Jane Austen
Born: Steventon, Hampshire,
16th December 1775
Died: Winchester, Hampshire,
18th July 1817
A Biography by Jane Johnson
"Novels ...
performances which have only genius, wit and
taste to recommend them" Jane Austen
(Northanger Abbey, Published 1818)
Jane Austen
was born in the village of Steventon, Hampshire
in 1775, within five years of Wordsworth and
Scott. She was the seventh of eight children. Her
father, George, had been a Fellow of St. John's
College, Oxford and lately Rector of Steventon.
Her mother, Cassandra, nee Leigh, came from an
ancient family, linked to the Leighs of Stonehill
Abbey in Warwickshire. Jane and her sister, also
Cassandra, were sent to school in Oxford and
Southampton, before attending the Abbey School in
Reading, and were encouraged to write from an
early age. Jane started writing novels in 1790,
at the age of only 14, while she was living in
Steventon, although her first novel to be
published, Sense and Sensibility, did not
appear until 1811.
Although her early life appeared secure
enough, it was touched by tragedy. Her cousin,
Eliza Hancock, married a French nobleman, who was
arrested and guillotined on his return to Paris
soon after the French Revolution. Her aunt, Mrs.
Leigh Perrot, was arrested when falsely accused
of stealing a card of lace, and suffered eight
months imprisonment with the threat of the death
penalty, before she was able to prove her
innocence.
On her father's retirement, in 1801, the
family moved to Bath. Jane's years at Bath were
not happy. The family made acquaintances, but few
friends. Their stay at Bath was broken up by
annual excursions to the seaside: to Sidmouth,
Dawlish and Lyme Regis. As was the custom, the
sons of the family pursued careers (two of Jane's
brothers joined the Navy), while the daughters
stayed at home, awaiting marriage and involving
themselves with domestic affairs. A neighbour
from their Hampshire days, Harris Bigg-Wither of
Manydown Park (Wootton St. Lawrence) asked Jane
to marry him in the Winter of 1802. Though she
initially accepted, a sleepless night saw the
poor man turned down the following morning.
In several of Jane's letters from Bath to her
sister, Cassandra, one senses her frustration at
this sheltered existence.
Tuesday, 12 May 1801. "Another stupid
party ...with six people to look on, and talk
nonsense to each other".
Some time after the death of Jane's father in
1805, the family left Bath to stay with Jane's
brother, Frank, who was stationed at the Naval
Dockyard, in Southampton.
Jane's brother, Edward, had been formally
adopted by a rich and childless relative, which
led to his elevation as a country gentleman.
Cassandra had been sent to assist with his
domestic arrangements at Godmersham Park, near
Canterbury. He also owned Chawton House,
Hampshire and in 1809 offered a home to his
mother and sisters on the estate there. The
family settled happily and it was here that Jane
was to enjoy the success of the publication of
her first novel. Initially, the secret of their
authorship was kept, the author being referred to
only as "a lady", but later, her proud
brother, Henry, let it be known and she became
instantly famous.
Her last completed novel, Persuasion, was
not published until after her death. By the time
of its completion, she was seriously ill and not
expected to live. During the last few weeks of
her life, she lived in College Street,
Winchester, to be close to her physician. She
died in Cassandra's arms in Winchester at the age
of 41. The family exercised the right, as members
of a clergyman's family, that she should be
buried in Winchester Cathedral.
Today, the museum at Chawton is visited by
Jane Austen admirers from across the Globe. There
are many mementoes of her life on display. Jane's
mother and her beloved sister, Cassandra are
buried in the churchyard.
The Novels
"Sense and Sensibility":published 1811
"Pride and Prejudice":
published 1813
"Mansfield Park":
published 1813
"Emma":published
1816
"Persuasion":published 1818
"Northanger Abbey":published 1818.
Jane Austen started to write at a time when
the Romantic Movement was expressing its
passionate involvement with the landscape, in
particular, the melancholic aspects of gothic
ruins, and the natural world in general. She was
one of the few writers to adopt an irreverent
attitude to this obsession. Edward Ferrars,
speaking to the impressionable Marianne, in "Sense
and Sensibility", admits his confusion
when attempting to describe a picturesque
landscape and when Henry Tilney decides to
lecture on the picturesque to Catherine, in "Northanger
Abbey," she "was so hopeful
a scholar that when they gained the top of
Beechen Cliff, she voluntarily rejected the whole
city of Bath, as unworthy to make part of a
landscape".
In many ways, Jane Austen's detached, ironic
style was an antithesis of the Romantic ideal.
Many people have commented on the modernity of
her novels. Elizabeth Bowen in English
Novelists (Collins, 1946), suggests
this comment is "an agreeable way of saying
that she is still some distance ahead of
us".
She followed in the wake of the success of
Fielding and Richardson and her sense of comedy
and style has been likened to that of Fielding.
She is noted for the precision of her
observations. Her attention to detail is a means
to enlighten a subject. As Elizabeth Bowen notes,
"she applies big truths to little
scenes".
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