of Austen have been notable, with more demanding detractors frequently accusing her writing of being un-literary and middle-brow. Charlotte Brontë criticized the narrow scope of Austen's fiction. Mark Twain's reaction was revulsion:
- Jane Austen? Why I go so far as to say that any library is a good library that does not contain a volume by Jane Austen. Even if it contains no other book.
Austen's literary strength lies in the delineation of character, especially of women, by delicate touches arising out of the most natural and everyday incidents in the life of the middle and upper classes, from which her subjects are generally taken. Her characters, though of quite ordinary types, are drawn with such firmness and precision, and with such significant detail as to retain their individuality intact through their entire development, and they are uncoloured by her own personality. Her view of life seems largely genial, with a strong dash of gentle but keen irony.
Some contemporary readers may find the world she describes, in which people's chief concern is obtaining advantageous marriages, to be unliberated and disquieting. Options were limited in this era and both women and men often married for money. Female writers worked within the similarly narrow genre of romance. Part of Austen's prominent reputation rests on how well she integrates observations on the human condition within a convincing love story. Much of the tension in her novels arises from balancing financial necessity against other concerns: love, friendship, and morals.
Bibliography
Novels
- Sense and Sensibility (published 1811)
- Pride and Prejudice (1813)
- Mansfield Park (1814)
- Emma (1815)
- Northanger Abbey (1818) posthumous
- Persuasion (1818) posthumous
Shorter works
- Lady Susan
- The Watsons (incomplete novel)
- Sanditon (incomplete novel)
Juvenilia
- The Three Sisters
- Love and Freindship [sic; the misspelling of "friendship" in the title is famous]
- The History of England
- Catharine, or the Bower
- The Beautifull Cassandra [sic]
Jane Austen today
Austen's work is today considered an important part of the English literary canon. It is taught in universities and is the subject of a massive body of scholarly and critical work. The novels are also widely read by ordinary people, simply for pleasure. Some of her unfinished works were published but only for the family members that were still alive.
Filmography
In popular culture, Austen's novels have been adapted in a great number of film and television series, varying greatly in their faithfulness to the originals. Pride and Prejudice has been the most reproduced of her works, with six films, the most recent being the 2005 adaptation directed by Joe Wright, starring Keira Knightley, Donald Sutherland, Matthew Macfadyen, and Dame Judi Dench, as well as the 2004 Bollywood adaptation Bride & Prejudice, and five television series produced by the BBC. The 2001 film Bridget Jones's Diary included characters inspired by the novel. Emma has been adapted to film five times: in 1932 with Marie Dressler and Jean Hersholt, a 1972 British television version, the 1995 teen film Clueless, in 1996 with Gwyneth Paltrow and Jeremy Northam, and also in 1996 on British television with Kate Beckinsale; Sense and Sensibility four films including the 1995 version directed by Ang Lee and starring Kate Winslet and Emma Thompson (who won the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay), and Persuasion has been adapted into two television series and one feature film. Mansfield Park and Northanger Abbey have both been made into films. The 1980 film Jane Austen in Manhattan about rival film companies who wish to produce a film based on the only complete Austen play Sir Charles Grandison which was first discovered in 1980.[1]
Notes
- ^ BBC News. 2004. Rare Austen manuscript unveiled
Further reading
Knox-Shaw, Peter. Jane Austen and the Enlightenment ISBN-10 0521843464
External links
- Works by Jane Austen. Project Gutenberg
- Works by Jane Austen in Classici Stranieri
- Jane Austen – e-books in easy to read HTML format.
- The Jane Austen Museum
- Jane Austen’s Works and Quotes in searchable format
- Guardian Books "Author Page", with profile and links to further articles.
- The Republic of Pemberley, the largest Jane Austen site on the web.
- Hampshire, inspirational home of Jane Austen
- The Jane Austen Society of North America
- The Jane Austen Society of Australia
- Jane Austen font
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