Jane Austen
Jane Austen (16 December 1775 – 18 July 1817) was an English novelist whose works of romantic fiction, set among the landed gentry, earned her a place as one of the most widely read writers in English literature, her realism and biting social commentary cementing her historical importance among scholars and critics. Austen lived her entire life as part of a close-knit family located on the lower fringes of the English landed gentry. She was educated primarily by her father and older brothers as well as through her own reading. The steadfast support of her family was critical to her development as a professional writer. Her artistic apprenticeship lasted from her teenage years into her thirties. During this period, she experimented with various literary forms, including the epistolary novel which she tried then abandoned, and wrote and extensively revised three major novels and began a fourth. From 1811 until 1816, with the release of Sense and Sensibility (1811), Pride and Prejudice (1813), Mansfield Park (1814) and Emma (1816), she achieved success as a published writer. She wrote two additional novels, Northanger Abbey and Persuasion, both published posthumously in 1818, and began a third, which was eventually titled Sanditon, but died before completing it. (more...)
Selected article
Austen-Leigh described his "dear Aunt Jane" domestically, as someone who was uninterested in fame and who only wrote in her spare time. However, the manuscripts appended to the second edition suggest that Jane Austen was intensely interested in revising her manuscripts and was perhaps less content than Austen-Leigh described her. The Memoir does not attempt to unreservedly tell the story of Jane Austen's life. Following the Victorian conventions of biography, it kept much private information from the public, but family members disagreed over just how much should be revealed, for example, regarding Austen's romantic relationships. (more...)
Selected biography
Anne Elliot is the protagonist of Jane Austen's sixth and last completed novel, Persuasion (1818). She is the overlooked middle daughter of a narcissistic and extravagant baronet, Sir Walter Elliot of Kellynch Hall. Unique among Jane Austen heroines, she is 27 years old and seemingly a confirmed spinster. With few to appreciate her sweet nature and refined, elegant mind, Anne is somewhat isolated, living in a narrow social sphere where she "was nobody with either father or sister; her word had no weight; her convenience was always to give way; she was only Anne."
Persuasion manifests a significant shift in Austen's attitude toward inherited wealth and rank. Elsewhere in her writing, salvation for the heroine comes in the form of marriage to a well-born gentleman, preferably wealthy and at least her equal in social consequence. Elizabeth Bennet, for example, who has little money of her own, marries Mr. Darcy, who has a great estate, a Norman-sounding name, and ₤10,000 a year. Anne Elliot's "true attachment and constancy" to Captain Wentworth, a dashing, self-made young outsider, distinguishes her from all her sister Austen heroines. (more...)
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Did you know?
- ...that Jane Austen's novels increased dramatically in popularity after the publication of her nephew's A Memoir of Jane Austen in 1870?
- ... that Rear-Admiral Charles Austen′s family included Admiral of the Fleet Francis Austen, and the novelist Jane Austen?
- ... that Jon Hunter Spence, author of the 2003 book Becoming Jane Austen, was born in the U.S. state of Georgia but died an Australian citizen?
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- Ruby2010 (portal creator and maintainer)
- JuneGloom07
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- Promote Austen-related biographies to GA and FA status (such as the article on Austen herself)
- Promote Austen novels to GA or FA status (such as Sense and Sensibility)
- Clean-up all Austen character articles (such as Anne Elliot)
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Jane Austen PortalWikiProjects
Literature • Novels • England • Biography • Women's History
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