Rationale

Even it has only been relatively recent that her work has become mainstream-thanks in part to required reading in school, reproductions of her classical works at the bookstores or television and cinema productions covering her novels-the lure of the romantic period that Jane Austen created in the minds of men and women alike has reasoned for decades. Her careful selection of characters placed in ordinary positions of their time, only to develop into a more dramatic situation by the turn of the last page, has kept readers revisiting these ageless classics time and again. Having read her works, I was left wondering who Jane Austen really was- how close were the predicaments in these works to her real life? What kind of woman was she in the world that she lived in? Did she ever find the love so elusive in her own novels? With these in mind, when it came the time to choose the theme for my Atestat Paper, I had no doubts in making a quick decision.

My Atestat Paper contains a presentation of Jane Austen’s life and creative works. The paper is structured in two chapters, each one with two subchapters, emphasizing Jane Austen’s personal and professional life. Chapter 1 focuses on her origin, the members of her family and her relations with them and her romantic and social life. In Chapter 2 are listed the writer’s main works, classified by their publishing order, with details about composition, theme and characters.

Her novels center on the lives of young women in middle class Regency England, and every novel ends with a happy marriage or two. But don't expect simple love stories in all of Jane Austen's works. As an unmarried woman of very modest financial means, Jane Austen understood the hopes and fears of women who had to rely on marriage and family connections to provide them with a home and means to live. Miss Austen was fortunate in having the support of her family and a successful literary career, but she knew how easy it would be to become a tedious Miss Bates, a pitiable Jane Fairfax, or a sickly and forgotten Mrs Smith.

The enormous popularity of Jane Austen's novels has led to many movie and television adaptations of her novels, beginning with Laurence Olivier and Greer Garson in the 1940 version of “Pride and Prejudice”, continuing to the nearly legendary wet shirt of Colin Firth as Mr. Darcy in the 1995 BBC mini-series, and now including Bollywood musicals and zombies. In recent years, there has been an explosion of popular novels based on Jane Austen and her works.

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Introduction

Jane Austen is generally acknowledged to be one of the great English novelists, so it is no surprise that her novels have remained continuously in print from her day to the present. Contemporary reviewers found much to praise in them.

In her completed novels, Austen generally explores the same issues or questions, though she explores them from different perspectives, under different situations, and with varied consequences. However, this does not mean that the endings are necessarily different; being comic novels, they all end with at least one marriage.

Jane Austen's literary style relies on a combination of parody, burlesque, irony, free indirect speech, and a degree of realism. She uses parody and burlesque for comic effect and to critique the portrayal of women in 18th-century sentimental and gothic novels. Austen's irony is used similarly, but extends her critique, highlighting social hypocrisy. She often creates an ironic tone through free indirect speech, in which the thoughts and words of the characters mix with the voice of the narrator.

Austen's novels have often been characterized as "country house novels" or as "comedies of manners". Compared to other early 19th-century novels, Austen's have little narrative or scenic description—they contain much more dialogue. Within the many conversations that her characters have, Austen shapes a distinctive and subtlety-constructed voice for each of them.

Austen's plots are fundamentally about education; her heroines come to see themselves and their conduct more clearly, and become better, more moral people. Throughout her novels, serious reading is associated with intellectual and moral development.

Austen's novels have variously been described as politically conservative and progressive. Within her exploration of the political issues surrounding the gentry, Austen addresses issues relating money and property, particularly the arbitrariness of property inheritance and the precarious economic position of women. Throughout Austen's work there is a tension between the claims of society and the claims of the individual. Austen is often considered one of the originators of the modern, interiorized novel character.

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Chapter 1: Early life

1.1: FamilyJane Austen was born on December 16th, 1775 at Steventon, Hampshire, England. She was the seventh child (out of eight) and the second daughter (out of two), of the Rev. George Austen, 1731-1805 (the local rector, or Church of England clergyman), and his wife Cassandra, 1739-1827 (born Leigh). He had a fairly respectable income of about £600 a year, supplemented by tutoring pupils who came to live with him, but was by no means rich, and (like Mr. Bennet in “Pride and Prejudice”) couldn't have given his daughters much to marry on.

Jane's eldest brother, James (1765-1819) was studious, went away to Oxford University at the age of 14 in 1779, and was ordained a clergyman in 1787. He had some literary preoccupations and in 1789-1790 edited (with his brother Henry) a university magazine at Oxford called “The Loiterer”, which ran for sixty issues. He took on the duties of the Steventon parish after his father's retirement. His second wife, Mary Lloyd, was not a favorite of Jane Austen.

His daughter Anna (1793-1872), was Jane Austen's first niece; some pieces in “Juvenilia” (written when Anna was an infant) are dedicated to her. During Jane Austen's life, she worked on a never-completed novel (to be titled “Which is the Heroine?”) with the help of her aunt's advice, but eventually destroyed it after Jane Austen's death.

Edward (1767-1852) was steady and business-like, and in the early 1780's was adopted by rich childless cousins of the Austens, Thomas and Catherine Knight. He was sent by them on the "grand tour" of continental Europe in 1786-1788, and eventually inherited their estate of and took the last name of "Knight".

His oldest child Fanny (1793-1882) was (along with Anna), one of Jane Austen's favorite nieces; some pieces in Jane Austen's ”Juvenilia”  were also dedicated to her in her infancy. Her mother died before she was sixteen. She asked her aunt Jane's advice about several of her unsettled romantic courtships, and about whether or not to break them off.

Henry (1771-1850) was Jane Austen's favorite brother; he was witty and enthusiastic in whatever he did, but not always successful. He entered Oxford University in 1788, married Eliza de Feuillid (who died in 1813), and eventually ended up as a Calvinist-leaning minister, after a business bankruptcy in 1815. He saw Jane Austen's novel ”Persuasion” and  “Northanger Abbey” through the press after her death.

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Cassandra Elizabeth (1773-1845) was Jane Austen's only sister, and her closest confidante. Over a hundred letters from Jane Austen to Cassandra have survived, giving us our most intimate look at some of the details of Jane Austen's life. Cassandra's fiancé Thomas Fowle died of yellow fever in the Caribbean in 1797; he had gone there as a military chaplain. Possibly Cassandra's experience is reflected in Mrs. Musgrove and Mrs. Croft's abomination of "long engagements" and "uncertain engagements" in Jane Austen’s “Persuasion”. After this, Cassandra never married. Cassandra (like Jane) frequently visited her brothers and their families, and other relatives and friends (it was the separations between herself and Jane, resulting from visits on which they did not both go, that necessitated the letters between them).

Frank (1774-1865) and Charles (1779-1852) both entered the Royal Naval Academy at Portsmouth at the age of 12, fought in the British navy during the Napoleonic wars, and both eventually rose to become admirals. This naval connection influenced Jane's novels  “Mansfield Park” and ”Persuasion”.

More than one reader has wondered whether the childhood of the character Catherine Morland in Jane Austen's novel ” Northanger Abbey” might not reflect her own childhood, at least in part - Catherine enjoys "rolling down the green slope at the back of the house" and prefers cricket and baseball to girls' play.

In 1783, Jane and her older sister Cassandra went briefly to be taught by a Mrs. Cawley (the sister of one of their uncles), who lived first in Oxford and then moved to Southampton. They were brought home after an infectious disease broke out in Southampton. In 1785-1786 Jane and Cassandra went to the Abbey boarding school in Reading, which apparently bore some resemblance to Mrs. Goddard's casual school in “Emma”. This was Jane Austen's only education outside her family. Within their family, the two girls learned drawing, playing the piano, etc.

Jane Austen did a fair amount of reading, of both the serious and the popular literature of the day. However decorous she later chose to be in her own novels, she was very familiar with eighteenth century novels, such as those of Fielding and Richardson, which were much less inhibited than those of the later (near-)Victorian era. She frequently reread Richardson's Sir Charles Grandison, and also enjoyed the novels of Fanny Burney (a.k.a. Madame D'Arblay). She later got the title for “Pride and Prejudice” from a phrase in Burney's “Cecilia”, and when Burney's ”Camilla” came out in 1796, one of the subscribers was "Miss J. Austen, Steventon".

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1.2: Social interactionsJane Austen enjoyed social events, and her early letters tell of dances and parties she attended in Hampshire, and also of visits to London, Bath, Southampton etc., where she attended plays and such.

There is little solid evidence of any serious courtships with men. In 1795-1796, she had a mutual flirtation with Thomas Lefroy (an Irish relative of Jane Austen's close older friend Mrs. Anne Lefroy).However, it was always known that he couldn't afford to marry Jane .Many years later, after he had become Chief Justice of Ireland, he confessed to his nephew that he had had a "boyish love" for Jane Austen.

In late 1800 her father decided to retire to Bath and the family moved there the next year. During the years in Bath, the family went to the sea-side every summer, and it was while on one of those holidays that Jane Austen's most mysterious romantic incident occurred. All that is known is what Cassandra told various nieces, years after Jane Austen's death. While the family were staying somewhere on the coast (probably in south Devonshire, west of Lyme), Jane Austen met a young man who seemed to Cassandra to have quite fallen in love with Jane; Cassandra later spoke highly of him, and thought he would have been a successful suitor. According to her:"They parted -but he made it plain he should seek them out again"; however, shortly afterwards they instead heard of his death! There is no evidence as to how seriously this disappointment affected Jane Austen, but a number of people have wondered whether or not Jane Austen's 1817 novel “Persuasion” might not reflect this experience to some degree, with life transmuted into art; Jane Austen would have been 27 (the age of Anne Elliot, the heroine) during 1802-1803, and a crucial scene in “Persuasion” takes place in Lyme.

A more clearly-known incident occurred on December 1802, when Jane Austen and Cassandra were staying with the Bigg family, near Steventon. Harris Bigg-Wither, proposed to Jane, and she accepted, though she did not love him. However, the next day she thought better of it, and she and Cassandra showed up unexpectedly at Steventon (where their brother James was now the clergyman), insisting they be taken out of the neighborhood to Bath the next day. This was socially embarrassing, but her heart does not seem to have been seriously affected

Notoriously, none of Jane Austen's letters to Cassandra from June 1801 to August 1804, in which she probably would have alluded to these incidents, have been preserved. In the end, Jane Austen never married.

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Chapter 2: Creative period

2.1: Novels published during life Three of Jane Austen's six novels were written, at least in their first versions, before 1800, while the other three were not started until after “Sense and Sensibility” was accepted for publication in 1811. Jane Austen published four of the novels in her lifetime, and the two others were published together soon after her death in 1817; none of the books had her name on the title page (though the two posthumous works were published together with a short biographical preface by her brother Henry, identifying her as the author for the first time). Her various minor works were not fully published until the 20th century.

“Sense and Sensibility” was the first of Jane Austen's novels to be published. She began to write it sometime around 1797, and she worked on it for many years before its publication in 1811. The title page said that it was written "By a Lady", and only her immediate family knew that Jane Austen was the author. Impetuous Marianne Dashwood tumbles into a fairytale romance that goes sour, and her practical older sister Elinor copes with the family's financial problems while hiding her own frustrated romantic hopes. The book was a success, and it even earned a profit! The book has been adapted for film and television a number of times, including a 1981 serial for TV directed by Rodney Bennett; a 1995 movie adapted by Emma Thompson and directed by Ang Lee; a version in Tamil called Kandukondain Kandukondain released in 2000; and a 2008 TV series on BBC adapted by Andrew Davies and directed by John Alexander.

“Pride and Prejudice” was first written in the late 1700's, then rewritten in 1811-1812 and finally published in early 1813. It is probably the most-read of all of Jane Austen's novels and is a popular favorite among many. Originally entitled “First Impressions”, the novel deals with the misjudgments that often occur at the beginning of an acquaintance and how those misjudgments can change as individuals learn more about each other. The story follows the main character Elizabeth Bennet as she deals with issues of manners, upbringing, morality, education and marriage in the society of the landed gentry of early 19th-century England. Elizabeth is the second of five daughters of a country gentleman. Though the story is set at the turn of the 19th century, it retains a fascination for modern readers, continuing near the top of lists of 'most loved books'. It has become one of the

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most popular novels in English literature, and receives considerable attention from literary scholars. Modern interest in the book has resulted in a number of dramatic adaptations and an abundance of novels and stories imitating Austen's memorable characters or themes. To date, the book has sold about 20 million copies worldwide

“Mansfield Park” was written between February, 1811 and the summer of 1813. It was the third novel Jane Austen had published and it first appeared on May 4, 1814. During her lifetime, it was attributed only to “The author of” Sense and Sensibility” and” Pride and Prejudice”, and the author's identity was unknown beyond her family and friends. It is Jane Austen's most complex novel and deals with many different themes, from the education of children, to the differences between appearances and reality. The main character, Fanny Price, is a young girl from a relatively poor family, raised by her rich uncle and aunt, Sir Thomas and Lady Bertram, at Mansfield Park. She grows up with her four cousins, Tom Bertram, Edmund Bertram, Maria Bertram and Julia, but is always treated inferior to them; only Edmund shows his real kindness. He is also the most virtuous of the siblings: Maria and Julia are vain and spoiled, while Tom is an irresponsible gambler. Over time, Fanny's gratitude for Edmund's kindness secretly grows into romantic love which finally results in marriage.

“Emma” was written in 1814-1815, and while Jane Austen was writing it, it was suggested to her by a member of the Prince Regents' household that she dedicates it to His Royal Highness. Austen took the suggestion as it was intended-as a command-and “Emma” was thus dedicated, but the dedication itself is rather slyly worded. “Emma” deals with a young woman's maturation into adulthood and the trouble she gets herself into along the way. Before she began the novel, Austen wrote, "I am going to take a heroine whom no one but myself will much like."] In the very first sentence she introduces the title character as "Emma Woodhouse, handsome, clever, and rich." Emma, however, is also rather spoiled; she greatly overestimates her own matchmaking abilities; and she is blind to the dangers of meddling in other people's lives and is often mistaken about the meanings of others' actions.

2.2: Works published after deathJane Austen died on July 18, 1817 at Winchester. Although the cause of her final illness is not known for certain, the symptoms seem to suggest that she may have been affected by Addison's disease. Jane's funeral was held in Winchester Cathedral and she was buried in the north aisle. Just as her novels were published anonymously, the inscription on her tomb makes no mention of her literary talents:

“In Memory of JANE AUSTEN, youngest daughter of the late Revd GEORGE AUSTEN, formerly Rector of Steventon in this County. She departed this Life on the 18th of July 1817, aged 41, after a long illness supported with the patience and the hopes

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of a Christian. The benevolence of her heart, the sweetness of her temper, and the extraordinary endowments of her mind obtained the regard of all who knew her and the warmest love of her intimate connections. Their grief is in proportion to their affection, they know their loss to be irreparable, but in their deepest affliction they are consoled by a firm though humble hope that her charity, devotion, faith and purity have rendered her soul acceptable in the sight of her REDEEMER.”

After Jane's death, her brother, Henry, recalled that she decided to write professionally in 1789. Between 1793 and 1794 she began the first draft of a novel entitled “Susan”. The book, a parody of the gothic novel, was written in 1798-1799. It was offered for publication in 1803 and purchased for £10 by Crosby and Company. The firm allowed the manuscript to languish on its shelves for six years. In 1809, Jane Austen unsuccessfully tried to get the manuscript back from the publisher, but she did not have enough money to repurchase it. Henry finally got it back from the publisher in 1816, or 13 years after it was first published. Jane renamed the book ”Catherine”, since a book entitled “Susan” had already been published. After Jane's death in 1817, Henry retitled the book to “Northanger Abbey” and published it along with “Persuasion”.

When Jane began a new novel in the summer of 1815, she named it “The Elliots”. In March of 1816, she described it in a letter as "something ready for publication". While writing the novel, Jane fell ill and she stopped working on it. Jane replaced her first version of the last two chapters of “The Elliots” with a newer, more successful ending. The book was published in December 1817 with the new ending, and renamed it “Persuasion”. In his biographical note, her brother Henry identified Jane publicly for the first time as the author of her first four published novels.

Jane Austen worked on the first draft of “Sanditon”, her last novel in 1816,but it remained unfinished. The fragment was published in 1871 as “The last Work”.

Jane Austen wrote between 1787-1793 short pieces in a collection known as the “Juvenilia”. Over her lifetime she frequently copied these early stories, histories, and plays into numerous 3-volume notebooks that were distributed to family members. In 1922, Volume the Second of the “Juvenilia” was first printed; and all three volumes in 1954 as “Jane’s Minor Works” .

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Conclusion

Because Jane Austen does not deal with adventure and action in exotic places, but exclusively with the �3 or 4 families in a country village � which she once described as the perfect subject for a novelist � it is sometimes asserted that her works are limited in scope, even if not in appeal. But human emotions are the same whether they are played out in exotic locations or in a country village. The truth of the description and the sentiment: this is what connects us with her works and surely why we continue to read them and to wish there were more.

Austen wrote her books at the dawn of the nineteenth century, when vast social changes were already encroaching on the way of life she so loved and rendered with such exquisite artistry. We read her books today on the cusp of a new century, with an unfathomable world, one globally interconnected, technologically complex, economically uncertain. Perhaps we find on Austen's rural estates and in her charming, insular society the same peace and pleasure she found there; and an analogue for the simpler, more circumscribed world of our own childhoods, itself passing quickly away into history. The time in which Jane Austen wrote her novels was a period of great stability just about to give way to a time of unimagined changes.

While writing this Atestat Paper I reached the conclusion that circumstances play a more important role than intention in a human’s life. Like most of her characters, Jane Austen was a strong woman in a world that needed changes, but unlike her heroines who in the end find their happiness, she was hardly ever happy.

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Bibliography

1. Jane Austen and the War of Ideas. Oxford University Press, 1975

2. Jane Austen. Catharine and Other Writings. Ed. Margaret Anne Doody and Douglas Murray, 1993

3. Henry Thomas Austen. "Biographical Notice of the Author". Northanger Abbey and Persuasion. John Murray, 1817

4. Jane Austen: A Collection of Critical Essays. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1963

5. James Edward Austen-Leigh. A Memoir of Jane Austen. 1926

6. Janet Todd. Jane Austen In Context. Cambridge University Press, 2005

7. Jan Fergus. Jane Austen and the Didactic Novel. Barnes & Noble, 1983

8. Mary Waldron. Jane Austen and the Fiction of Her Time. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999

9. Mary Lascelles. Jane Austen and Her Art. Original publication 1939

10. Southam. Criticism, The Jane Austen Companion, 1870-1940

11. Honan Trott. Critical Responses. Jane Austen in Context 1970

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