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Series 9
Jane Austen
Jane Austen died almost 192 years ago, but her writing still captures
our imagination. Austen and her works have become an increasingly
important subject for academic study and all manner of popular
biographies. But it is her novels that continue to echo down the
generations. Not only are they still widely read, but books such as
Pride And Prejudice are constantly adapted for film and television.
More recently, Austen became a character in a dramatisation of her life.
Single women
have a dreadful
propensity for
being poor — which
is one very strong
argument in favour
of matrimony ...
Family life
There are many myths
surrounding the life of
Jane Austen, particularly
suggesting she was forced
to write in secret because
her family disapproved of
her writing.
In reality, Austen’s large
family were intelligent,
creative and fully supported
all her literary endeavours,
from writing novels to
poetry to short plays.
Austen was born
on December 16, 1775, into
a close-knit family. She had
six brothers and one much
adored sister, Cassandra.
Austen and her sister
were educated in both a
small boarding school
and at home and from an early age they
were encouraged to read widely, to write
stories and stage small performances for
their family and close friends.
Her first novel was the short and little-known
Lady Susan and this was followed up by First
Impressions, which was later titled Pride And
Prejudice, it became Austen’s best-known novel,
and was completed when she was 21.
Austen never married and lived with her parents
and unmarried sister, first in Steventon, then Bath,
and then briefly in Southampton before settling in
a house in Chawton in Hampshire, which is now the
site of the Jane Austen’s House Museum.
During her lifetime Austen published four of her
novels; first Sense And Sensibility followed by Pride
And Prejudice, Mansfield Park and, finally, Emma.
After she died on July 18, 1817, from what has
since been diagnosed as Addison’s disease, her
brother Henry arranged for her last two novels,
Northanger Abbey and Persuasion, to be published.
Love in Austen’s life
When Mr Dashwood dies unexpectedly he
leaves his gentle wife and their daughters
– sensible Elinor, romantic Marianne and
young tomboy Margaret – to fend for
themselves. They move to a little cottage
in Devonshire, where the older sisters
juggle romance thanks to visits from
Edward Ferrars, the dashing John
Willoughby and Colonel Brandon.
Pride And
Prejudice (1813)
Elizabeth Bennet is the
clever and feisty heroine
of Austen’s most popular
novel. When wealthy
young Mr Bingley moves
into the neighbourhood,
accompanied by his
haughty friend
Mr Darcy, it is clear
marriage is on
everyone’s minds,
including those of
Lizzie and her four sisters. But
not everyone makes the right decisions.
Mansfield Park (1814)
Poor, shy Fanny Price is sent to live with
her wealthy relatives, the Bertram family,
at their vast estate Mansfield Park, where
she is meant to be educated and raised like
a lady. But she also gets caught up in the
Love and marriage are major themes in all of
Jane Austen’s novels, but not in her life.
Thomas Lefroy, a poor relation of Austen’s
neighbours, caught the attention of the
20-year-old and the two indulged in some
heated conversations and flirtatious dancing
before Austen’s family stepped in to stop
her marrying into a life of poverty.
Austen accepted an offer of marriage from
wealthy landowner Reginald Bigg-Wither, who
had the resources to provide for her entire
family, but she changed her mind only a day later
and resolved never to marry for money over
love. She remained unmarried until she died.
Now a museum: Austen’s
house at Chawton, Hampshire
Romantic thinker: A picture
of Jane Austen based on a
drawing by her sister
It was, perhaps,
one of those
cases in which
advice is good or
bad only as the
event decides
Jane Austen – Persuasion
Books we know and love
Sense And Sensibility (1811)
Popular adaptation:
Kate Winslet (far
left) starred in Sense
And Sensibility, as
did Emma Thompson
(far right) who also
wrote the screenplay
Jane Austen, 1817
intrigues and dramas of her cousins,
especially the virtuous Edmund
Bertram, and local siblings Henry
and Mary Crawford.
Emma (1815)
The privileged and
beautiful Emma
Woodhouse has it
all: she lives with her
wealthy and doting
father and she is
adored by all her
friends, including her
brother-in-law
Mr Knightly. But when
she turns her hand
to match-making and
tries to influence the lives around
her, she realises she has a lot to learn.
Northanger Abbey (1817)
Austen’s gothic spoof was published
after she died and centres on the young
heroine Catherine Morland who goes to
stay with the mysterious Tilney family and
uncovers some of their secrets.
Persuasion (1817)
In THE final novel to be completed
by Austen, reliable Anne Elliot is the
overlooked middle daughter who struggles
to keep her cool when former flame
Captain Wentworth resurfaces in her life.
Historical setting
Although Jane Austen’s novels focused on the
domestic life of her characters, her books are set at
a time of great change. The decades in which she lived
are now known as the Industrial Revolution. It was a
time when the old order, the landed gentry who owned
the estates worked on by farmers, were no longer
the only rich and powerful people in society.
Inventions such as the steam engine led to the
growth of factories and made travel easier, helping
the economy grow and evolve. People moved
to the city to work in the new factories and the
social classes of factory owners and other people
involved in commerce and trade were growing.
In Pride And Prejudice, Mr Darcy’s family is
an example of the landed gentry who passed
their wealth down through the generations, in
contrast to Elizabeth Bennet’s beloved uncle
Mr Gardiner, who gained his wealth by working
in a trade and is looked down upon by some
characters for living in Cheapside, an
industrial suburb of London.
Overseas, the British had lost their American
colonies with the end of the American War Of
Independence and the 1783 Treaty Of Paris. But
the British were rapidly taking over India, and
in 1788 had sent a fleet to colonise Australia.
In Africa there were colonies filled with
British-owned plantations such as the one
in Antigua run by Fanny Price’s wealthy
uncle Sir Bertram in Mansfield Park.
Meanwhile, in France, the turbulence
of the French Revolution in the late 1700s
had given way to the rule of Napoleon
Bonaparte who was, for much of
Austen’s later adult life, attempting
to conquer Europe. Such historical
incidents are reflected in
Austen’s novels. For example,
in the beginning of Persuasion,
Captain Wentworth reappears
in the heroine Ann Elliot’s life
after having made a huge profit
fighting in the Napoleonic wars.
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Place in history: French
emperor Napoleon Bonaparte
Modern-day Emma: Alicia
Silverstone in Clueless
Women in the 1800s
ALONG with the important changes in
the economy and society that were taking
place in the early 1800s, philosophers
were questioning social hierarchies and
the issue of individual rights.
Women at the time did not have equal
rights in society the way they do today.
They could not vote, did not have equal
opportunities in education or work, and were
dependent on men – fathers, husbands and
brothers – for their economic needs.
Campaigner for
The Bennet family in Pride And Prejudice,
equality: Mary
Wollstonecraft
have five daughters so Mr Bennet’s estate
must naturally go to his closest living male
relative, the hideous Mr Collins, rather than
his wife or daughters.
This unfortunate situation meant that Mrs Bennet was always
looking for a good match for her daughters, as marriage in those
days was driven by the principles of a business transaction,
rather than any idea of romantic love.
But Austen shows her disapproval of marriage without love by
rewarding her feisty heroines with passionate, romantic matches
such as Elizabeth Bennet and Mr Darcy, Emma Woodhouse and
Mr Knightly, and Fanny Price and Edmund Bertram.
Although Mary Wollstonecraft – often thought to be the first
feminist philosopher – had published her work A Vindication
Of The Rights Of Women in 1792, change was a slow process
throughout the next few hundred years.
However, Austen did draw attention to the restricted lives
of women through her characters.
Career booster: Jennifer Ehle and Colin Firth in the 1995 BBC
miniseries, Pride And Prejudice, the role that made him famous
Adapting Austen
SINCE the early days of the film industry, Jane Austen has been a popular
source of material. One of the first was the 1940 version of Pride And
Prejudice, which starred Greer Garson and Laurence Olivier.
Since the advent of television, versions of Austen novels have also been
popular small-screen fodder. In 1995, the BBC version of Pride And Prejudice,
starring Colin Firth, pushed the actor into the spotlight. Film versions of Sense
And Sensibility (1995), starring Hugh Grant, and Pride And Prejudice (2005),
starring Keira Knightley, were also popular.
Not all adaptations have been literal versions of Austen’s novels. The 1995
Hollywood hit Clueless was a modern version of her novel Emma, while the
2001 film of Bridget Jones’s Diary referenced Austen heavily, and 2007’s
The Jane Austen Book Club used an Austen discussion group to look at the
lives of its characters. In the same year, Becoming Jane, starring Anne
Hathaway, used Austen’s letters to look at the life of the author.
The ITV series Lost In Austen, aired in March on the ABC, told
the tale of a present-day Jane Austen fan, who trades places
with the Austen character Elizabeth Bennet.
Books have also taken Austen’s lead, with Australian author
Colleen McCullough’s 2008 novel The Independence Of Miss
Mary Bennet describing events in Austen’s character’s life
20 years after the end of Pride And Prejudice.
A more unusual book adaptation called Pride And Prejudice
And Zombies, by Seth Grahame-Smith, came out last month in the
US, and expands the original story to include flesh-eating monsters.
Did you know?
n In Jane Austen’s time, fresh food such
as salads were rarely eaten as uncooked
food was thought to be hard on the
digestion. The importance of vitamins was
not yet realised. Austen’s family would
have eaten meals centred around wellcooked vegetables, potatoes and mutton.
Food such as bacon was generally looked
down on as it was eaten by peasants.
n Bathing was something of a chore
during Austen’s time as they had very
little plumbing, so only the hands, neck
and arms were regularly washed. Most
people relied on a full bath only once a
week, in a big wooden tub in their rooms.
n Austen’s heroes tended to wear a
waistcoat and a linen shirt with a piece of
cloth tied around the neck in a bow that
was called a cravat, while women wore
light muslin frocks and hats and bonnet
were a must.
n Whist is a card game often played by
Austen’s characters. It is the ancestor
of bridge, which is a popular game still
played today. Other card games played
during Austen’s time were speculation,
quadrille and casino.
n Serious Austen
fans are generally
known as Janeites,
a term that was
coined in the 1890s.
Most early Janeites
were actually men
and Rudyard Kipling
actually published
a short story called
Janeites about a
group of World War
I soldiers who were
Austen fans:
Austen fans.
Janeites
Contemporary
female writers
Austen was certainly well ahead of her
time, but she wasn’t the only female writer
publishing novels during this period.
Another famous woman writer in the
early 19th century was Mary Shelley,
second wife of the Romantic poet Percy
Bysshe Shelley, who wrote several novels,
including the classic Frankenstein in 1818.
Ann Radcliffe was another popular
writer in Austen’s time, who wrote several
gothic romances, including The Italian and
The Mysteries Of Udolfo, which
was a strong influence
on Austen’s work,
especially in the novel
Northanger Abbey.
Although there were
several other women
writers publishing
work during Austen’s
time, such as Frances
Burney and Maria
Edgeworth, few are
still well known today
and none achieved
anywhere near the
Famous author: influence or popularity
of Austen’s novels.
Mary Shelley
Find out more
Sources and further study:
What Jane Austen Ate And Charles
Dickens Knew by Daniel Pool
(Simon & Schuster)
Jane’s Fame by Claire Harman
(Text Publishing)
The Jane Austen Centre,
www.janeausten.co.uk
The Jane Austen Society of Australia
Inc. www.jasa.net.au
Lost In Austen DVD, ABC video
Trading places: Gemma Arterton, Jemima Rooper and Elliot
Cowan in the ITV series Lost In Austen, which aired on the ABC
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