Jane Austen

• 16 Dec. 1775- Steventon,

Hampshire.

• 7th of 8th siblings.

• Reverend George Austen and

Cassandra Leigh.

• Oxford school ( until the age of

10).

• Wrote and performed plays

and charades.

• Voracious reader.

• Lady SusanLady Susan – her first

epistolary novel (19).

Jane Austen• Elinor & Marianne , 1795. Re-

wrote it as Sense & Sensibility.

• Enjoyed dancing & attended

balls with the proper escort.

(Assembly Rooms, Bath)

• Flirted decorously with eligible

young men.

• Loved the country and long

walks.

• Family moved to Bath.

• After her father’s death, Jane,

Cassandra and their mother

were helped by Jane’s

brothers with an annual

income.

• She fell in love but he died.

• Met Harris Bigg-Wither.

Jane Austen• 1809: moved back to

Chawton, invited by her

brother Edward.

• 1810: Sense & Sensibility

was accepted for

publication

( anonymously- “By a Lady”).

She paid for its publication but

it sold well.

• Her brother Henry became

her literary agent.

• Biggest fan: the Prince

Regent!

• May 1817: very ill – rented

rooms in Winchester to be

near her doctor.

• Died in Cassandra’s arms,

Jul. 18, 1817.

Jane Austen• Buried in Winchester

Cathedral. • Cassandra wrote this epitaph:

“ I have lost a treasure, such a

Sister, such a friend as never

can be surpassed. She was the

sun of my life, … the soother of

every sorrow. I had not a

thought concealed from her,

and it is as if I had lost a part of

myself…”

Jane AustenRomanticism ( 1800-1850)Romanticism ( 1800-1850)

• New ideas (French Revolution, etc).

• Imaginative element in writing: Gothic novels.

• Innovation in form / poetry.

• Individuality.

• Interest in legend and History (Sir Walter Scott).

• AUSTEN: Augustan in topic ( life of the landed gentry; Bath;

balls; walks; the usual pursuits of the upper classes).

Jane AustenAusten bridges the gap between Neoclassicism and RomanticismAusten bridges the gap between Neoclassicism and Romanticism.

• Common-sensical novels.

• Heroine: controls her feelings; doesn’t give way to excesses of

feelings.

• Setting: calm, well-ordered society; rural communities,

untouched by changes.

• Style (devices): Free indirect discourse Free indirect discourse is a narrative style which

is used for the representation of spoken words or thoughts.

Jane Austen• It typically appears in fictional prose when a character’s words or

thoughts infiltrate the third-person narrative (the perspective shifts

from that of the narrator to that of the character).

• The style is not explicitly announced, and the speech or thought is

not directly attributed to the character. Instead the reader has to

rely on a number of stylistic cues stylistic cues to determine whether the

character’s point of view is present:

11.Exclamations and questions

22.Subjective or evaluative language which indicates the character’s

opinion

33.Markers of space and time from the character’s perspective

Jane AustenSTYLESTYLE

• Self-restrained, rational, not sentimental.

• Penetrating satirical humour.

• No excesses of rhetoric or verbosity ( popular in the Augustan

tradition).

• No violent scenes. Passion never prevails over reason.

• Refined love language; passion-free.

• IRONY: to describe the characters she dislikes.

• Understatement: form of irony in which sth. is intentionally

represented as less than it is.

Jane Austen• Limitations: limited outlook of the world; Nature:

ornamental, as a background; stylised ( written in artificial

style).

• CHARACTERISATION: kaleidoscopic presentation of

characters: she unveils them little by little.

• Satire: to attack vice / folly through irony, derision or wit.

• Physical descriptions emphasise mannerisms and

idiosyncracies of appearance.

• Short, descriptive representations.

Jane Austen• Austen relies on conversation rather than physical description

when shaping her characters.

E.g. Mrs. Bennet’s complaints shows us her weak, self-pitying

egoism.

• Conversation: the basis of human relationships in civilised

society (which betrays her Neoclassical sympathies).

• Flat characters: to incarnate and criticise a social condition.

E.g. In Mrs. Bennet, she draws up the most obvious caricature of

traditional values (marriage).

Jane AustenTHE NOVEL OF MANNERSTHE NOVEL OF MANNERS

• Form of novel/ Genre in which the main character struggles

to fit into society and to get married.

• Sir Walter Scott & J.Austen: pioneers in this genre.

• Developed in England throughout the 19th C., as authors

explored the place of women in society and the social effect

of marriage, showing in particular the problems that come

with marriage and conforming with society.

Jane AustenConventions:Conventions:

• Protagonist: usually a single woman, looking to get married.

• Socio-economic class: a factor in determining whom the woman

will marry.

• Scenes portraying the proper and improper way to act within

high society, and outlining the differences and relations

between classes.

• Ending: the marriage or death of the female protagonist.

• Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen; The House of Mirth ,by Edith

Wharton; The Portrait of a Lady, by Henry James.

Jane Austen Assembly Rooms, Bath.

Jane Austen Pulteney Bridge and River Avon, Bath

Jane Austen Aerial photograph of Bath, showing the Royal Crescent and the Circus.