Did you know that Jane Austen’s first novel ‘Sense and Sensibility’ was signed ‘By a Lady.’ Four of Austen’s novels: ‘Sense and Sensibility,’ ‘Pride and Prejudice,’ ‘Mansfield Park,’ and ‘Emma’ were published anonymously while ‘Northanger Abbey’ and ‘Persuasion’ were published together a year after her death. She remained unknown as the author during her lifetime. Her brother, Henry announced her authorship to the world in a eulogy.
Jane Austen remains till date one of the most celebrated novelists in the history of literature. She is known for six of her novels which were published during the years 1811 and 1818 while another work ‘Lady Susan’ was published much later in 1871. Austen left two of her works unfinished: ‘The Watsons’ and ‘Sanditon’ due to her untimely demise at the age of 41. Her novels have been adapted multiple times to prominent and successful films. Modern and contemporary adaptations of her works include ‘Clueless,’ ‘Aisha,’ ‘Bridget Jones’ Diary,’ and ‘From Prade to Nada.’
More than 200 years after her death, she remains relevant to modern readers and continues to inspire and shape the popular culture. But what is special about her? Some attribute her popularity to her use of universal themes such as love, romance, betrayal, marriage, society, family, class etc in her novels while others say it’s her wit and writing style that is keeping the readers attracted towards her.
Let’s learn more about this beloved author:
Jane Austen was born on December 16, 1775 in Steventon, Hampshire. Her father, George Austen was a rector and her mother Cassandra was part of the aristocratic Leigh family. She had six brothers and one older sister, Cassandra, who was her best friend and biggest confidante. She was the only one of her siblings not to have a middle name. She was simply Jane. Austen grew up in an intellectual atmosphere. Both her and her sister’s education was valued by their parents. Jane was a voracious reader and loved to write poems and stories for herself and her family. After the death of their father, she lived with her sister and mother at Chawton Cottage which was given to them by her brother. It was there Austen published her works.
Much of what is known about her life, we get from the letters she wrote to her sister, Cassandra. But only a few letters survive because her sister burned a majority of them after her death which was apparently a common practice at that time. It is estimated that there existed 3000 letters written by her.
She also had a sisterlike bond with her niece Fanny Knight, later Lady Knatchbull. “I found her… just what you describe, almost another Sister, — & could not have supposed that a niece would ever have been so much to me,” she wrote in a letter to Cassandra. Fanny was the eldest daughter of her brother Edward and was born when Austen was 17 years old. Fanny kept their correspondence till her death at the age of 89. She was her aunt’s favourite and one of the few who truly understood and appreciated her talent.
Both Jane and Cassandra never married in their lifetimes. Cassandra’s fiancé died of yellow fever and she remained unmarried throughout her life. Jane received a proposal of marriage but never married. Austen believed in marrying for love while for a lot of other girls her age, marriage was a means to financial security. She once advised her niece Fanny Knight that, “Anything is to be preferred or endured rather than marrying without Affection.” A name that is frequently associated with her is Tom Lefroy. He was Irish and their flirtation began at a ball or a social gathering when Lefroy visited someone in her neighbourhood. In a letter to her sister, she described him as “a very gentlemanlike, good-looking, pleasant young man.” Whether it was flirtation or love, it soon ended. Neither of them had enough money. Tom was dependent on a relative to finance his legal career. They never saw each other again. Tom went on to have a successful career and was Lord Chief Justice of Ireland from 1852 to 1866.
Austen received one marriage proposal from the brother of a friend, Harris Bigg-Wither, who was considered ‘not particularly attractive.’ She accepted at first but declined the next morning. It was a bold decision on her part as she was 27 and had little hope of receiving another proposal in the future. She believed that a woman shouldn’t get married if she wasn’t in love. She wrote to her niece, advising her on her marital prospects that “If his deficiencies of manner strike you more than all his good qualities, give him up at once.”She once wrote, tongue in cheek, that “Happiness in marriage is entirely a matter of chance” in a letter to her Cassandra.
While she may not have been so lucky in love herself, her works are considered epitomes of love and romance. A detailed account of her works is given below:
- Sense and Sensibility- Published in 1811, she wrote its first draft in epistolary form at the age of 19. It was then given the title ‘Elinor and Marianne.’ It follows the story of the Dashwood sisters and their widowed mother as they are forced to leave their family estate and settle at Barton Cottage. Austen had paid to have the book published and had to bear the risk of losses. Luckily, it was successful and made her £150. She treated her books like her children. She called this one her ‘suckling child.’ Sense and Sensibility received positive reviews from critics for its “naturally drawn characters” and its plot: “the incidents are probable, and highly pleasing and interesting.”
- Pride and Prejudice– This novel was first titled ‘First Impressions’ and signed ‘By the author of Sense and Sensibility.’ The change of title was inspired by Fanny Burney’s novel ‘Cecilia’ in which the titular phrase appears three times in the book’s final paragraph. She started writing this novel in 1796. In 1797, her father sent it to the publisher, Thomas Cadell. It was declined and returned by post in no time. By the time it was published in 1813, she had made significant revisions in it. The novel follows the character development of the legendary literary heroine, Elizabeth Bennet. Austen was worried the book wasn’t serious enough. “The work is rather too light, and bright, and sparkling,” she once wrote. Nevertheless, her book was her ‘darling child.’
3. Mansfield Park– Mansfield Park is the third novel published in 1814 by Thomas Egerton. It made her a profit of £350. Her mother wasn’t fond of this novel. She found the heroine Fanny ‘insipid.’ Cassandra, on the other hand, was ‘fond of Fanny’ and ‘delighted much in Mr Rushworth’s stupidity.’ The novel did not receive any public reviews until 1821. Although this book is unfairly called her dullest work, Austen cared a lot about it and was worried about not getting any reviews. A family friend, Augusta Branstone, had thought Sense and Sensibility and Pride and Prejudice were ‘downright nonsense,’ but expected to like Mansfield Park more. She preferred it to Jane’s other books, although Jane wrote that she ‘imagined that might be her want of taste – as she does not understand wit!’
4. Emma- It’s the last novel to be published in her lifetime. She started writing it in 1814 and finished in 1815. She had told Cassandra that she was going to write about someone less perfect. ‘I am going to take a heroine whom no one but myself will much like.’ When Emma was published the title page simply reads, ‘By the Author of “Pride and Prejudice, etc etc.’ Jane shared her worries about the public reception of her new novel. ‘I am very strongly haunted by the idea that to those Readers who have preferred P&P. it will appear inferior in Wit, & to those who have preferred MP. very inferior in good Sense.’ Emma Woodhouse, the titular heroine, was the most unconventional Austen heroine. She published two thousand copies of the novel at her own expense, retaining the copyright and paying a 10% commission to Murray, her publisher.
5. Northanger Abbey- This was published posthumously in 1817 with Persuasion. Northanger Abbey was completed in 1803, making it the first of Austen’s novels to be completed in full. The story follows Catherine Morland as she develops to better understand herself and the world around her. Austen initially sold the novel, then titled ‘Susan’ (she also called it ‘Catherine’) for £10 to a London bookseller in 1803. It was not published and Austen reportedly threatened to take her work back from them, but they responded that there would be legal consequences for reclaiming her text. In the spring of 1816, the bookseller sold it back to the novelist’s brother, Henry Austen, for the same sum as they had paid for it. After her death, Austen’s brother Henry gave the novel its final name and arranged for publication of Northanger Abbey in late December 1817.
- Persuasion- Persuasion is the last novel completed by her and was published along with Northanger Abbey. Austen penned the first draft between August 8, 1815, and July 18, 1816, and completed her revisions less than a month later. She called it ‘The Elliots.’ It is believed Henry or Cassandra named it Persuasion. Persuasion “contains parts of very great merit,” one reviewer wrote in an 1818 issue of The British Critic. The story follows Anne Elliot, a 27-year-old woman who reconnects with her former fiancé, Captain Wentworth, years after she was persuaded to break off their engagement. In an era when marriage was a calculated decision, Persuasion’s message that young lovers should depend on their instincts to avoid being miserable was not well received by the readers.
Austen’s health started to decline in early 1816. She and her sister moved to Winchester to be closer to her doctor. She created a will and left most of her belongings to her sister. She also mentioned her brother Henry and his late wife’s secretary Madame Bigeon. She died in 1817 from a disease that was never diagnosed. The widely accepted notion is that she suffered from Addison’s Disease but that claim is debated.
A lot of critics and readers don’t consider her a feminist writer. Her novels are not feminist from the modern viewpoint. She talked about women wanting domestic pleasures of life and the main concern of all her novels is marriage. But her works cannot be reduced only to love and romance. She created bold heroines who stood up for themselves at the time when women had no legal rights whatsoever. Rest aside, the fact that Jane Austen was writing at such a time period is an act of feminism itself.
Here are some of brilliant quotes by Jane Austen that prove why she is phenomenal:
“A lady’s imagination is very rapid; it jumps from admiration to love, from love to matrimony in a moment.” -Pride and Prejudice.
“I hate to hear you talk about all women as if they were fine ladies instead of rational creatures. None of us want to be in calm waters all our lives.” – Persuasion.
“Ah! There is nothing like staying at home, for real comfort.”
“Give a girl an education and introduce her properly into the world, and ten to one but she has the means of settling well, without further expense to anybody.”
“I do not think I ever opened a book in my life which had not something to say upon woman’s inconstancy. Songs and proverbs, all talk of woman’s fickleness. But perhaps you will say, these were all written by men.”- Persuasion.
What strange creatures brothers are!”
“It is not time or opportunity that is to determine intimacy; —it is disposition alone. Seven years would be insufficient to make somepeople acquainted with each other, and seven days are more than enough for others.” – Sense and Sensibility.
“If adventures will not befall a young lady in her own village, she must seek them abroad.” – Northanger Abbey.
Are you a Janeite? What do you think of Jane Austen? Do you think she was a feminist? Let us know your views in the comment section below.
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