Jane Austen

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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.
Photograph of a colourized print of Jane Austen, from a drawing by a Mr Andrews commissioned by Austen's nephew James Edward Austen Leigh as frontispiece to his "Memoir of Jane Austen", 1870 (fifty years after she died). She is shown seated, with a book on her lap, wearing a blue dress and light brown bonnet.

Connections

Connections Author name Excerpt
Intertextuality and Influence Grace Aguilar
The central character is the undowered girl Florence Leslie—so called because of her birth in Italy—whose high-minded principles have been fuelled by indiscriminate
Aguilar, Grace. Woman’s Friendship. D. Appleton and Company.
13
reading in history, poetry, and romance at an early age...
Textual Production Joan Aiken
JA published Mansfield Revisited, A Novel, a sequel to Austen 's Mansfield Park and a harbinger of escalation in fiction of this type.
“Joan Aiken”. Fantastic Fiction.
Solo: Search Oxford University Libraries Online. http://solo.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/primo_library/libweb/action/search.do?vid=OXVU1&fromLogin=true&reset_config=true.
Textual Production Joan Aiken
JA published Jane Fairfax: A Novel to Complement Emma, another parallel Jane Austen .
“Joan Aiken”. Fantastic Fiction.
Solo: Search Oxford University Libraries Online. http://solo.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/primo_library/libweb/action/search.do?vid=OXVU1&fromLogin=true&reset_config=true.
Textual Production Joan Aiken
JA published Eliza's Daughter, which ties in with and continues Jane Austen 's Sense and Sensibility, by relating the story of Colonel Brandon's mysterious ward.
“Joan Aiken”. Fantastic Fiction.
Solo: Search Oxford University Libraries Online. http://solo.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/primo_library/libweb/action/search.do?vid=OXVU1&fromLogin=true&reset_config=true.
Textual Production Joan Aiken
JA again partnered herself with Jane Austen , completing the earlier of Austen's two unfinished novels as Emma Watson, The Watsons Completed.
This unfinished novel, a standing temptation to sequel-writers, was first completed by...
Textual Production Joan Aiken
JA published another novel conceived of as complementary to Austen : The Youngest Miss Ward, a prequel to Mansfield Park.
Solo: Search Oxford University Libraries Online. http://solo.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/primo_library/libweb/action/search.do?vid=OXVU1&fromLogin=true&reset_config=true.
Textual Production Joan Aiken
JA published a pendant to yet another Austen novel: Lady Catherine's Necklace, which foregrounds minor characters from Pride and Prejudice and adds a number of new ones.
British Library Catalogue. http://explore.bl.uk/primo_library/libweb/action/search.do?dscnt=0&tab=local_tab&dstmp=1489778087340&vid=BLVU1&mode=Basic&fromLo.
Author summary Joan Aiken
JA was a popular and successful later twentieth-century writer of short stories and longer fictions for children, most of which are fantasies or have strong supernatural or mystery elements. She also wrote adult novels (both...
Textual Production Joan Aiken
Next year came The Smile of the Stranger, a historical romance whose English heroine experiences not only the French Revolution (since she has been living with her father in France) but other markers...
Literary responses Louisa May Alcott
Following her death, G. K. Chesterton in a laudatory (if sexist) review classed LMA with Austen as an early realist, and praised her apt depictions of human truths.
Chesterton, G. K. “Louisa Alcott”. Critical Essays on Louisa May Alcott, edited by Madeleine B. Stern, G. K. Hall, pp. 212-14.
213-14
She was a favourite writer...
Textual Production Naomi Alderman
In another article of similar date (early 2017), Alderman praises an early love, the webcomic, formerly the comic strip. Her favourites include as Kate Beaton 's webcomic Hark a Vagrant, which often, as in...
Occupation Lady Cynthia Asquith
Meanwhile she prepared to receive evacuees from London, and volunteered for first aid work, nursing, and night shifts with the ARP (Air Raid Precaution) .
Beauman, Nicola. Cynthia Asquith. Hamish Hamilton.
311
After the war she became a member both of...
Occupation Lady Cynthia Asquith
For her three weeks' work in this capacity she earned £900. She did even better in spring 1957 by appearing on an ITV quiz programme, the $64,000 Question, to answer questions on the novels...
Literary responses Diana Athill
Through her great age and greater panache DA became something of a cult figure. Edward Field wrote that she functioned for the British public as the Chief Guide to Old Age.
Field, Edward. “Edward Field’s Introduction”. Letters to a Friend, p. xi - xx.
xx
She was awarded...
Intertextuality and Influence Margaret Atwood
The world before is a slightly exaggerated and unmercifully satirised version of today's reality: gated communities, vertiginous inequalities, frequently mutating viruses, sadistic pornography online, and commodification of everything. True to Atwood's principles, she finds the...

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...

Building item

About 27 March 1782

Eliza Hancock , aged nineteen, married Jean-François Capot de Feuillide , a Frenchman who claimed to be a count and who inaccurately supposed her to be a wealthy heiress.

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...

Building item

9 June 1819

The library of the late Queen Charlotte was auctioned by Christie's ; it included Jane Austen 's works, plus titles by Catherine Cuthbertson , Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire , Christian Isobel Johnstone , Alethea Lewis

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...

Texts

Austen, Jane. <span data-tei-ns-tag="tei_title" data-tei-title-lvl="m">Northanger Abbey</span>; and, <span data-tei-ns-tag="tei_title" data-tei-title-lvl="m">Persuasion</span>. John Murray, 1818.
Austen, Jane. Emma. John Murray.
Austen, Jane. “Introduction”. Jane Austen, edited by Lady Margaret Sackville, Herbert & Daniel, 1912, p. ix - xvi.
Austen, Jane. Jane Austen’s Letters. Editor Chapman, Robert William, Oxford University Press, 1952.
Austen, Jane. Jane Austen’s Letters. Editor Le Faye, Deirdre, Oxford University Press, 1995.
Austen, Jane. Jane Austen’s Manuscript Letters in Facsimile. Editor Modert, Jo, Southern Illinois University Press, 1990.
Austen, Jane. Jane Austen’s the History of England and Cassandra’s portraits. Editors Upfal, Annette and Christine Alexander, Juvenilia Press, 2009.
Austen, Jane, and G. K. Chesterton. Love &amp; Freindship. Chatto and Windus, 1922.
Austen, Jane. Mansfield Park. T. Egerton.
Austen, Jane, and Monica Dickens. Mansfield Park. Pan Books, 1972.
Austen, Jane. Minor Works. Editor Chapman, Robert William, Oxford University Press, 1965.
Austen, Jane. Pride and Prejudice. T. Egerton.
Austen, Jane. Sense and Sensibility. T. Egerton.