Jane Austen (16 December 1775 – 18 July 1817) was an English novelist whose works of romantic fiction set among the gentry Gentry denotes "well-born and well-bred people" of high social class, especially in the past have earned her a place as one of the most widely read and most beloved writers in English literature.^[1] Amongst scholars and critics, Austen's realism Literary realism most often refers to the trend, beginning with certain works of nineteenth-century French literature and extending to late-nineteenth- and early-twentieth-century authors in various countries, towards depictions of contemporary life and society "as they were." In the spirit of general "realism," Realist authors and biting social commentary have cemented her historical importance as a writer.

Austen lived her entire life as part of a close-knit family located on the lower fringes of the English gentry.^[2] 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 Austen's development as a professional writer.^[3] Austen's artistic apprenticeship lasted from her teenage years until she was about thirty-five years old. During this period, she experimented with various literary forms, including the epistolary novel An epistolary novel is a novel written as a series of documents. The usual form is letters, although diary entries, newspaper clippings and other documents are sometimes used. Recently, electronic "documents" such as recordings and radio, blogs, and e-mails have also come into use. The word epistolary comes from the Latin word epistola, which she tried and then abandoned, and wrote and extensively revised three major novels and began a fourth.^[B] From 1811 until 1816, with the release of Sense and Sensibility Sense and Sensibility is a novel by the English novelist Jane Austen. Published in 1811, it was Austen's first published novel, which she wrote under the pseudonym "A Lady" (1811), Pride and Prejudice Pride and Prejudice is a novel by Jane Austen. First published in 1813, as her second novel, she started it in 1796 as her first persevering effort for publication. She finished the original manuscript by 1797 in Steventon, Hampshire, where she lived with her parents and siblings in the town rectory. Austen originally called the story First (1813), Mansfield Park (1814) and Emma Emma, by Jane Austen, is a novel about the perils of misconstrued romance. The novel was first published in December 1815. As in her other novels, Austen explores the concerns and difficulties of genteel women living in Georgian-Regency England; she also creates a lively 'comedy of manners' among her characters (1816), she achieved success as a published writer. She wrote two additional novels, Northanger Abbey Northanger Abbey was the first of Jane Austen's novels to be completed for publication, though she had previously made a start on Sense and Sensibility and Pride and Prejudice. According to Cassandra Austen's Memorandum, Susan was written about the years 1798–1799. It was revised by Austen for the press in 1803, and sold in the same year for £10 and Persuasion Persuasion is Jane Austen's last completed novel. She began it soon after she had finished Emma, completing it in August, 1816. She died, aged 41, in 1817, but Persuasion was not published until 1818, both published posthumously in 1818, and began a third, which was eventually titled Sanditon, but died before completing it.

Austen's works critique the novels of sensibility The sentimental novel or the novel of sensibility is an 18th century literary genre which celebrates the emotional and intellectual concepts of sentiment, sentimentalism, and sensibility. Sentimentalism, which is to be distinguished from sensibility, was a fashion in both poetry and prose fiction beginning in the eighteenth century in reaction to of the second half of the eighteenth century and are part of the transition to nineteenth-century realism.^[4][C] Austen's plots, though fundamentally comic,^[5] highlight the dependence of women on marriage to secure social standing and economic security.^[6] Like those of Samuel Johnson Samuel Johnson , often referred to as Dr Johnson, was a British author who made lasting contributions to English literature as a poet, essayist, moralist, literary critic, biographer, editor and lexicographer. Johnson was a devout Anglican and committed Tory, and has been described as "arguably the most distinguished man of letters in English, one of the strongest influences on her writing, her works are concerned with moral issues.^[7]

During Austen's lifetime her works brought her little personal fame and only a few positive reviews. Through the mid-nineteenth century, her novels were admired mainly by members of the literary elite. However, the publication of her nephew's A Memoir of Jane Austen in 1869 introduced her to a far wider public as an appealing personality and kindled popular interest in her works. By the 1940s, Austen had become widely accepted in academia as a "great English writer". The second half of the twentieth century saw a proliferation of Austen scholarship, which explored many aspects of her novels: artistic, ideological, and historical. In popular culture, a Janeite The term Janeite has been both embraced by devotees of the works of Jane Austen as well as used as a term of opprobrium. According to Austen scholar Claudia Johnson Janeitism is "the self-consciously idolatrous enthusiasm for 'Jane' and every detail relative to her" fan culture has developed, centred on Austen's life, her works, and the various film and television adaptations of them.

Biography

Biographical information concerning Jane Austen is "famously scarce", according to one biographer.^[8] Only some personal and family letters remain (by one estimate only 160 out of Austen's 3,000 letters are extant),^[9] and her sister Cassandra Cassandra Elizabeth Austen was an amateur English watercolourist and the elder sister of Jane Austen (to whom most of the letters were originally addressed) burned "the greater part" of the ones she kept and censored those she did not destroy.^[10] Other letters were destroyed by the heirs of Admiral Francis Austen, Jane's brother.^[11] Most of the biographical material produced for fifty years after Austen's death was written by her relatives and reflects the family's biases in favour of "good quiet Aunt Jane". Scholars have unearthed little information since.^[8]

Family

Austen's parents, George Austen (1731–1805), and his wife, Cassandra (1739–1827), were members of substantial gentry Gentry denotes "well-born and well-bred people" of high social class, especially in the past families.^[12] George was descended from a family of woollen manufacturers which had risen through the professions to the lower ranks of the landed gentry.^[13] Cassandra was a member of the prominent Leigh family; they married on 26 April 1764 at Walcot Church in Bath Bath is a city in the ceremonial county of Somerset in the south west of England. It is situated 97 miles (156 km) west of London and 13 miles (21 km) south-east of Bristol. The population of the city is 83,992. It was granted city status by Royal Charter by Queen Elizabeth I in 1590, and was made a county borough in 1889 which gave it.^[14] From 1765 until 1801, that is, for much of Jane's life, George Austen served as the rector The word rector has a number of different meanings; they indicate an academic, religious or political administrator. The word is related to rectrix ("helmsman"), one of a bird's tail feathers of the Anglican The Church of England is the officially established Christian church in England, the Mother Church of the worldwide Anglican Communion and the oldest among the communion's thirty-eight independent national and regional churches. The Church also extends to the Isle of Man via the Diocese of Sodor and Man, while the Channel Islands form part of the parishes A parish is a territorial unit that was usually historically served by a parish church or local church. This ecclesiastical administrative unit is typically found in these Churches: Roman Catholic, Anglican Communion, the Eastern Orthodox Church, Lutheran churches, and some Methodist, and Presbyterian churches at Steventon, Hampshire^[15] and a nearby village. From 1773 until 1796, he supplemented this income by farming and by teaching three or four boys at a time who boarded at his home.^[16]

Austen's immediate family was large: six brothers—James (1765–1819), George (1766–1838), Edward (1767–1852), Henry Thomas (1771–1850), Francis William (Frank) (1774–1865), Charles John Charles John Austen CB was an officer in the Royal Navy. He served during the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars, and beyond, eventually rising to the rank of rear-admiral (1779–1852)—and one sister, Cassandra Elizabeth Cassandra Elizabeth Austen was an amateur English watercolourist and the elder sister of Jane Austen (1773–1845), who, like Jane, died unmarried. Cassandra Elizabeth was Austen's closest friend and confidante throughout her life.^[17] Of her brothers, Austen felt closest to Henry, who became a banker and, after his bank failed, an Anglican clergyman. Henry was also his sister's literary agent A literary agent is an agent who represents writers and their written works to publishers, theatrical producers and film producers and assists in the sale and deal negotiation of the same. Literary agents most often represent novelists, screenwriters and major non-fiction writers. They are paid a fixed percentage of the proceeds of sales they. His large circle of friends and acquaintances in London included bankers, merchants, publishers, painters, and actors: he provided Austen with a view of social worlds not normally visible from a small parish in rural Hampshire.^[18] George was sent to live with a local family at a young age because, as Austen biographer Le Faye describes it, he was "mentally abnormal and subject to fits".^[19] He may also have been deaf and mute.^[19] Charles and Frank served in the navy, both rising to the rank of admiral. Edward was adopted by his fourth cousin, Thomas Knight, inheriting Knight's estate and taking his name in 1812.^[20]

Early life and education

Austen was born on 16 December 1775 at Steventon rectory A rectory is the residence, or former residence, of a rector, most often a Christian cleric, but in some cases an academic rector or other person with that title. Many former rectories may still be referred to locally as a rectory once a church or religious organisation has vacated the property and publicly christened on 5 April 1776.^[22] After a few months at home, her mother placed Austen with Elizabeth Littlewood, a woman living nearby, who nursed A wet nurse is a woman hired to breast feed and care for another's child. Wet nurses are hired when the mother is unable or chooses not to nurse the child herself. Wet-nursed children may be known as "milk-siblings", and in some cultures the families are linked by a special relationship of milk kinship. Mothers who nurse each other's and raised Austen for a year or eighteen months.^[23] In 1783, according to family tradition, Jane and Cassandra were sent to Oxford Oxford (pronounced /ˈɒksfərd/ ) is a city, and the county town of Oxfordshire, in South East England. The city, made prominent by its medieval university, has a population of just under 165,000, with 151,000 living within the district boundary. The rivers Cherwell and Thames run through Oxford and meet south of the city centre. For a distance to be educated by Mrs. Ann Cawley and they moved with her to Southampton Southampton (pronounced /saʊθˈhæmptən/ ) is the largest city in the county of Hampshire on the south coast of England, and is situated 100 km (62 mi) south-west of London and 30 km (19 mi) north-west of Portsmouth. Southampton is a major port and the closest city to the New Forest. It lies at the northernmost point of Southampton Water at the later in the year. Both girls caught typhus Typhus is any of several similar diseases caused by Rickettsiae. The name comes from the Greek typhos meaning smoky or hazy, describing the state of mind of those affected with typhus. The causative organism Rickettsia is an obligate parasite and cannot survive for long outside living cells. Typhus should not be confused with typhoid fever, as the and Jane nearly died.^[24] Austen was subsequently educated at home, until leaving for boarding school A boarding school is a school where some or all pupils study and live during the school year with their fellow students and possibly teachers or administrators. The word 'boarding' is used in the sense of "bed and board," that is, food and lodging. Some boarding schools also have day students who are students that live off-campus with with her sister Cassandra early in 1785. The school curriculum probably included some French, spelling, needlework, dancing and music and, perhaps, drama. By December 1786, Jane and Cassandra had returned home because the Austens could not afford to send both of their daughters to school.^[25].

Austen acquired the remainder of her education by reading books, guided by her father and her brothers James and Henry.^[26] George Austen apparently gave his daughters unfettered access to his large and varied library, was tolerant of Austen's sometimes risqué experiments in writing, and provided both sisters with expensive paper and other materials for their writing and drawing.^[27] According to Park Honan, a biographer of Austen, life in the Austen home was lived in "an open, amused, easy intellectual atmosphere" where the ideas of those with whom the Austens might disagree politically or socially were considered and discussed.^[28] After returning from school in 1786, Austen "never again lived anywhere beyond the bounds of her immediate family environment".^[29]

Private theatricals were also a part of Austen's education. From when she was seven until she was thirteen, the family and close friends staged a series of plays, including Richard Sheridan Rt. Hon. Richard Brinsley Sheridan was a playwright and poet and long-term owner of the London Theatre Royal, Drury Lane. For thirty-two years, he was also a Member of Parliament aligned with the British Whig Party. Such was the esteem he was held in by his contemporaries when he died that he was buried at Westminister Abbey's The Rivals (1775) and David Garrick's David Garrick was an English actor, playwright, theatre manager and producer who influenced nearly all aspects of theatrical practice throughout the 18th century and was a pupil and friend of Dr Samuel Johnson. He appeared in a number of amateur theatricals, and with his appearance in the title role of Shakespeare's Richard III audiences and Bon Ton. While the details are unknown, Austen would certainly have joined in these activities, as a spectator at first and as a participant when she was older.^[30] Most of the plays were comedies, which suggests one way in which Austen's comedic and satirical gifts were cultivated.^[31]

Juvenilia

Perhaps as early as 1787, Austen began to write poems, stories, and plays for her own and her family's amusement.^[32] Austen later compiled "fair copies" of 29 of these early works into three bound notebooks, now referred to as the Juvenilia, containing pieces originally written between 1787 and 1793.^[33] There is manuscript evidence that Austen continued to work on these pieces as late as the period 1809–11, and that her niece and nephew, Anna and James Edward Austen, made further additions as late as 1814.^[34] Among these works are a satirical novel in letters titled Love and Freindship [sic], in which she mocked popular novels of sensibility The sentimental novel or the novel of sensibility is an 18th century literary genre which celebrates the emotional and intellectual concepts of sentiment, sentimentalism, and sensibility. Sentimentalism, which is to be distinguished from sensibility, was a fashion in both poetry and prose fiction beginning in the eighteenth century in reaction to,^[35] and The History of England, a manuscript of 34 pages accompanied by 13 watercolour miniatures by her sister Cassandra.

Austen's History parodied A parody , in contemporary usage, is a work created to mock, comment on, or make fun at an original work, its subject, author, style, or some other target, by means of humorous, satiric or ironic imitation. As the literary theorist Linda Hutcheon (2000: 7) puts it, "parody … is imitation, not always at the expense of the parodied text." popular historical writing, particularly Oliver Goldsmith Oliver Goldsmith was an Anglo-Irish writer, poet, and physician known for his novel The Vicar of Wakefield (1766), his pastoral poem The Deserted Village (1770) (written in memory of his brother), and his plays The Good-Natur'd Man (1768) and She Stoops to Conquer (1771, first performed in 1773). (He is also thought to have written the classic's History of England (1764).^[36] Austen wrote, for example: "Henry the 4th ascended the throne of England much to his own satisfaction in the year 1399, after having prevailed on his cousin & predecessor Richard the 2nd, to resign it to him, & to retire for the rest of his Life to Pomfret Castle, where he happened to be murdered."^[37] Austen's Juvenilia are often, according to scholar Richard Jenkyns, "boisterous" and "anarchic"; he compares them to the work of eighteenth-century novelist Laurence Sterne Laurence Sterne was an Irish-born English novelist and an Anglican clergyman. He is best known for his novels The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman, and A Sentimental Journey Through France and Italy; but he also published many sermons, wrote memoirs, and was involved in local politics. Sterne died in London after years of fighting and the twentieth-century comedy group Monty Python Monty Python were a British comedy group that created the influential Monty Python's Flying Circus, a British television comedy sketch show that first aired on the BBC on 5 October 1969. Forty-five episodes were made over four series. The Python phenomenon developed from the television series into something larger in scope and impact, spawning.^[38]

Adulthood

As Austen grew into adulthood, she continued to live at her parents' home, carrying out those activities normal for women of her age and social standing: she practiced the pianoforte The piano is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard. It is widely known as one of the most popular instruments in the world. Widely used in Classical music for solo performances, ensemble use, chamber music, and accompaniment, the piano is also very popular as an aid to composing and rehearsal. Although not portable and often expensive,, assisted her sister and mother with supervising servants, and attended female relatives during childbirth and older relatives on their deathbeds.^[39] She sent short pieces of writing to her newborn nieces Fanny Catherine and Jane Anna Elizabeth.^[40] Austen was particularly proud of her accomplishments as a seamstress.^[41] She also attended church regularly, socialized frequently with friends and neighbours,^[42] and read novels—often of her own composition—aloud with her family in the evenings. Socializing with the neighbours often meant dancing, either impromptu in someone's home after supper or at the balls held regularly at the assembly rooms in the town hall.^[43] Her brother Henry later said that "Jane was fond of dancing, and excelled in it".^[44]

In 1793, Austen began and then abandoned a short play, later entitled Sir Charles Grandison or the happy Man, a comedy in 6 acts, which she returned to and completed around 1800. This was a short parody of various school textbook abridgments of Austen's favourite contemporary novel, The History of Sir Charles Grandison (1753), by Samuel Richardson Samuel Richardson was an 18th-century English writer and printer. He is best known for his three epistolary novels: Pamela: Or, Virtue Rewarded (1740), Clarissa: Or the History of a Young Lady (1748) and The History of Sir Charles Grandison (1753). Outside of his writing career, Richardson was an established printer and publisher for most of his.^[45] Honan speculates that at some point not long after writing Love and Freindship [sic] in 1789, Austen decided to "write for profit, to make stories her central effort", that is, to become a professional writer.^[46] Whenever she made that decision, beginning in about 1793, Austen began to write longer, more sophisticated works.^[46]

Between 1793 and 1795, Austen wrote Lady Susan, a short epistolary novel An epistolary novel is a novel written as a series of documents. The usual form is letters, although diary entries, newspaper clippings and other documents are sometimes used. Recently, electronic "documents" such as recordings and radio, blogs, and e-mails have also come into use. The word epistolary comes from the Latin word epistola,, usually described as her most ambitious and sophisticated early work.^[47] It is unlike any of Austen's other works. Austen biographer Claire Tomalin describes the heroine of the novella A novella is a written, fictional, prose narrative longer than a novelette but shorter than a novel. The Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America Nebula Awards for science fiction define the novella as having a word count between 17,500 and 40,000. Other definitions start as low as 10,000 words and run as high as 70,000 words as a sexual predator who uses her intelligence and charm to manipulate, betray, and abuse her victims, whether lovers, friends or family. Tomalin writes: "Told in letters, it is as neatly plotted as a play, and as cynical in tone as any of the most outrageous of the Restoration dramatists Restoration comedy refers to English comedies written and performed in the Restoration period from 1660 to 1710. After public stage performances had been banned for 18 years by the Puritan regime, the re-opening of the theatres in 1660 signalled a renaissance of English drama. Restoration comedy is notorious for its sexual explicitness, a quality who may have provided some of her inspiration....It stands alone in Austen's work as a study of an adult woman whose intelligence and force of character are greater than those of anyone she encounters."^[48]

Early novels

After finishing Lady Susan, Austen attempted her first full-length novel—Elinor and Marianne. Her sister Cassandra later remembered that it was read to the family "before 1796" and was told through a series of letters. Without surviving original manuscripts, there is no way to know how much of the original draft survived in the novel published in 1811 as Sense and Sensibility Sense and Sensibility is a novel by the English novelist Jane Austen. Published in 1811, it was Austen's first published novel, which she wrote under the pseudonym "A Lady".^[49]

When Austen was twenty, Tom Lefroy, a nephew of neighbours, visited Steventon from December 1795 to January 1796. He had just finished a university degree and was moving to London to train as a barrister A barrister is a lawyer found in many common law jurisdictions that employ a split profession in relation to legal representation. In split professions, the other types of lawyers are mainly solicitors. Solicitors have more direct contact with the clients, whereas barristers often only become involved in a case once advocacy before a court is. Lefroy and Austen would have been introduced at a ball or other neighbourhood social gathering, and it is clear from Austen's letters to Cassandra that they spent considerable time together: "I am almost afraid to tell you how my Irish friend and I behaved. Imagine to yourself everything most profligate and shocking in the way of dancing and sitting down together."^[51] The Lefroy family intervened and sent him away at the end of January. Marriage was impractical, as both Lefroy and Austen must have known. Neither had any money, and he was dependent on a great-uncle in Ireland to finance his education and establish his legal career. If Tom Lefroy later visited Hampshire, he was carefully kept away from the Austens, and Jane Austen never saw him again.^[52]

Austen began work on a second novel, First Impressions, in 1796 and completed the initial draft in August 1797 when she was only 21 (it later became Pride and Prejudice Pride and Prejudice is a novel by Jane Austen. First published in 1813, as her second novel, she started it in 1796 as her first persevering effort for publication. She finished the original manuscript by 1797 in Steventon, Hampshire, where she lived with her parents and siblings in the town rectory. Austen originally called the story First); as with all of her novels, Austen read the work aloud to her family as she was working on it and it became an "established favourite".^[53] At this time, her father made the first attempt to publish one of her novels. In November 1797, George Austen wrote to Thomas Cadell, an established publisher in London, to ask if he would consider publishing "a Manuscript Novel, comprised in three Vols. about the length of Miss Burney's Evelina" (First Impressions) at the author's financial risk. Cadell quickly returned Mr. Austen's letter, marked "Declined by Return of Post". Austen may not have known of her father's efforts.^[54] Following the completion of First Impressions, Austen returned to Elinor and Marianne and from November 1797 until mid-1798, revised it heavily; she eliminated the epistolary format in favour of third-person narration The narrative mode is the set of methods the author of a literary, theatrical, cinematic, or musical story uses to convey the plot to the audience. The collection of all narrative modes in order to construct a complete narrative is also called the narration (the process of creating the narrative); the terms are sometimes differentiated. It and produced something close to Sense and Sensibility.^[55]

During the middle of 1798, after finishing revisions of Elinor and Marianne, Austen began writing a third novel with the working title Susan—later Northanger Abbey Northanger Abbey was the first of Jane Austen's novels to be completed for publication, though she had previously made a start on Sense and Sensibility and Pride and Prejudice. According to Cassandra Austen's Memorandum, Susan was written about the years 1798–1799. It was revised by Austen for the press in 1803, and sold in the same year for £10—a satire Satire is primarily a literary genre or form, although in practice it can also be found in the graphic and performing arts. In satire, vices, follies, abuses, and shortcomings are held up to ridicule, ideally with the intent of shaming individuals, and society itself, into improvement. Although satire is usually meant to be funny, its greater on the popular Gothic novel Gothic fiction is a genre of literature that combines elements of both horror and romance. As a genre, it is generally believed to have been invented by the English author Horace Walpole, with his 1764 novel The Castle of Otranto.^[56] Austen completed her work about a year later. In early 1803, Henry Austen offered Susan to Benjamin Crosby, a London publisher, who paid £10 for the copyright. Crosby promised early publication and went so far as to advertise the book publicly as being "in the press", but did nothing more. The manuscript remained in Crosby's hands, unpublished, until Austen repurchased the copyright from him in 1816.^[57]

Bath and Southampton

In December 1800, Rev. Austen unexpectedly announced his decision to retire from the ministry, leave Steventon, and move the family to Bath Bath is a city in the ceremonial county of Somerset in the south west of England. It is situated 97 miles (156 km) west of London and 13 miles (21 km) south-east of Bristol. The population of the city is 83,992. It was granted city status by Royal Charter by Queen Elizabeth I in 1590, and was made a county borough in 1889 which gave it. While retirement and travel were good for the elder Austens, Jane Austen was shocked to be told she was moving from the only home she had ever known.^[58] An indication of Austen's state of mind is her lack of productivity as a writer during the time she lived at Bath. She was able to make some revisions to Susan, and she began and then abandoned a new novel, The Watsons, but there was nothing like the productivity of the years 1795–99.^[59] Tomalin suggests this reflects a deep depression disabling her as a writer, but Honan disagrees, arguing Austen wrote or revised her manuscripts throughout her creative life, except for a few months after her father died.^[60]

In December 1802, Austen received her only proposal of marriage. She and her sister visited Alethea and Catherine Bigg, old friends who lived near Basingstoke. Their younger brother, Harris Bigg-Wither, had recently finished his education at Oxford and was also at home. Bigg-Wither proposed and Austen accepted. As described by Caroline Austen, Jane's niece, and Reginald Bigg-Wither, a descendant, Harris was not attractive—he was a large, plain-looking man who spoke little, stuttered when he did speak, was aggressive in conversation, and almost completely tactless. However, Austen had known him since both were young and the marriage offered many practical advantages to Austen and her family. He was the heir to extensive family estates located in the area where the sisters had grown up. With these resources, Austen could provide her parents a comfortable old age, give Cassandra a permanent home and, perhaps, assist her brothers in their careers. By the next morning, Austen realised she had made a mistake and withdrew her acceptance.^[61] No contemporary letters or diaries describe how Austen felt about this proposal.^[62] In 1814, Austen wrote a letter to her niece, Fanny Knight, who had asked for advice about a serious relationship, telling her that "having written so much on one side of the question, I shall now turn around & entreat you not to commit yourself farther, & not to think of accepting him unless you really do like him. Anything is to be preferred or endured rather than marrying without Affection".^[63]

In 1804, while living in Bath, Austen started but did not complete a new novel, The Watsons. The story centres on an invalid clergyman with little money and his four unmarried daughters. Sutherland describes the novel as "a study in the harsh economic realities of dependent women's lives".^[64] Honan suggests, and Tomalin agrees, that Austen chose to stop work on the novel after her father died on 21 January 1805 and her personal circumstances resembled those of her characters too closely for her comfort.^[65]

Rev. Austen's final illness had struck suddenly, leaving him, as Austen reported to her brother Francis, "quite insensible of his own state", and he died quickly.^[66] Jane, Cassandra, and their mother were left in a precarious financial situation. Edward, James, Henry, and Francis Austen pledged to make annual contributions to support their mother and sisters.^[67] For the next four years, the family's living arrangements reflected their financial insecurity. They lived part of the time in rented quarters in Bath and then, beginning in 1806, in Southampton, where they shared a house with Frank Austen and his new wife. A large part of this time they spent visiting various branches of the family.^[68]

On 5 April 1809, about three months before the family's move to Chawton, Austen wrote an angry letter to Richard Crosby, offering him a new manuscript of Susan if that was needed to secure immediate publication of the novel, and otherwise requesting the return of the original so she could find another publisher. Crosby replied he had not agreed to publish the book by any particular time, or at all, and that Austen could repurchase the manuscript for the £10 he had paid her and find another publisher. However, Austen did not have the resources to repurchase the book.^[69]

Chawton

Around early 1809, Austen's brother Edward offered his mother and sisters a more settled life—the use of a large cottage in Chawton village^[70] that was part of Edward's nearby estate, Chawton House. Jane, Cassandra, and their mother moved into Chawton cottage on 7 July 1809.^[71] In Chawton, life was quieter than it had been since the family's move to Bath in 1800. The Austens did not socialise with the neighbouring gentry and entertained only when family visited. Austen's niece Anna described the Austen family's life in Chawton: "It was a very quiet life, according to our ideas, but they were great readers, and besides the housekeeping our aunts occupied themselves in working with the poor and in teaching some girl or boy to read or write."^[72] Austen wrote almost daily, but privately, and seems to have been relieved of some household responsibilities to give her more opportunity to write.^[73] In this setting, she was able to be productive as a writer once more.^[74]

Published author

During her time at Chawton, Jane Austen successfully published four novels, which were generally well-received. Through her brother Henry, the publisher Thomas Egerton agreed to publish Sense and Sensibility,^[D] which appeared in October 1811. Reviews were favourable and the novel became fashionable among opinion-makers;^[75] the edition sold out by mid-1813.^[E] Austen's earnings from Sense and Sensibility provided her with some financial and psychological independence.^[76] Egerton then published Pride and Prejudice, a revision of First Impressions, in January 1813. He advertised the book widely and it was an immediate success, garnering three favourable reviews and selling well. By October 1813, Egerton was able to begin selling a second edition.^[77] Mansfield Park was published by Egerton in May 1814. While Mansfield Park was ignored by reviewers, it was a great success with the public. All copies were sold within six months, and Austen's earnings on this novel were larger than for any of her other novels.^[78]

Austen learned that the Prince Regent admired her novels and kept a set at each of his residences.^[F] In November 1815, the Prince Regent's librarian invited Austen to visit the Prince's London residence and hinted Austen should dedicate the forthcoming Emma to the Prince. Though Austen disliked the Prince, she could scarcely refuse the request.^[79] She later wrote Plan of a Novel, according to hints from various quarters, a satiric outline of the "perfect novel" based on the librarian's many suggestions for a future Austen novel.^[80]

In mid-1815, Austen moved her work from Egerton to John Murray, a better known London publisher,^[G] who published Emma in December 1815 and a second edition of Mansfield Park in February 1816. Emma sold well but the new edition of Mansfield Park did not, and this failure offset most of the profits Austen earned on Emma. These were the last of Austen's novels to be published during her lifetime.^[81]

While Murray prepared Emma for publication, Austen began to write a new novel she titled The Elliots, later published as Persuasion. She completed her first draft in July 1816. In addition, shortly after the publication of Emma, Henry Austen repurchased the copyright for Susan from Crosby. Austen was forced to postpone publishing either of these completed novels by family financial troubles. Henry Austen's bank failed in March 1816, depriving him of all of his assets, leaving him deeply in debt and losing Edward, James, and Frank Austen large sums. Henry and Frank could no longer afford the contributions they had made to support their mother and sisters.^[82]

Illness and death

Early in 1816, Jane Austen began to feel unwell. She ignored her illness at first and continued to work and to participate in the usual round of family activities. By the middle of that year, her decline was unmistakable to Austen and to her family, and Austen's physical condition began a long, slow, and irregular deterioration culminating in her death the following year.^[83] The majority of Austen biographers rely on Dr. Vincent Cope's tentative 1964 retrospective diagnosis and list her cause of death as Addison's disease. However, her final illness has also been described as Hodgkin's lymphoma.^[H] Recent work by Katherine White of Britain's Addison’s Disease Self Help Group suggests that Austen likely died of bovine tuberculosis,^[84] a disease (now) commonly associated with drinking unpasteurized milk.

Austen continued to work in spite of her illness. She became dissatisfied with the ending of The Elliots and rewrote the final two chapters, finishing them on 6 August 1816.^[I] In January 1817, Austen began work on a new novel she called The Brothers, later titled Sanditon upon its first publication in 1925, and completed twelve chapters before stopping work in mid-March 1817, probably because her illness prevented her from continuing.^[85] Austen made light of her condition to others, describing it as "Bile" and rheumatism, but as her disease progressed she experienced increasing difficulty walking or finding the energy for other activities. By mid-April, Austen was confined to her bed. In May, their brother Henry escorted Jane and Cassandra to Winchester for medical treatment. Austen died in Winchester on 18 July 1817, at the age of 41. Through his clerical connections, Henry arranged for his sister to be buried in the north aisle of the nave of Winchester Cathedral. The epitaph composed by her brother James praises Austen's personal qualities, expresses hope for her salvation, mentions the "extraordinary endowments of her mind", but does not explicitly mention her achievements as a writer.^[86]

Posthumous publication

After Austen's death, Cassandra and Henry Austen arranged with Murray for the publication of Persuasion and Northanger Abbey as a set in December 1817.^[J] Henry Austen contributed a Biographical Note which for the first time identified his sister as the author of the novels. Tomalin describes it as "a loving and polished eulogy".^[87] Sales were good for a year—only 321 copies remained unsold at the end of 1818—and then declined. Murray disposed of the remaining copies in 1820, and Austen's novels remained out of print for twelve years.^[88] In 1832, publisher Richard Bentley purchased the remaining copyrights to all of Austen's novels and, beginning in either December 1832 or January 1833, published them in five illustrated volumes as part of his Standard Novels series. In October 1833, Bentley published the first collected edition of Austen's works. Since then, Austen's novels have been continuously in print.^[89]

Reception

Contemporary responses

Austen's works brought her little personal renown because they were published anonymously. Although her novels quickly became fashionable among opinion-makers, such as Princess Charlotte Augusta, daughter of the Prince Regent, they received only a few published reviews.^[90] Most of the reviews were short and on balance favourable, although superficial and cautious.^[91] They most often focused on the moral lessons of the novels.^[92] Sir Walter Scott, a leading novelist of the day, contributed one of them, anonymously. Using the review as a platform from which to defend the then disreputable genre of the novel, he praised Austen's realism.^[93] The other important early review of Austen's works was published by Richard Whately in 1821. He drew favourable comparisons between Austen and such acknowledged greats as Homer and Shakespeare, praising the dramatic qualities of her narrative. Whately and Scott set the tone for almost all subsequent nineteenth-century Austen criticism.^[94]

Nineteenth century

Because Austen's novels failed to conform to Romantic and Victorian expectations that "powerful emotion [be] authenticated by an egregious display of sound and colour in the writing",^[95] nineteenth-century critics and audiences generally preferred the works of Charles Dickens and George Eliot.^[96] Though Austen's novels were republished in Britain beginning in the 1830s and remained steady sellers, they were not bestsellers.^[97]

Austen had many admiring readers in the nineteenth century who considered themselves part of a literary elite: they viewed their appreciation of Austen's works as a mark of their cultural taste. Philosopher and literary critic George Henry Lewes expressed this viewpoint in a series of enthusiastic articles published in the 1840s and 1850s.^[99] This theme continued later in the century with novelist Henry James, who referred to Austen several times with approval and on one occasion ranked her with Shakespeare, Cervantes, and Henry Fielding as among "the fine painters of life".^[100]

The publication of James Edward Austen-Leigh's A Memoir of Jane Austen in 1869 introduced Austen to a wider public as "dear aunt Jane", the respectable maiden aunt. Publication of the Memoir spurred the reissue of Austen's novels—the first popular editions were released in 1883 and fancy illustrated editions and collectors' sets quickly followed.^[101] Author and critic Leslie Stephen described the popular mania that started to develop for Austen in the 1880s as "Austenolatry".^[102] Around the turn of the century, members of the literary elite reacted against the popularization of Austen. They referred to themselves as Janeites in order to distinguish themselves from the masses who did not properly understand her works.^[103] For example, James responded negatively to what he described as "a beguiled infatuation" with Austen, a rising tide of public interest that exceeded Austen's "intrinsic merit and interest".^[104]

During the last quarter of the nineteenth century, the first books of criticism on Austen were published. In fact, after the publication of the Memoir, more criticism was published on Austen in two years than had appeared in the previous fifty.^[105]

Twentieth century and beyond

Several important works paved the way for Austen's novels to become a focus of academic study. The first important milestone was a 1911 essay by Oxford Shakespearean scholar A. C. Bradley, which is "generally regarded as the starting-point for the serious academic approach to Jane Austen".^[106] In it, he established the groupings of Austen's "early" and "late" novels, which are still used by scholars today.^[107] The second was R. W. Chapman's 1923 edition of Austen's collected works. Not only was it the first scholarly edition of Austen's works, it was also the first scholarly edition of any English novelist. The Chapman text has remained the basis for all subsequent published editions of Austen's works.^[108] With the publication in 1939 of Mary Lascelles's Jane Austen and Her Art, the academic study of Austen took hold.^[109] Lascelles's innovative work included an analysis of the books Jane Austen read and the effect of her reading on her work, an extended analysis of Austen's style, and her "narrative art". At the time, concern arose over the fact that academics were taking over Austen criticism and it was becoming increasingly esoteric—a debate that has continued to the beginning of the twenty-first century.^[110]

In a spurt of revisionist views in the 1940s, scholars approached Austen more sceptically and argued that she was a subversive writer. These revisionist views, together with F. R. Leavis's and Ian Watt's pronouncement that Austen was one of the great writers of English fiction, did much to cement Austen's reputation amongst academics.^[111] They agreed that she "combined [Henry Fielding's and Samuel Richardson's] qualities of interiority and irony, realism and satire to form an author superior to both".^[112] The period since World War II has seen more scholarship on Austen using a diversity of critical approaches, including feminist theory, and perhaps most controversially, postcolonial theory. However, the continuing disconnection between the popular appreciation of Austen, particularly by modern Janeites, and the academic appreciation of Austen has widened considerably.

Sequels, prequels, and adaptations of almost every sort have been based on the novels of Jane Austen, from soft-core pornography to fantasy.^[113] Beginning in the middle of the nineteenth century, Austen family members published conclusions to her incomplete novels, and by 2000 there were over 100 printed adaptations.^[114] The first film adaptation was the 1940 MGM production of Pride and Prejudice starring Laurence Olivier and Greer Garson.^[115] BBC television dramatisations, which were first produced in the 1970s, attempted to adhere meticulously to Austen's plots, characterisations, and settings.^[116] In 1995 a great wave of Austen adaptations began to appear, with Ang Lee's film of Sense and Sensibility, for which screenwriter and star Emma Thompson won an Academy Award, and the BBC's immensely popular TV mini-series Pride and Prejudice, starring Jennifer Ehle and Colin Firth.^[117]

Books and scripts that use the general storyline of Austen's novels but change or otherwise modernise the story also became popular at the end of the twentieth century. For example, Clueless (1995), Amy Heckerling's updated version of Emma, which takes place in Beverly Hills, became a cultural phenomenon and spawned its own television series.^[118]

List of works

Novels

• Sense and Sensibility (1811)
• Pride and Prejudice (1813)
• Mansfield Park (1814)
• Emma (1815)
• Northanger Abbey (1817) (posthumous)
• Persuasion (1817) (posthumous)

Short fiction

• Lady Susan (1794, 1805)

Unfinished fiction

• The Watsons (1804)
• Sanditon (1817)

Other works

• Sir Charles Grandison (1793, 1800)^[119]
• Plan of a Novel (1815)
• Poems
• Prayers
• Letters

Juvenilia – Volume the First^[120]

• Frederic & Elfrida
• Jack & Alice
• Edgar & Emma
• Henry and Eliza
• The Adventures of Mr. Harley
• Sir William Mountague
• Memoirs of Mr. Clifford
• The Beautifull Cassandra
• Amelia Webster
• The Visit
• The Mystery
• The Three Sisters
• A beautiful description
• The generous Curate
• Ode to Pity

Juvenilia – Volume the Second

• Love and Freindship
• Lesley Castle
• The History of England
• A Collection of Letters
• The female philosopher
• The first Act of a Comedy
• A Letter from a Young Lady
• A Tour through Wales
• A Tale

Juvenilia – Volume the Third

• Evelyn
• Catharine, or the Bower

See also

• Family tree showing Jane Austen, her parents and her siblings
• Family tree showing Jane Austen's siblings and her nephews and nieces
• Timeline of Jane Austen
• Styles and themes of Jane Austen
• Peerage

Notes

1. ^ The original is unsigned but was believed by the family to have been made by Cassandra and remained in the family with the one signed sketch by Cassandra until 1920. The original sketch, according to relatives who knew Jane Austen well, was not a good likeness.^[121]
2. ^ These included the original versions of and revisions to the novels later published as Sense and Sensibility, Pride and Prejudice and Northanger Abbey, and a novel fragment, The Watsons.^[122]
3. ^ Oliver MacDonagh says that Sense and Sensibility "may well be the first English realistic novel" based on its detailed and accurate portrayal of what he calls "getting and spending" in an English gentry family.^[123]
4. ^ All of Jane Austen's novels except Pride and Prejudice were published "on commission", that is, at the author's financial risk. When publishing on commission, publishers would advance the costs of publication, repay themselves as books were sold and then charge a commission for each book sold, paying the rest to the author. If a novel did not recover its costs through sales, the author was responsible for them.^[124]
5. ^ Jane Austen's novels were published in larger editions than was normal for this period. The small size of the novel-reading public and the large costs associated with hand production (particularly the cost of hand-made paper) meant that most novels were published in editions of 500 copies or less, in order to reduce the risks to the publisher and the novelist. Even some of the most successful titles during this period were issued in editions of not more than 750 or 800 copies and later reprinted if demand continued. Austen's novels were published in larger editions, ranging from about 750 copies of Sense and Sensibility to about 2,000 copies of Emma. It is not clear whether the decision to print more copies than usual of Jane Austen's novels was driven by the publishers or the author. Since all but one of Jane Austen's books were originally published "on commission", the risks of overproduction were largely hers (or Cassandra's after her death) and publishers may have been more willing to produce larger editions than was normal practice when their own funds were at risk. Editions of popular works of non-fiction were often much larger.^[125]
6. ^ The Prince Regent's admiration was by no means reciprocated, however. In a letter of 16 February 1813 to her friend Martha Lloyd, Austen says (referring to the Prince's wife, whom he treated notoriously badly) "I hate her Husband".^[126]
7. ^ John Murray also published the work of Walter Scott and Lord Byron. In a letter to Cassandra dated 17/18 October 1816, Austen comments that "Mr. Murray's Letter is come; he is a Rogue of course, but a civil one."^[127]
8. ^ Addison's disease was often a secondary effect of tuberculosis or cancer. For detailed information concerning the retrospective diagnosis, its uncertainties and related controversies, see Honan, 391-92; Le Faye, A Family Record, 236; Grey, "Life of Jane Austen," The Jane Austen Companion, 282; and Wiltshire, Jane Austen and the Body, 221. Claire Tomalin prefers a diagnosis of a lymphoma such as Hodgkin's disease, arguing that Austen's known symptoms are more consistent with a lymphoma than with Addison's disease.^[128]
9. ^ The manuscript of the revised final chapters of Persuasion is the only surviving manuscript in Austen's own handwriting for any of her published novels.^[129]
10. ^ Cassandra and Henry Austen chose the final titles and the title page is dated 1818.
11. ^ Honan points to "the odd fact that most of [Austen's] reviewers sound like Mr. Collins" as evidence that contemporary critics felt that works oriented toward the interests and concerns of women were intrinsically less important and less worthy of critical notice than works (mostly non-fiction) oriented towards men.^[130]

References

1. ^ Southam, "Criticism, 1870-1940", The Jane Austen Companion, 102.
2. ^ Lascelles, 2; for detail on "lower fringes", see Collins, ix-x.
3. ^ Lascelles, 4-5; MacDonagh, 110-28; Honan, 79, 183-85; Tomalin, 66-68.
4. ^ Litz, 3-14; Grundy, "Jane Austen and Literary Traditions", The Cambridge Companion to Jane Austen, 192-93; Waldron, "Critical Responses, Early", Jane Austen in Context, p. 83, 89-90; Duffy, "Criticism, 1814-1870", The Jane Austen Companion, 93-94.
5. ^ Litz, 142.
6. ^ MacDonagh, 66-75; Collins, 160-161.
7. ^ Honan, 124-27; Trott, "Critical Responses, 1830-1970", Jane Austen in Context, 92.
8. ^ ^{a b} Fergus, "Biography", Jane Austen in Context, 3-4.
9. ^ Le Faye, "Letters", Jane Austen in Context, 33.
10. ^ Le Faye, A Family Record, 270; Nokes, 1.
11. ^ Le Faye, A Family Record, 279.
12. ^ Honan, 29-30.
13. ^ Honan, 11-14; Tucker, "Jane Austen's Family", The Jane Austen Companion, 143.
14. ^ Tomalin, 6, 13-16, 147-51, 170-71; Greene, "Jane Austen and the Peerage", Jane Austen: A Collection of Critical Essays, 156-57; Fergus, "Biography", Jane Austen in Context, 5-6; Collins, 10-11.
15. ^ Irene Collins estimates that when George Austen took up his duties as rector in 1764, Steventon comprised no more than about thirty families. Collins, 86.
16. ^ Honan, 14, 17-18; Collins, 54.
17. ^ Fergus, "Biography", 3; Tomalin, 142; Honan, 23, 119.
18. ^ MacDonagh, 50-51; Honan, 24, 246; Collins, 17.
19. ^ ^{a b} Le Faye, Family Record, 22.
20. ^ Tucker, "Jane Austen's Family", 147; Le Faye, Family Record, 43-44.
21. ^ Le Faye, Family Record, 20.
22. ^ Le Faye, Family Record, 27.
23. ^ Tomalin, 7-9; Honan, 21-22; Collins, 86; Le Faye, Family Record, 19. Le Faye and Collins add that the Austens followed this custom for all of their children.
24. ^ Le Faye, Family Record, 47-49; Collins, 35, 133.
25. ^ Tomalin, 9-10, 26, 33-38, 42-43; Le Faye, Family Record, 52; Collins, 133-134.
26. ^ Le Faye, "Chronology", 2-3; Grundy, "Jane Austen and Literary Traditions", 190-91; Tomalin, 28-29, 33-43, 66-67; Honan, 31-34; Lascelles, 7-8. Irene Collins believes that Austen "used some of the same school books as the boys" her father tutored. Collins, 42.
27. ^ Honan, 66-68; Collins, 43.
28. ^ Honan, 211-12.
29. ^ Le Faye, Family Record, 52.
30. ^ Le Faye, "Chronology", 2-3; Tucker, "Amateur Theatricals at Steventon", The Jane Austen Companion, 1-2; Byrne, 1-39; Gay, ix, 1; Tomalin, 31-32, 40-42, 55-57, 62-63; Honan, 35, 47-52, 423-24, n. 20.
31. ^ Honan, 53-54; Lascelles, 106-07; Litz, 14-17.
32. ^ Le Faye, Family Record, 66; Litz, "Chronology of Composition", The Jane Austen Companion, 48; Honan, 61-62, 70; Lascelles, 4.
33. ^ Honan, 62-76; Le Faye, A Family Record, 270.
34. ^ Sutherland, 14; Doody, "The Short Fiction", The Cambridge Companion to Jane Austen, 85-86.
35. ^ Litz, 21; Tomalin, 47; Honan, 73-74; Southam, "Juvenilia", The Jane Austen Companion, 248-49.
36. ^ Honan, 75.
37. ^ Austen, The History of England, Catharine and Other Writings, 134.
38. ^ Jenkyns, 31.
39. ^ Gary Kelly, "Education and accomplishments," Jane Austen in Context, 256-57; Tomalin, 101-03, 120-23, 144.
40. ^ Le Faye, Family Record, 84.
41. ^ Honan, 265.
42. ^ For social conventions among the gentry generally, see Collins, 105.
43. ^ Tomalin, 101-03, 120-23, 144; Honan, 119.
44. ^ Quoted in Tomalin, 102; see also Honan, 84.
45. ^ Southam, "Grandison", The Jane Austen Companion, 187-89.
46. ^ ^{a b} Honan, 93.
47. ^ Honan, 101-102; Tomalin, 82-83
48. ^ Tomalin, 83-84; see also Sutherland, 15.
49. ^ Sutherland, 16-18; LeFaye, "Chronology", 4; Tomalin, 107, 120, 154, 208.
50. ^ Tomalin, 118.
51. ^ Qtd. in Le Faye, Family Record, 92.
52. ^ Le Faye, "Chronology", 4; Fergus, "Biography", 7-8; Tomalin, 112-20, 159; Honan, 105-11.
53. ^ Le Faye, Family Record, 100, 114.
54. ^ Le Fay, Family Record, 104; Sutherland, 17, 21; quotations from Tomalin, 120-22.
55. ^ Le Faye, "Chronology", 5, 7; Fergus, "Biography", 7; Sutherland, 16-18, 21; Tomalin, 120-21; Honan, 122-24.
56. ^ Litz, 59-60.
57. ^ Le Faye, "Chronology", 5, 6, 10; Fergus, "Biography", 8-9; Sutherland, 16, 18-19, 20-22; Tomalin, 182, 199, 254.
58. ^ Collins, 8-9.
59. ^ Sutherland, 21.
60. ^ Le Faye, "Chronology", 6-8; Fergus, "Biography", 8; Sutherland, 15, 20-22; Tomalin, 168-75; Honan, 215. Doody agrees with Tomalin. Margaret Anne Doody, "Jane Austen, that disconcerting child" in Alexander and McMaster, The Child Writer, 105.
61. ^ Le Faye, "Chronology" 6; Fergus, "Biography", p. 7-8; Tomalin, 178-81; Honan, 189-98.
62. ^ Le Faye, "Memoirs and Biographies", Jane Austen in Context, 51.
63. ^ Letter dated 18-20 November 1814, Jane Austen's Letters, 278-82.
64. ^ Sutherland, 15, 21.
65. ^ Le Faye, "Chronology", 7; Tomalin, 182-84; Honan, 203-05.
66. ^ MacDonagh, 111; Honan, 212; Tomalin, 186.
67. ^ Honan, 213-14.
68. ^ Tomalin, 194-206.
69. ^ Tomalin, 207.
70. ^ Chawton had a population of 417 at the census of 1811. Collins, 89.
71. ^ Le Faye, "Chronology", 8; Tomalin, 194-206; Honan, 237-45; MacDonagh, 49.
72. ^ Grey, "Chawton", in The Jane Austen Companion, 38
73. ^ Grey, "Chawton", 37-38; Tomalin, 208, 211-12; Honan, 265-66, 351-52.
74. ^ Doody, "The Shorter Fiction", The Cambridge Companion to Jane Austen, 87.
75. ^ Honan, 289-290.
76. ^ Honan, 290, Tomalin, 218.
77. ^ Sutherland, 16-17, 21; Le Faye, "Chronology" 8-9; Fergus, "The Professional Woman Writer", 19-23; Tomalin, 210-12, 216-20; Honan, 287.
78. ^ Le Faye, "Chronology", 9; Fergus, "The Professional Woman Writer", 22-24; Sutherland, 18-19; Tomalin, 236, 240-41, 315, n. 5.
79. ^ Austen letter to James Stannier Clarke, 15 November 1815; Clarke letter to Austen, 16 November 1815; Austen letter to John Murray, 23 November 1815, Le Faye, Jane Austen's Letters, 296-98.
80. ^ Note on the relationship; Correspondence; Litz, 164-165; Honan, 367-69, describes the episode in detail.
81. ^ Le Faye, "Chronology", 8-9; Sutherland, 16-21; Fergus, "The Professional Woman Writer", 23-27, 30, n.29, 31, n.33; Fergus, "Biography", 10; Tomalin, 256.
82. ^ Le Faye, "Chronology", 6, 10; Fergus, "The Professional Woman Writer", 26-27; Tomalin, 252-54.
83. ^ Honan, 378-79, 385-95
84. ^ http://press.psprings.co.uk/mp/december/98_mh1453.pdf
85. ^ Tomalin, 261.
86. ^ Le Faye, "Chronology", 10-11; Fergus, "The Professional Woman Writer", 26-27; Tomalin, 254-71; Honan, 385-405.
87. ^ Tomalin, 272.
88. ^ Tomalin, 321, n.1 and 3; Gilson, "Editions and Publishing History", in The Jane Austen Companion, 136-37.
89. ^ Gilson, "Editions and Publishing History", p. 137; Gilson, "Later publishing history, with illustrations," Jane Austen in Context, p. 127; Southam, "Criticism, 1870-1940", 102.
90. ^ Honan, Jane Austen, 289–90.
91. ^ Fergus, 18–19; Honan, Jane Austen, 287–89, 316–17, 372–73; Southam, "Introduction", Vol. 1, 1.
92. ^ Waldron, 83–91.
93. ^ Southam, "Scott in the Quarterly Review", Vol. 1, 58; Waldron, "Critical Responses, Early", Jane Austen in Context, 86; Duffy, "Criticism, 1814-1870", The Jane Austen Companion, 94-96.
94. ^ Waldron, "Critical Responses, Early", Jane Austen in Context, 89-90; Duffy, "Criticism, 1814-1870", The Jane Austen Companion, 97; Watt, "Introduction", 4-5.
95. ^ Duffy, "Criticism, 1814-1870", The Jane Austen Companion, 98-99; MacDonagh, 146; Watt, "Introduction", 3-4.
96. ^ Southam, "Introduction", Vol. 1, 2; Southam, "Introduction", Vol. 2, 1.
97. ^ Johnson, "Austen cults and cultures", The Cambridge Companion to Jane Austen, 211; Gilson, "Later publishing history, with illustrations," p. 127.
98. ^ David Gilson, "Later publishing history, with illustrations", Jane Austen in Context, 127.
99. ^ Southam, "Introduction", Vol. 1, 152; Southam, "Introduction", Vol. 2, 20-21.
100. ^ Southam, "Introduction", Vol. 2, 70.
101. ^ Southam, “Introduction”, Vol. 2, 58-62.
102. ^ Southam, "Introduction", Vol. 2, 47.
103. ^ Southam, "Introduction", Vol. 2, 46; Johnson, "Austen cults and cultures", The Cambridge Companion to Jane Austen, 213.
104. ^ Southam, "Henry James on Jane Austen", Vol. 2, 230.
105. ^ Southam, "Introduction", Vol. 1, 1.
106. ^ Brian Southam, quoted in Trott, "Critical Responses, 1830-1970", 92; Southam, "Introduction", Vol. 2, 79.
107. ^ Southam, "Introduction", Vol. 2, 79.
108. ^ Southam, "Introduction", Vol. 2, 99-100; see also Watt, "Introduction", 10-11; Gilson, "Later Publishing History, with Illustrations", 149-50; Johnson, “Austen cults and cultures”, 218.
109. ^ Southam, "Introduction", Vol. 2, 107-109, 124.
110. ^ Southam, "Criticism 1870-1940", 108; Watt, "Introduction", 10-11; Stovel, "Further Reading", 233; Southam, "Introduction", Vol. 2, 127; Todd, 20.
111. ^ Johnson, "Austen cults and cultures", 219; Todd, 20.
112. ^ Todd, 20.
113. ^ Lynch, "Sequels", Jane Austen in Context, 160.
114. ^ Lynch, "Sequels", Jane Austen in Context, 160-62.
115. ^ Brownstein, 13.
116. ^ Troost, "The Nineteenth-Century Novel on Film", 79.
117. ^ Troost, "The Nineteenth-Century Novel on Film", 82–84.
118. ^ Pucci and Thompson, 1.
119. ^ The full title of this short play is Sir Charles Grandison or The happy Man, a Comedy in 6 acts. For more information see Southam, "Grandison", The Jane Austen Companion, 187-189.
120. ^ This list of the juvenilia is taken from The Works of Jane Austen. Vol VI. 1954. Ed. R. W. Chapman and B. C. Southam. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1988, as supplemented by additional research reflected in Margaret Anne Doody and Douglas Murray, eds. Catharine and Other Writings Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1993.
121. ^ Kirkham, "Portraits", Jane Austen in Context, 69-72.
122. ^ Sutherland, "Chronology of Composition and Publication", Jane Austen in Context, 13.
123. ^ MacDonagh, 65, 136-37.
124. ^ Fergus, "The Professional Woman Writer", 15-17; Raven, "Book Production", in Jane Austen in Context, 198; Honan, 285-86.
125. ^ For more information and a discussion of the economics of book publishing during this period, see Fergus, "The Professional Woman Writer", 18, and Raven, "Book Production", 196-203.
126. ^ passage online; Le Faye, Jane Austen's Letters, 207-08.
127. ^ Honan, 364-65; Le Faye, Jane Austen's Letters, 291
128. ^ Tomalin, Appendix I, 283-84; see also Upfal, A. (2005). "Jane Austen's lifelong health problems and final illness: New evidence points to a fatal Hodgkin's disease and excludes the widely accepted Addison's" (Registration required). Medical Humanities 31: 3. doi:10.1136/jmh.2004.000193. http://mh.bmj.com/cgi/content/full/31/1/3.
129. ^ Tomalin, 255.
130. ^ Honan, 317.

Bibliography

Primary works

• Austen, Jane. Catharine and Other Writings. Ed. Margaret Anne Doody and Douglas Murray. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1993. ISBN 0-19-282823-1.
• Austen, Jane. The History of England. Ed. David Starkey. Icon Books, HarperCollins Publishers, 2006. ISBN 0-06-135195-4.
• Le Faye, Deirdre, ed. Jane Austen's Letters. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1995. ISBN 0-19-283297-2.

Secondary works

Biographies

• Austen, Henry Thomas. "Biographical Notice of the Author". Northanger Abbey and Persuasion. London: John Murray, 1817.
• Austen-Leigh, James Edward. A Memoir of Jane Austen. 1926. Ed. R. W. Chapman. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1967.
• Austen-Leigh, William and Richard Arthur Austen-Leigh. Jane Austen: Her Life and Letters, A Family Record. London: Smith, Elder & Co., 1913.
• Fergus, Jan. Jane Austen: A Literary Life. London: Macmillan, 1991. ISBN 0-333-44701-8.
• Honan, Park. Jane Austen: A Life. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1987. ISBN 0-312-01451-1.
• Le Faye, Deirdre. Jane Austen: A Family Record. Second Edition. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003. ISBN 0-521-53417-8.
• Nokes, David. Jane Austen: A Life. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1998. ISBN 0520216067.
• Tomalin, Claire. Jane Austen: A Life. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1997. ISBN 0-679-44628-1.

Essay collections

• Alexander, Christine and Juliet McMaster, eds. The Child Writer from Austen to Woolf. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2005. ISBN 0-521-81293-3.
• Copeland, Edward and Juliet McMaster, eds. The Cambridge Companion to Jane Austen. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997. ISBN 0-521-49867-8.
• Grey, J. David, ed. The Jane Austen Companion. New York: Macmillan, 1986. ISBN 0-52-545540-0.
• Lynch, Deidre, ed. Janeites: Austen's Disciples and Devotees. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2000. ISBN 0-691-05005-8.
• Southam, B. C., ed. Jane Austen: The Critical Heritage, 1812-1870. Vol. 1. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1968. ISBN 0-7100-2942-X.
• Southam, B. C., ed. Jane Austen: The Critical Heritage, 1870-1940. Vol. 2. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1987. ISBN 0-7102-0189-3.
• Todd, Janet, ed. Jane Austen In Context. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2005. ISBN 0-521-82644-6.
• Watt, Ian, ed. Jane Austen: A Collection of Critical Essays. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1963. ISBN 0-130-53769-0.

Monographs and articles

• Armstrong, Nancy. Desire and Domestic Fiction. London: Oxford University Press, 1987. ISBN 0-19-506160-8.
• Butler, Marilyn. Jane Austen and the War of Ideas. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1975. ISBN 0-19-812968-8.
• Byrne, Paula. Jane Austen and the Theatre. London and New York: Continuum, 2002. ISBN 978-1847250476.
• Collins, Irene. Jane Austen and the Clergy. London: The Hambledon Press, 1994. ISBN 1-85285-114-7.
• Devlin, D. D. Jane Austen and Education. London: Macmillan, 1975. ISBN 0-333-14431-2.
• Duckworth, Alistair M. The Improvement of the Estate: A Study of Jane Austen's Novels. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1971. ISBN 0-8018-1269-0.
• Fergus, Jan. Jane Austen and the Didactic Novel. Totowa: Barnes & Noble, 1983. ISBN 0-389-20228-2.
• Ferguson, Moira. "Mansfield Park, Slavery, Colonialism, and Gender". Oxford Literary Review 13 (1991): 118-39.
• Galperin, William. The Historical Austen. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2003. ISBN 0-812-23687-4.
• Gay, Penny. Jane Austen and the Theatre. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002. ISBN 0-521-65213-8.
• Gubar, Susan and Sandra Gilbert. The Madwoman in the Attic: The Woman Writer and the Nineteenth Century Literary Imagination. 1979. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1984. ISBN 0-300-02596-3.
• Harding, D. W., "Regulated Hatred: An Aspect of the Work of Jane Austen". Jane Austen: A Collection of Critical Essays. Ed. Ian Watt. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1963.
• Jenkyns, Richard. A Fine Brush on Ivory: An Appreciation of Jane Austen. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004. ISBN 0-19-927761-7.
• Johnson, Claudia L. Jane Austen: Women, Politics and the Novel. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1988. ISBN 0-226-40139-1.
• Kirkham, Margaret. Jane Austen, Feminism and Fiction. Brighton: Harvester, 1983. ISBN 0-710-80468-7.
• Koppel, Gene. The Religious Dimension in Jane Austen's Novels. Ann Arbor, MI: UMI Research Press, 1988.
• Lascelles, Mary. Jane Austen and Her Art. Original publication 1939. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1966.
• Leavis, F. R. The Great Tradition: George Eliot, Henry James, Joseph Conrad. London: Chatto & Windus, 1960.
• Litz, A. Walton. Jane Austen: A Study of Her Development. New York: Oxford University Press, 1965.
• Lynch, Deidre. The Economy of Character. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1998. ISBN 0-226-49820-4.
• MacDonagh, Oliver. Jane Austen: Real and Imagined Worlds. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1991. ISBN 0-300-05084-4.
• Miller, D. A. Jane Austen, or The Secret of Style. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2003. ISBN 0-691-12387-X.
• Mudrick, Marvin. Jane Austen: Irony as Defense and Discovery. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1952.
• Page, Norman. The Language of Jane Austen. Oxford: Blackwell, 1972. ISBN 0-631-08280-8.
• Poovey, Mary. The Proper Lady and the Woman Writer: Ideology as Style in the Works of Mary Wollstonecraft, Mary Shelley, and Jane Austen. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1984. ISBN 0-226-67528-9.
• Raven, James. The Business of Books: Booksellers and the English Book Trade. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2007. ISBN 0-300-12261-6.
• Said, Edward W. Culture and Imperialism. New York: Vintage Books, 1993. ISBN 0-679-75054-1.
• Todd, Janet. The Cambridge Introduction to Jane Austen. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006. ISBN 978-0-521-67469-7.
• Waldron, Mary. Jane Austen and the Fiction of Her Time. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999. ISBN 0-521-00388-1.
• Wiltshire, John. Recreating Jane Austen. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2001. ISBN 0-521-00282-6.
• Wiltshire, John. Jane Austen and the Body: The Picture of Health. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1992. ISBN 0-521-41476-8.

External links

Online works

• Works by Jane Austen - etexts by Electronic Literature Foundation
• Works by Jane Austen at Project Gutenberg
• E-books of Austen's work in ePub, mobipocket, and pdf. Includes the complete Juvenilia.
• Works by Jane Austen - e-books in HTML
• Works by Jane Austen - printable PDF ebooks
• A Memoir of Jane Austen by James Edward Austen-Leigh

Museums

• Jane Austen's House Museum in Chawton
• The Jane Austen Centre in Bath

Fan sites and societies

• The Republic of Pemberley: the largest Jane Austen site on the web.
• The Jane Austen Society of Australia
• The Jane Austen Society of North America
• The Jane Austen Society of the United Kingdom

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