The Life and Times of Jane Austen€¦ · Zombies?! Yes, there is a novel adaptation called Pride...
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Transcript of The Life and Times of Jane Austen€¦ · Zombies?! Yes, there is a novel adaptation called Pride...
Life Facts Jane was the second youngest of the very tight-knit 8
Austen children. She had one older sister, Cassandra, to whom she was particularly close.
Her father was orphaned early in life and raised by his step-mother from the age of 6 on. Her mother was from an upper-middle class family.
George Austen, her father, became the rector at Steventon, but continued to struggle financially.
The sons of the family were given priority for formal education, but all the Austen children were expected to learn how to take care of themselves as adults.
One son, Edward, was adopted by a more well-to-do family in 1783. Jane, who was 8 at the time, was greatly affected by this.
Family continued Jane’s extended family, particularly the well-
connected relatives on her mother’s side, provided plenty of opportunity for Jane to socialize and study human behavior.
The time period, known as the Regency in England (due to George IV ruling as Regent in place of his insane father, George III) was a time of great unrest for most people. As a result, the middle and upper classes turned to very strict moral standards as a way of protecting themselves from barbaric experiences.
The Impact of WarDuring her lifetime, the English bore
constant witness to warfare: the American Revolutionary war, the French Revolution, the Napoleonic wars, the Battle at Waterloo, and the War of 1812. Austen was acutely aware of war and its dangers.
Austen had two brothers who became Naval officers and her cousin’s husband was beheaded during the French Revolution.
Social Constraints and Love
In Austen’s day, women were almost purposeless in society. The best a young lady could hope for would be to marry well. Jane Austen never married, although it was believed she fell in love at 21 and consequently had her heart broken. The man involved, Tom Lefroy, was also poor and therefore a very impractical match.
“When Austen was twenty-one Tom Lefroy, a nephew of neighbors, visited Steventon from December 1795 to January 1796. He had just finished a university degree and was moving to London to train as a barrister. Lefroy and Austen would have been introduced at a ball or other neighborhood social gathering, and it is clear from Austen's letters to Cassandra that they spent considerable time together: "I am almost afraid to tell you how my Irish friend and I behaved. Imagine to yourself everything most profligate and shocking in the way of dancing and sitting down together." The Lefroyfamily intervened and sent him away at the end of January. Marriage was impractical, as both Lefroy and Austen must have known. Neither had any money, and he was dependent on a great-uncle in Ireland to finance his education and establish his legal career. If Tom Lefroy later visited Hampshire, he was carefully kept away from the Austens, and Jane Austen never saw him again.”
“Jane Austen and Hampshire.” Solent Sites, the Hampshire Directory. 4 Feb 2010. http://www.solentsites.co.uk/>
Jane’s writing career Jane Austen published six novels: Sense and Sensibility
(1811), Pride and Prejudice (1813), Mansfield Park (1814), Emma (1815), Persuasion (1817), Northanger Abbey (1817).
Austen labored for years to write and revise some of her works. Pride and Prejudice was the product of 15 years worth of on and off work.
Although her novels were popular during her lifetime, she only made about 700 pounds and struggled to live at the mercy of her brother Edward after her father’s death in 1805.
Austen’s works are still very popular today. Every novel has been adapted for the screen at least once (Pride and Prejudice many times).
Zombies?!Yes, there is a novel adaptation called Pride
and Prejudice and Zombies. Seth Grahame-Smith has kept the original text (almost completely intact) and added a zombie-killing element to the Bennet girls! Grahame-Smith has also created Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters and Pride and Prejudice and Zombies: Dawn of the Dreadfuls.
The Art of Austen Even though Austen chose not to focus on the
social unrest, war, and problems of an increasingly industrialized country in her writing, her “focus was consistent with the subject matter she chose to depict. Her novels faithfully reflect the self-centered view of the well-to-do classes. Moreover, as an artist, Austen knew what her particular gifts were: observing and commenting on the manners and morals of the middle class she knew intimately.”
Pride and Prejudice Study Guide. McGraw-Hill Co. 1988
The Parsonage at Steventon
Chawton Cottage where Austen lived from 1809-1817
Buried at Winchester Cathedral
