In this article, we’re going to give you a quick introduction to the English novelist Jane Austen:
The life
Jane Austen was one of the greatest English novelist. She was born in 1775. Six of seventh children, she spent her entire life on the close circle of her family. She got educated at home by her father and showed an interest in literature from an early age: she started writing in 1787. She produced a large amount of prose, that became really famous, like “First Impression” in 1813 which, lately revised, became “Pride and Prejudice”. All her novels were originally published anonymously, untill her identity was revealed by her brother Henry in a novel prefaction.
Novels characteristics
The psychology of the characters and the subtitles of ordinary events in Austen’s books, comes from the eighteeth century novelists. A characterization of Jane’s works, is the tecnique of bringing characters into existence through dialogues.
The plots and the themes of theese novels comes from traditional values of aristocratics families, like property, marriage, docorum and money. The setting is always in the Old England, where life is based on possession of country houses, lands and parks: the events never takes place in the industrialized England, Scotland, Wales, ecc… The marriage market, that gives lot of ideas to Jane for writing novels, take place in London, Bath and some seaside resorts. Here, happens all the troubles of Jane’s plots: seductions, flirtation, adulteries… Because the marriage market producers a wide range of villains too: social climbers, seducers, cruel relatives.
Anyway, Jane Austen remained fully committed to the moral principles and common sense of the previous generation, but she checked them directly by observation and spontaneous feelings. Her works is fun, but at the same time, it deals with serious matters like love, marriage and parenthood. Her novels always in an happy way, as a romantical element. The romantic love is usually in contrast with the social code, which encourages the marriage for money and social standing. But she think that marriage only should happen when there are real feeling between two persons, and not to pander any sort of social obligation.