Due Wednesday, October 11th - Jane Austen: Background on Her Life & Works

Homework:  Read the background material below and compose a 2-3 page journal response:  Where do you see Austen's life and values in her novel?  Use direct evidence from both texts.

Jane Austen’s Life

While the literary art of Jane Austen is remarkable, the facts of her biography, at first glance, are not. The contrast has long intrigued Austen readers and scholars, and interest in her life is today almost as keen as interest in her works. Dating back to her own time, when Austen's first four novels were published anonymously, sources of information about her life still exist — some of her letters (those her sister Cassandra did not destroy after her death), and A Memoir of Jane Austen, written by her nephew J.E. Austen-Leigh in 1869. These sources reveal that Austen did lead the quiet life of an unmarried clergyman's daughter. She found early encouragement for her art within her family circle, and a starting point for her novels in her personal and family history.

Born in 1775 to George and Cassandra Austen in the English village of Steventon, Jane Austen grew up in a highly literate family. Austen's father was an Oxford-educated clergyman and her mother was a humorous, aristocratic woman. Educated only briefly outside of her home, Austen read freely in her father's library of 500 books, which left her better educated than most young girls of the time. While her family never anticipated she would be a published writer (not considered an appropriate profession for a young lady of her background), within the walls of their household she was encouraged to write. In this lively intellectual household, the 15-year-old Austen began writing her own novels; and by age 23 she had completed the original versions of Northanger Abbey, Sense and Sensibility, and Pride and Prejudice. Her own delight in reading and her ironic mocking of its impact on young girls comes alive in Northanger Abbey.

After Austen's father died in 1805, Jane, her mother, and sister Cassandra lived in a small house provided by her then-wealthy brother Edward in the village of Chawton. When Jane received a proposal from the wealthy brother of a close friend, for whom she felt no affection, she initially accepted him, only to turn him down the next day. This was a painful decision for her, as she understood deeply that marriage was the sole option women had for social mobility. She further understood the vulnerability of single women without family estates who depend on wealthy relatives for a home. This subject is at the heart of Sense and Sensibility.

Austen keenly observed the shifting of social class during her day. Two of her brothers were in the Royal British Navy, and she saw first-hand the rise of naval officers in class-conscious British society. Those who returned from the Napoleonic wars with both wealth and notoriety were able to break through class barriers that were previously impenetrable. She wrote elegantly about this sea change in her last novel, Persuasion.

Jane Austen died on July 18, 1817, at age 41. She never wrote a memoir, sat for an interview, or recorded whether she had herself felt the joys and disappointments of love. The biographical facts may never adequately explain the quick wit, the sharp insight, and the deep emotional intelligence she brought to her novels. Perhaps that is impossible; it is likely that the novels will continue to transcend our understanding of where they came from.

Jane Austen's Family Tree

Regency Era

The Regency era spans the reign of the Prince of Wales from 1811 to 1820. It occurred at the latter end of the Georgian period when King George III was declared unfit to rule for reasons of insanity and his son, George IV was appointed as Regent to govern the country. The Prince Regent was notable for his lack of restraint in most areas of life. He was a womanizer who over-ate, over-drank and over-spent. As such he lost the respect of many of his subjects, including Jane Austen herself. In fact, she mocks over-indulgence and vanity of all kinds, while restraint is depicted as a mark of character strength. Nevertheless, his extravagance characterized the period and his patronage of the arts resulted in marked expansion in the areas of:

1)  Architecture (typified by the elegant designs of architect John Nash)

2)  Literature (typified by work of Romantic writers Austen, Byron, Shelley and Keats)

3)  Music (typified by the works of Beethoven, Schubert and Liszt).

4)  The character of Sir Walter in Persuasion could be interpreted as a parody of the Prince Regent.

A widening gap between rich and poor

While the upper classes in the Regency era were enjoying an opulent lifestyle, the lower classes experienced a grinding poverty. The Prince Regent made little effort to relieve the situation and his lavish lifestyle caused a growing resentment. The gap between rich and poor was exacerbated by:

1)  A sudden increase in the population and increasing overcrowding in the cities, which led to squalid housing conditions. This gave rise to city slums (colloquially known as rookeries). They were associated with prostitution, drunkenness and crime in general

2)  Inflated food prices, due to Napoleon's blockade of exports to Britain, as well as high wheat prices resulting from the Corn Law of 1815

3)  Technological advances in the textile industry which eventually wiped out spinning as a cottage industry - hence the Luddite Riots (1811-1816) in which English craftsmen protested about the negative impact of technological advances on employment in the weaving industry.

Major Works

Lady Susan

Lady Susan was possibly written in 1794 but not published until 1871.  Beautiful, flirtatious, and recently widowed, Lady Susan Vernon seeks an advantageous second marriage for herself, while attempting to push her daughter into a dismal match. A magnificently crafted novel of Regency manners and mores that will delight Austen enthusiasts with its wit and elegant expression. The entire novel is composed of letters, offering different viewpoints, with an epilogue tying the events together.  The film adaptation is titled Love and Friendship (2016), not to be confused with her juvenilia novella of the same name.

Northanger Abbey

Jane Austen's first major novel was written in 1798-99, when she was in her early twenties. It is a comic love story set in Bath about a young reader who must learn how to separate fantasy from reality. Miss Austen sold the novel (then entitled Susan) to a publisher in 1803, and the work was advertised but never published. She bought it back many years later, and her brother Henry Austen published the novel as Northanger Abbey after her death in 1817.

Sense and Sensibility

Sense and Sensibility was the first of Jane Austen's novels to be published. She began to write it sometime around 1797, and she worked on it for many years before its publication in 1811. The title page said that it was written "By a Lady", and only her immediate family knew that Jane Austen was the author. Impetuous Marianne Dashwood tumbles into a fairytale romance that goes sour, and her practical older sister Elinor copes with the family's financial problems while hiding her own frustrated romantic hopes. The book was a success, and it even earned a profit!

Pride and Prejudice

Pride and Prejudice was first written in the late 1700's, then rewritten in 1811-1812 and finally published in early 1813. It is probably the most-read of all of Jane Austen's novels and is a popular favorite among many. Originally entitled First Impressions, the novel deals with the misjudgments that often occur at the beginning of an acquaintance and how those misjudgments can change as individuals learn more about each other.

Mansfield Park

Mansfield Park was written between February, 1811 and the summer of 1813. It was the third novel Jane Austen had published and it first appeared on May 4, 1814. During her lifetime, it was attributed only to "The author of Sense and Sensibility and Pride and Prejudice", and the author's identity was unknown beyond her family and friends. It is Jane Austen's most complex novel and deals with many different themes, from the education of children, to the differences between appearances and reality.

Emma

Emma was written in 1814-1815, and while Jane Austen was writing it, it was suggested to her by a member of the Prince Regents' household that she dedicate it to His Royal Highness. Austen took the suggestion as it was intended--as a command--and Emma was thus dedicated, but the dedication itself is rather slyly worded. Emma deals with a young woman's maturation into adulthood and the trouble she gets herself into along the way.

Persuasion

Persuasion was written in 1815-1816, while Jane Austen was suffering from her fatal illness. She was still working on some revisions at the time of her death in 1817. The novel was published posthumously by her brother, Henry Austen. Persuasion is a novel of second chances, expectations of society, and the constancy of love. You can also read the preface which Henry wrote telling the world of his sister's authorship, life, and untimely death: A Biographical Notice of the Author.

Juvenilia & Letters

Jane Austen's works from her childhood are full of enthusiasm, humor, and very creative spelling. We also have some letters and correspondence, though Jane’s sister destroyed any that could have given us insight into her psyche and love life.