Women’s Writing in the British Isles from the Beginnings to the Present
Jane Austen
-
Standard Name: Austen, Jane
Birth Name: Jane Austen
Pseudonym: A Lady
Styled: Mrs Ashton Dennis
JA
's unequalled reputation has led academic canon-makers to set her on a pedestal and scholars of early women's writing to use her as an epoch. For generations she was the first—or the only—woman to be adjudged major. Recent attention has shifted: her balance, good sense, and humour are more taken for granted, and critics have been scanning her six mature novels for traces of the boldness and irreverence which mark her juvenilia. Her two unfinished novels, her letters (which some consider an important literary text in themselves), and her poems and prayers have also received some attention.
HW
's presence with her first lover, Lord Craven, at his family's estate of Ashdown Park in the Berkshire Downs was recorded in a letter by Jane Austen
, who wrote that Craven had...
Travel
Mary Russell Mitford
On this trip she also visited Bristol and (very briefly) Barnstaple in Devon. In Bath she was haunted (like many visitors after her) by the idea of Jane Austen
characters, and at Bristol by...
Travel
Eliza Fletcher
In her eighties, travelling with her youngest daughter, she visited Winchester Cathedral and the shrine
Southam, Brian. “Jane Austen and Winchester Cathedral”. Persuasions, Vol.
24
, pp. 226-40.
226
of her admired Jane Austen
.
Southam, Brian. “Jane Austen and Winchester Cathedral”. Persuasions, Vol.
24
, pp. 226-40.
226-7
Theme or Topic Treated in Text
John Oliver Hobbes
JOH
sometimes discusses her own writing, career, and ambition: One's place in literature is a possession—never a concession. And one knows one's place. I don't wish to be judged—one way or the other—till I am...
Theme or Topic Treated in Text
Anna Margaretta Larpent
This later diary, generally written daily at any odd moment, provides indexing of special events which reveals AML
's methodical character. Occasional months are missing here and there. The diarist offers penetrating comment on a...
Theme or Topic Treated in Text
Anne Grant
She likes her reading to be strenuous: she recommends Jane Austen
's Mansfield Park as light reading,
Grant, Anne. Memoir and Correspondence of Mrs. Grant of Laggan. Editor Grant, John Peter, Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans.
She omits reviews from this collection, but provides readers with an opportunity to consider literary topics. The Translation of Poetry argues that because [i]n poetry the form of the thought is part of the thought...
Theme or Topic Treated in Text
Eva Figes
Though she mentions such writers as Eliza Haywood
and Mary Davys
, she begins her detailed discussion with the 1790s (a time which twenty years on would be regarded as somewhat late in the history...
Theme or Topic Treated in Text
Marghanita Laski
She insists that even Jane Austen
. . . could write letters of a bitchiness and coarseness not inferrable from the impeccable sense of human values in her books.
Laski, Marghanita. “To the Editor: ’George Eliot and Her World’”. Times Literary Supplement, No. 3725, p. 869.
869
She posits an underlying double...
Theme or Topic Treated in Text
Muriel Jaeger
In an amusing fantasy entitled Trial of Jane Austen the accused stands charged with masquerading as a great writer.
Jaeger, Muriel. Shepherd’s Trade. Arthur H. Stockwell.
118
Pompous or foolish witnesses accuse her of ignoring national politics, social problems, sex, professional careerism...
Theme or Topic Treated in Text
Catherine Hutton
CH
was reading Jane Austen
: at this stage she saw Austen's novels as trifles, but agreeable ones.
Hutton, Catherine. Reminiscences of a Gentlewoman of the Last Century. Editor Beale, Catherine Hutton, Cornish Brothers.
175
Timeline
Early August 1591: Sir John Harington's translation of Ariosto's...
Writing climate item
Early August 1591
Sir John Harington
's translation of Ariosto
's heroicromanceOrlando Furioso (which means something like Roland Run Mad) was published.
17 August 1759: In the Seven Years' War, the British navy...
National or international item
17 August 1759
In the Seven Years' War, the British navy won a crucial victory over the French fleet at the battle of Lagos, WestAfrica.
1765: The didactic History of Little Goody Two-Shoes...
Writing climate item
1765
The didactic History of Little Goody Two-Shoes was published by John Newbery: the most popular children's book of its period. It had fourteen reprints before 1814.
About 1766: Printer and engraver John Spilsbury perfected...
Building item
About 1766
Printer and engraver John Spilsbury
perfected the dissected map which became the forerunner of the jigsaw puzzle.
By June 1766: James Fordyce anonymously printed his Sermons...
Building item
By June 1766
James Fordyce
anonymously printed his Sermons to Young Women. It went through ninety-five British reprints by 1850, plus half as many again in the USA.
About 27 March 1782: Eliza Hancock, aged nineteen, married Jean-François...
April 1792: The Marseillaise was composed in France as...
National or international item
April 1792
The Marseillaise was composed in France as a revolutionary song.
By August 1794: The Necromancer, or The Tale of the Black...
Writing climate item
By August 1794
The Necromancer, or The Tale of the Black Forest, translated by Peter Teuthold
from the German of Karl Friedrich Kahlert
, appeared: it was one of the gothichorrid novels of Austen
's Northanger Abbey.
1796-1815: Throughout these war years the Bibliothèque...
Writing climate item
1796-1815
Throughout these war years the Bibliothèque britannique, published in Geneva, kept open cultural relations between France and England.
23 July 1796: Horrid Mysteries. A Story, translated by...
Writing climate item
23 July 1796
Horrid Mysteries. A Story, translated by P. Will
from Karl Friedrich August Grosse
(one of the gothichorrid novels of Austen
's Northanger Abbey), was advertised as just out.
26 April 1798: Francis Lathom's The Midnight Bell, A German...
Writing climate item
26 April 1798
Francis Lathom
's The Midnight Bell, A German Story, one of the gothichorrid novels mentioned in Jane Austen
's Northanger Abbey, was advertised as newly published.
25 June 1798: A new tax on the upper classes came into...
National or international item
25 June 1798
A new tax on the upper classes came into effect, levying two guineas for the privilege of running a coach or carriage with armorial bearings (that is, a coat of arms) painted on it.
10 May to 14 August 1813: The British Institution held a retrospective...
Building item
10 May to 14 August 1813
The British Institution
held a retrospective exhibition of 141 paintings by Sir Joshua Reynolds
at its Pall Mall Picture Galleries: a major event of the social season, both cultural and patriotic.
Barchas, Janine. What Jane Saw. http://www.whatjanesaw.org.
9 June 1819: The library of the late Queen Charlotte was...
9 December 1826: The Literary Gazette printed a Key to Marianne...
Women writers item
9 December 1826
The Literary Gazette printed a Key to Marianne Spencer Hudson
's silver-fork novel, Almack's (titled after the well-known elite gentlemen's club of the same name), which had already reached its second edition this year. The...
