In her six great novels, Sense and Sensibility, Pride and Prejudice, Mansfield Park, Emma, Northanger Abbey and Persuasion, Jane Austen laid the foundations of the modern English novel. Some, indeed, would say that her achievement has never been surpassed. Though redolent of her time, her prose is as readable today as any contemporary author; a mistress of style and composition, she sews little gems into her narrative like some royal seamstress; often characterised as a Romantic, she flays her characters as mercilessly as any mediaeval torturer—with this result: that they are universal without being either stereotypes or caricatures, and that from her position as a parson's daughter she saw so well into the souls of the highest and the lowest, that her work achieved a brilliance that lifts it into the realm of world literature.
Jane was born on the 16th of December 1775, in the village of Steventon in Hampshire, the second daughter of the Reverend George Austen, Rector of that parish, and of Cassandra Austen, née Leigh.
She started writing as a child, her juvenile output including first drafts of Sense and Sensibility, Pride and Prejudice and Northanger Abbey. In 1801, when Jane was aged 24, her father retired and the family moved, first to Bath, then briefly to Southampton, and finally to Chawton, a small village where she spent most of the rest of her life.
Austen published Sense and Sensibility at her own expense in 1811. Pride and Prejudice followed relatively quickly in 1813, then Mansfield Park in 1814 and Emma in 1816. And that was it in her lifetime, for she died on the 18th of July 1817, and both Persuasion and Northanger Abbey were published posthumously in 1818.
Austen never married—though apparently she did not lack for admirers—and it is tempting to see in her clever, virtuous heroines, whose nice judgement and infinite patience enable them to triumph over their difficulties and win the hearts of their equally superior men, an idealised image of herself. Tempting, but on closer inspection she is remarkably hard on her characters, and it is possible to wonder if anyone, living or fictional, came up to her high standards.
Jane Austen was the first English novelist to treat of ordinary people living ordinary lives—though elements of the romantic fairy-tale peep through in novels such as Pride and Prejudice.
Her novels were variations on a theme laid down by Fanny Burney: how a girl gets her man. Within this, there are wide variations: Northanger Abbey is a satire of the gothic novel, whereas Mansfield Park and Persuasion, have themes traditionally labeled Victorian: female repression by harsh social mores.
She was an exceedingly witty novelist: Pride and Prejudice, for example, abounds in witty and pithy sayings.
Jane was not widely-known in her own day—her name did not appear on her title pages—she was appreciated by people of taste; her admirers including Sir Walter Scott and the Prince Regent. Scott said of her:
That young lady had a talent for describing the involvements, and feelings, and characters of ordinary life, which is to me the most wonderful I ever met with. The Big Bow-wow strain I can do myself like any now going; but the exquisite touch, which renders ordinary commonplace things and characters interesting, from the truth of the description and the sentiment, is denied to me.
She also influenced later writers such as Henry James.
| Year | Work |
|---|---|
| 1795 | Elinor and Marianne |
| 1797 | First Impressions |
| 1799 | Susan (A Novel in Two Volumes) |
| 1811 | Sense and Sensibility |
| 1813 | Pride and Prejudice |
| 1814 | Mansfield Park |
| 1816 | Emma |
| 1818 | Northanger Abbey |
| 1818 | Persuasion |
| 1925 | Sanditon |
| ???? | Love and Friendship |
June Dwyer: Jane Austen (1989). J.P. Thompson: Between Self and World: The Novels of Jane Austen (1988). Park Honan: Jane Austen: Her Life (1988). C.L. Johnson: Jane Austen: Women, Politics, and the Novel (1988). John Burrows: Computation into Criticism: A Study of Jane Austen's Novels (1987). B.C. Southam: Jane Austen: The Critical Heritage, 2 vols. (1987). Tony Tanner: Jane Austen (1986). John Halperin: The Life of Jane Austen (1984). Jan Fergus: Jane Austen and the Didactic Novel (1983). Janet Todd (ed.): Jane Austen: New Perspectives (1983). P.J. Scott: Jane Austen: A Reassessment (1982). Joan Rees: Jane Austen (1976). Alistair Duckworth: The Improvement of the Estate: A Study of Jane Austen's Novels (1971). A. Walton Litz: Jane Austen: A Study of Her Artistic Development (1965). Ian Watt (ed.): Jane Austen: A Collection of Critical Essays (1963). Mary Lascelles: Jane Austen and Her Art (1954).