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.
Writing to Mary Russell Mitford
of her hope that they might meet, HM
acknowledged the influence which the spirit of your writings has had over me.
L’Estrange, Alfred Guy Kingham, editor. The Friendships of Mary Russell Mitford as Recorded in Letters from Her Literary Correspondents. Hurst and Blackett.
The book positions itself in relation to cultural, social and emotional markers that are not those of a majority in later times. Helen and Felicia read Northanger Abbey aloud, and Helen admits it to be...
Intertextuality and Influence
Ali Smith
Like most of AS
's work, this novel is playfully self-reflexive in its adherence to typical story structure. In a formulaic breakdown of essential narrative parts, The Accidental has a prescribed Beginning, Middle...
Intertextuality and Influence
Frances Brooke
She thought it had been too long, with too little plot, and that the subscription method had not been to its benefit. Critic Juliet McMaster
believes that Jane Austen
had Emily Montague in mind in...
Intertextuality and Influence
Angela Carter
The opening parodies that of Austen
's Emma.
“Dictionary of Literary Biography online”. Gale Databases: Literature Resource Center-LRC.
207
The novel is both gothic and parody gothic, and uses science fiction as a vehicle for the discussion of ideas. The story is told from...
Intertextuality and Influence
Catherine Gore
The title-page quotes the passage in Swift
's Gulliver's Travels where the King of Brobdingnag hears from Gulliver about English politics and marvels that human grandeur can be mimicked by such contemptible insects.
Gore, Catherine. The Hamiltons; or, Official Life in 1830. R. Bentley.
title-page
The...
Intertextuality and Influence
Samuel Richardson
Innumerable women novelists later conducted a dialogue (some admiring, some rebutting or revising) with SR
. Few could ignore his influence completely. Frances Brooke
wrote his biography; Anna Letitia Barbauld
edited his letters, and Jane Austen
Health
Dora Carrington
Carrington attempted to give herself a miscarriage by riding a horse violently, and when this did not work she became depressed to a nearly suicidal degree.
Gerzina, Gretchen. Carrington: A Life of Dora Carrington, 1893-1932. John Murray.
In 1849, ER
's friend Sara Coleridge
called her the most brilliant woman of the day . . . . She is thoroughly feminine, like that princess of novelists, Jane Austen
.
Coleridge, Sara. Memoir and Letters of Sara Coleridge. Editor Coleridge, Edith, Henry S. King.
301-2
Friends, Associates
Ivy Compton-Burnett
Liddell was to remain one of ICB
's close friends. She maintained a benevolent, almost aunt-like relationship with him, and although resident abroad he was an important source of support after Jourdain's death. He later...
Friends, Associates
Germaine de Staël
In Regency England GS
met Coleridge
, Southey
, and Byron
. Jane Austen
, however, made a point of avoiding her.
Winegarten, Renee. Mme de Staël. Berg.
74, 76
Friends, Associates
Cassandra Cooke
CC
met Warren Hastings
and his wife Marian
at Adlestrop in January 1791, and remained on friendly terms: she sent a message congratulating him at the end of his marathon trial.
Le Faye, Deirdre. A Chronology of Jane Austen and her Family. Cambridge University Press.
132, 175
She and...
Friends, Associates
Harriett Mozley
HM
enjoyed a visit in November 1838 to Fulwar William Fowle
, rector of Allington in Wiltshire, whose family was closely connected with Jane Austen
. Fowle was quite surprised and pleased
Mozley, Dorothea, editor. Newman Family Letters. Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge.
78
at the...
Friends, Associates
G. B. Stern
One of GBS
's close friends was Sheila Kaye-Smith
, with whom she collaborated in works about Jane Austen
. Another was Noël Coward
, who met her after sending her a fan letter, introduced...
Family and Intimate relationships
Eliza Kirkham Mathews
The pair had met that summer. At four years the younger, he was just twenty-one.
Mathews, Anne Jackson. Memoirs of Charles Mathews, Comedian. R. Bentley.
1: 198
Matthew, Henry Colin Gray et al., editors. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. http://www.oxforddnb.com/.
under Charles Mathews
In the account of the marriage given by Mathews's second wife
(who does not sound...
