2-Jane Austen

• Set amongst the English middle and upper classes • notable for their wit, social observation and insights into the lives of early 19th century women.
Jane Austen (1775—1817)
• A final product of Augustan Age of the 18th cent. • Her writing was based on observing of society she lived in. • An element of sense and sensibility in her writings. The element of sentimentality is romantic.
Her Subject Matter
• trivial and domestic subject • emotions • education
Her Heroines
• • • • • typically of good family but with little money has no recognized prospect but marriage no wish to marry without love no suitable man in sight after trials and moral discoveries, virtue wins.
Her Position in English Literature
• It is difficult to pinpoint her position • However, she is popular throughout England and is also the most popular outside England. • A moral idealist
Basic features of the six novels
• The bright Northanger Abbey and the dark Sense and Sensibility are preparatory to the well-managed gaiety of Pride and Prejudice, which the author came to find ‘too light, bright and sparkling’. It is certainly simpler than the serious Mansfield Park, the classical Emma and the autumnal Persuasion.
The World of Jane Austen
• A world of women without employment and a world of country gentlemen, clergymen, and men who seek employment in the army. • The rural country town in the 19th cent., a fairly stratified society • A domestic world of which the basic form is gossip • A world of snobs
Major Stylistic Features
• the use of irony • domestic comedy (comedy of manners)
– -accuracy of social behavior and dialogue, moral realism, elegance of style, and ingenuity of plot.
Novels in order of composition (with publication dates)
• • • • • • Sense and Sensibility (1811) Northanger Abbey (1Biblioteka Baidu18) Pride and Prejudice (1813) Mansfield Park (1814) Emma (1816) Persuasion (1818)