Questions on JANE AUSTEN (1)

1. What do you know about Jane Austen's life and works?

She was born in Hampshire in 1775 and was mainly educated at home by her father. She loved the countryside and was unwilling to leave it. She had a monotonous and unadventurous life and never married. In 1801 her family moved to Bath, then to Southampton to finally settle in Chawton. In 1817, while in Winchester to receive some cures, she died for a mysterious illness.

Although she lived during the Romantic Age, J. Austen stands apart from the literary ideals of the time and cannot be classified as truly Romantic; in fact, her attitudes and "forma mentis" are essentially Neo-Classical.

Her works are: 1) SENSE AND SENSIBILITY (1811) 2) PRIDE AND PREJUDICE (1813)

3) MANSFIELD PARK (1814) 4) EMMA (1815)

5) NORTHANGER ABBEY (1818). 6) PERSUASION (1818)

2. What type of novels did she write?

Her novels have been called "novels of domestic life" or "novels of manners" because she chose to focus her attention only on upper-middle class (or gentry) family life in the English countryside. The plots of her works actually deal with love stories, balls, tea-parties, horse-riding, innocent pastimes and country life in general. Jane Austen's world is regulated by a subtle class distinction, good manners and common sense. Her view of life is gentle but ironical. By limiting herself to the restricted world of provincial society (this way creating a microcosm), the writer gained in depth of introspection: her novels display psychological studies of ordinary people which are universal. The main character of her stories is generally a weak, virtous girl who is rewarded for her goodness and passivity at the end of the story.