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
Theme or Topic Treated in Text Elizabeth Bowen
She writes admiringly of Jane Austen , but far less so of George Eliot , whom she regards as over-intellectual.
Glendinning, Victoria. Elizabeth Bowen. Alfred A. Knopf.
81-2
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 Muriel Jaeger
MJ 's next chapter deals with the male counterparts of the previous chapter's examples (Frederic Lamb , but also Dugald Stewart and Henry Brougham ), setting the Society for the Suppression of Vice against...
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 Mary Russell Mitford
Her sharp comments on Jane Austen 's appearance and character are much quoted, though her many passages in celebration of Austen's works are often forgotten.
Pigrome, Stella. “Mary Russell Mitford”. The Charles Lamb Bulletin, Vol.
66
, Charles Lamb Society, pp. 53-62.
60
She praises Pride and Prejudice warmly, pronouncing Austen almost...
Theme or Topic Treated in Text G. B. Stern
She interprets the idea broadly, writing, for instance, of her love of Jane Austen and of her experience in Hollywood. The volume establishes her shameless habit of repeating herself from one book of reminiscence...
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
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 A. S. Byatt
The writers considered (each for a single novel) are Jane Austen , Charlotte Brontë , George Eliot , Willa Cather (for nine of whose works ASB also wrote Virago introductions),
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.
Iris Murdoch , and Toni Morrison .
Theme or Topic Treated in Text Penelope Fitzgerald
It includes Fitzgerald's comments on works by Jane Austen , George Eliot , Margaret Oliphant , Barbara Pym , Carol Shields , and Amy Tan , as well as on a number of recent literary...
Theme or Topic Treated in Text Anne Thackeray Ritchie
The previously published essays include pieces on Austen and Landseer , and the early Toilers and Spinsters.
Theme or Topic Treated in Text Margaret Oliphant
Oliphant's views on the status of women shifted somewhat with time. She dismissed the women's suffrage petition, and represented women who supported suffrage as unnatural. Answering Barbara Bodichon , she argued that marriage was...
Theme or Topic Treated in Text Anne Katharine Elwood
Some of the British women writers discussed in the text remain well-known, but others have slipped into obscurity. Memoirs includes: Lady Mary Wortley Montagu , Griselda Murray , Frances Seymour, Lady Hertford , Hester Lynch Piozzi
Theme or Topic Treated in Text Maria Callcott
After her first return from Italy and again later in her life, Maria Graham (later MC ) did book reviews for the publisher John Murray . She expressed her admiration for contemporary literature: Coleridge ,...
Theme or Topic Treated in Text Mary Augusta Ward
Perhaps the most interesting is her review (March 1884) of Harry Buxton Forman 's recent edition of Keats . Ward argues that the letters to Fanny Brawne ought not to have been made public. (She...

Timeline

By Christmas 1869: Francis Galton, mathematician, scientist,...

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By Christmas 1869

Francis Galton , mathematician, scientist, and eugenicist, published Hereditary Genius: An Enquiry into its Laws and Consequences,

1872: US writer Susan Coolidge (Sarah Chauncy,...

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1872

US writer Susan Coolidge (Sarah Chauncy, or Chauncey, Woolsey) published her highly popular and influential story for girls entitled What Katy Did.
American National Biography. http://www.anb.org/articles/home.html.

February 1906: Publisher J. M. Dent launched Everyman's...

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February 1906

Publisher J. M. Dent launched Everyman's Library, aiming to reprint 1,000 classic titles: the first year's 155 volumes included Æschylus , Shakespeare , Jane Austen practically complete,
Clair, Colin. A Chronology of Printing. Cassell.
169
and Lady Mary Wortley Montagu .

1924: Leonard and Virginia Woolf at the Hogarth...

Women writers item

1924

Leonard and Virginia Woolf at the Hogarth Press published The Rector's Daughter, a novel by F. M. (or Flora Macdonald) Mayor .

1937: Beatrice Kean Seymour wrote and published...

Women writers item

1937

Beatrice Kean Seymour wrote and published a biography entitiled Jane Austen , Study for a Portrait.

22 July 1949: The house in the village of Chawton in Hampshire...

Women writers item

22 July 1949

The house in the village of Chawton in Hampshire where Jane Austen lived with her mother and sister from 1809 until her death was opened to the public, having been bought for three thousand pounds...

17 November 1958: The sale began at Sotheby's of the collection...

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17 November 1958

The sale began at Sotheby's of the collection of first editions built up by the bibliographer Michael Sadleir , who had recently died.

23 April 1996: The annual BAFTA (British Academy of Film...

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23 April 1996

The annual BAFTA (British Academy of Film and Television ) Awards were presented at the LondonPalladium in celebration of one hundred years of British film-making.

By late 1996: Helen Fielding hit the best-selling jackpot...

Women writers item

By late 1996

Helen Fielding hit the best-selling jackpot when her novelBridget Jones's Diary (originally a newspaper column begun the previous year) was published as a book.

: Oneword Radio, with offices in London, was...

Building item

By Summer2000

Oneword Radio , with offices in London, was set up to broadcast to readers: the bulk of its programming came from audiobooks read serially, sometimes though not always abridged.

By 11 May 2002: John Murray, publishers of Austen and Byron...

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By 11 May 2002

John Murray , publishers of Austen and Byron among many others, and one of the few independent publishers remaining after rapid change in the industry, sold out to bookselling chain W. H. Smith .

15 April 2003: Iranian academic Azar Nafisi published Reading...

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15 April 2003

Iranian academic Azar Nafisi published Reading Lolita in Tehran: A Memoir in Books, a remarkable work of social and political commentary intertwined with and expressed through literary criticism.

July 2003: Chawton House in the village of Chawton in...

Women writers item

July 2003

Chawton House in the village of Chawton in Hampshire, once owned by Jane Austen 's brother Edward Austen Knight , opened its doors as Chawton House Library , a research centre in women's writing.

16 April 2007: Novelist Yann Martel began a project of sending...

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16 April 2007

Novelist Yann Martel began a project of sending a book every two weeks to Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper together with an admonitory letter; on a website he recorded the books sent and gave the...

Texts

No bibliographical results available.