Jane Austen

1. 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).

2. 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.

3. 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.

4. 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…”

5. Jane Austen
Romanticism ( 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).

6. Jane Austen
Austen 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 discourseFree indirect discourse is a narrative style which
is used for the representation of spoken words or thoughts.

7. 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 cuesstylistic 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

8. Jane Austen
STYLESTYLE
• 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.

9. 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.

10. 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).

11. Jane Austen
THE 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.

12. Jane Austen
Conventions: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.

13. Jane Austen
Assembly Rooms, Bath.

14. Jane Austen
Pulteney Bridge and River Avon, Bath

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