Jane Austen

Literature / Writers Datebook: December 16

 

Brief biography of English writer Jane Austen, considered the first outstanding woman novelist. Best-known for her novels Pride and Prejudice and Emma. Her novels have been adapted to film and television series. 

 

 

 The commentary of English novelist Jane Austen bites and her masterful use of indirect discourse and irony makes her one of the most influential and respected novelists of the early 19^th century.  Austen's stories are subtle as she tells about young, well-bred heroines, injecting the snobbery and the manners of their country-house families. In Pride and Prejudice, a young man and woman begin by disliking each other but at last fall in love. In Emma, a snobbish young woman develops into someone capable of feeling and love.

Early Life  

Jane Austen was born in Steventon, Hampshire, on December 16, 1775, one of two daughters of the Rev. George Austen and his wife Cassandra (née Leigh). Her brothers James and Henry followed in the path of their father and joined the clergy (the latter towards the end of his life after a successful career as a banker), while Francis and Charles both pursued naval careers.

Close Family Relationship

She had a sister, Cassandra, with whom she maintained a close relationship throughout her life. The abundant correspondence between the sisters provides historians with the greatest insight into Austen's past. The only undisputed portrait of Jane Austen is a  rudimentary coloured sketch done by Cassandra.  

Education

In 1783, she was educated briefly by a relative in Oxford, then in Southampton, and finally in 1785–1786, she attended the Reading Ladies boarding school in Reading, Berkshire. This uncommonly advanced level of education may have contributed to her early alignment towards writing, and she began her first novel in 1789. The Austen family also often enacted plays, which gave Jane an opportunity to present her stories.

Family Move to Bath

Austen's life was even less eventful than those of her characters. In 1801 the family moved to the socially esteemed spa city of Bath, which provides the setting for many of her novels. The following year, she received a marriage proposal from a wealthy man Harris Bigg-Wither, almost six years her junior. She refused him.

Move to Southampton

After the death of her father in 1805, Austen, her sister and her mother lived in Southampton with her brother Frank and his family for several years before moving to Chawton in 1809. Here her wealthy brother Edward had an estate with a cottage, where he allowed his mother and sisters to live. This home is now a museum and is a popular site for tourists and literary pilgrims alike.

Final Years  

It was in Chawton that she wrote her later novels. In 1816, she began to suffer from ill health and moved to Winchester to be closer to her doctor. It is now thought by some that she may have suffered from Addison's disease, a failure of the adrenal glands that was often caused by tuberculosis. At that time the disease was not known and unnamed. Her condition became increasingly unstable. She died aged 41, on July 18, 1817, and was buried in Winchester Cathedral.

Film Adaptation of Austen's Novels

Austen's novels have been adapted in a great number of film and television series, varying greatly in their faithfulness to the originals.

Pride and Prejudice has been the most reproduced of her works, with six films, the 2005 adaptation directed by Joe Wright, starring Keira Knightley (Elizabeth Bennett), Donald Sutherland (Mr. Bennett), Matthew Macfadyen (Mr. Darcy), and Dame Judi Dench (Lady Catherine de Bourgh), as well as the 2004 Hollywood adaptation Pride & Prejudice.

There is also a 1940 film version of the novel starring Laurence Oliver as Mr. Darcy, and Greer Garson as Elizabeth Bennett. Previously, there were five television series produced by the BBC, the most noteworthy being the well-loved 1995 version, starring Colin Firth and Jennifer Ehle.

Emma has been adapted on television several times, first in 1948. Recent versions include a 1972 British television version, the 1996 film Emma, with Gwyneth Paltrow and Jeremy Northam, and also in 1996 on British television with Kate Beckinsale.

Sense and Sensibility has been made into four films including the 1995 version, from a screenplay adapted by Emma Thompson (who won the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay), directed by Ang Lee and starred Thompson and Kate Winslet.

Persuasion has been adapted into two television series and one feature film. Mansfield Park and Northanger Abbey have also been made into films.  

Novels by Jane Austen

Sense and Sensibility, 1811

Pride and Prejudice, 1813

Mansfield Park, 1814

Emma, 1815

Northanger Abbey, 1817 (posthumous)

Persuasion, 1817 (posthumous) 

Love and Friendship, 1922 (posthumous)

 

Photo Credit:

 Jane Austen. Wikimedia Commons / Public Domain. (Portrait, c. 1810, in watercolour and pencil.)

Resources:

Cambridge Guide to Literature in English by Ian Ousby, Cambridge Univ. Press,  1993

Chambers Biographical Dictionary, edited by Una McGovern, Edinburgh. Chambers Harrap, 2002

Larousse Dictionary of Writers, edited by Rosemary Goring. New York: Larousse, 1994

 

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