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
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
Travel Harriette Wilson
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...
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...
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 Margaret Kennedy
Here Kennedy argues that entertainment and enjoyment are valuable aims for the novel. She maintains that the novelist is, in essence, a storyteller, but the storyteller-novelist has been excluded by a literary society that devalues...
Theme or Topic Treated in Text Julia Kavanagh
In this second work of women's literary history, JK once again limits herself to the novel. Her canon comprises ten authors, from Aphra Behn to Sydney Morgan by way of Sarah Fielding , Frances Burney
Theme or Topic Treated in Text Brigid Brophy
Some items are reprinted from Don't Never Forget, including a piece on Jane Austen , fiercely condemnatory of her cult following (which BB finds demeaning and condescending), which concludes with unreserved praise: I think...
Theme or Topic Treated in Text Catherine Hubback
On the topic of Jane Austen 's first accepting, then rejecting, the proposal of Harris Bigg-Wither , CH wrote that the acceptance must have been given in a momentary fit of self-delusion, and that Jane...
Theme or Topic Treated in Text Augusta Webster
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 Susan Ferrier
SF 's letters deal mainly with day-to-day occurrences, but her literary opinons are always worth having. She comments on several works by Lady Charlotte Campbell (later Bury) . Reading Austen 's Emma in 1816 (the...
Theme or Topic Treated in Text Lady Margaret Sackville
Austen , she says, was the first really modern novelist . . . more modern in a sense than Dickens or Thackeray .
Austen, Jane. “Introduction”. Jane Austen, edited by Lady Margaret Sackville, Herbert & Daniel, p. ix - xvi.
xi
This publication, together with the anthology, suggests that LMS was pursuing...
Theme or Topic Treated in Text Vernon Lee
In her first essay, Lee offers a summary analysis of the English novelistic tradition. Judging them especially, though not entirely, on their treatments of morality, she evaluates writers including Jane Austen , Maria Edgeworth ,...
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...

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...

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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...

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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...

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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...

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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...

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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...

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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.