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.
JA pursued her Austen
connection with a talk on her at a charity Christmas supper held at Chawton House Library
on 5 December 2015.
Textual Production
Melesina Trench
Because a grand-daughter (Mary-Melusina, daughter of Richard Chenevix Trench) married a son of James Edward Austen-Leigh
(first biographer of his aunt Jane Austen
), MT
's papers are now housed with the Austen-Leigh papers at...
Textual Production
Rose Tremain
RT
published a novel entitled Music and Silence, which she dedicated to her daughter, Eleanor.
Scholar John Mullan
has related the title to others employing two abstract nouns, like Elizabeth Inchbald
's Nature and...
Textual Features
Elizabeth Sophia Tomlins
Though Theresa writes most of the letters in the book, the opening one, as often in women's epistolary novels at this date, is an exchange between men. Tomlins, however, does not attempt to capture a...
Publishing
Flora Thompson
The Ladies Companion printed most of a winning competition entry by FT
(who was not yet an author), an essay required to capture in 300 words her understanding of Jane Austen
's success.
Lindsay, Gillian. Flora Thompson: The Story of the Lark Rise Writer. Hale.
81 and n3
Literary responses
Angela Thirkell
Reviewers were complimentary. One called the book an amusing pastiche in the manner of Jane Austen
.
Strickland, Margot. Angela Thirkell: Portrait of a Lady Novelist. Duckworth.
114
Textual Production
Angela Thirkell
She also provided introductions for editions of Jane Austen
's Persuasion, 1946, William Makepeace Thackeray
's The Newcomes, 1954, and Anthony Trollope
's Barchester Towers, 1958.
Literary responses
Angela Thirkell
The Times called this novel a suite instead of a symphony.
Strickland, Margot. Angela Thirkell: Portrait of a Lady Novelist. Duckworth.
127
Not for the first time AT
was likened to Austen
, but this time the likeness was held to lie in not mentioning...
Publishing
Ann Thicknesse
AT
was a composer of music as well as a performer and writer. Jane Austen
transcribed her composition The Fandango into book two of the family music collection now at Jane Austen's House Museum.
Grover, Danielle. “’Partly Admired & Partly Laugh’d at at every tea table’: The Case of Ann Thicknesse (née Ford) and <span data-tei-ns-tag="tei_title" data-tei-title-lvl=‘m’>The School for Fashion</span> (1800)”. Female Spectator, Vol.
12
, No. 3, pp. 5-8.
5
Dedications
Emma Tennant
ET
moved into the field of Austen
iana with Pemberley, A Sequel to Pride and PrejudiceJane Austen
, dedicated to her mother
.
At first a novelist (who later became a specialist in the...
Textual Production
Emma Tennant
In the same year she published Tess, which is based on and continues the story of Hardy
's Tess of the d'Urbervilles.
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.
She followed these the next year with a return to Austen
Education
Elizabeth Taylor
Her first school, where she went at the age of six, was a little private establishment called Leopold House, which gave a grounding in English and maths and team games.
Beauman, Nicola. The Other Elizabeth Taylor. Persephone Books.
12-13
When Betty was eleven...
Intertextuality and Influence
Elizabeth Taylor
As a child Betty Coles (later ET
) wrote plays (with very short scenes each demanding a new and elaborate setting) and stories. She said she always wanted to be a novelist.
