born: |
1775 |
in print as of: |
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died: |
1817? |
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Completed Novels |
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Pride and Prejudice |
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Sense and Sensibility |
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Northanger Abbey |
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Persuasion |
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Mansfield Park |
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Emma |
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Unfinished Novels |
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The Watsons |
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Sanditon |
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Juvenalia |
| Lady Susan |
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Jane Austen and me: |
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I never heard of Jane Austen (despite her being a favorite of both my parents) until near the end of sixth grade, around my twelfth birthday. Our Spring Scholastic Books flyer included a novel titled Pride and Prejudice, which it described as being a comedy about what happens when a rich, handsome young man moves into the same neighborhood with five sisters. Envisioning a complete romp with five sisters competing for the same man (in a suburban neighborhood just like my own), I put down my $0.55 and ordered it. |
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Boy, what a disappointment! I got about as far as the second page. What the heck was this? These people talked weird. It not only wasn't the farce I expected, it was inaccessible. I put it aside. |
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A year or so later, I ran across that book. Thinking of the wasted $0.55, I decided to give it another try. |
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| It had not improved. | |||
| A year or so after that, set to cleaning my room one Saturday, I ran across the book once more. Deciding I would give it one last chance before tossing it into the Good Will pile, I sat down (on the floor of my closet) and started again. This time, I made myself push on past the second page, telling myself I should at least finish the first chapter. | |||
| Well, I was hooked. I forgot all about cleaning my room (strictly speaking, that was not a great sacrifice) and read all day, not going to bed that night until I finished it. The next day, still forgetting about cleaning my room, I read it again. | |||
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I went to my parents that Sunday night, telling them about my great find, and asking them if they knew if this author had written any others. I soon had The Complete Novels of Jane Austen plunked into my hand, and I did not cease until I had read the whole thing. |
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Ever since then, I have read Jane Austen's works---not just her finished novels, but her juvenalia and her fragments---every year. I've also read about her writing, learning a great deal about "narrative economy" and other concepts. And I always find something new, or a new way to look at something I've seen before. |
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| Jane Austen and I have very little in common. She was an 18th Century English minister's daughter in a high-church denomination; I am a 20th Century American pietist Army brat. She never worked outside the home, but lived in genteel poverty because women of her station didn't work. I would love the opportunity to live in genteel poverty, but I have to work. She was one of a large family, while I am an only child. She was a royalist, whereas I am the patriotic descendant of revolutionaries. But I still recognize some of my own qualities in what I read about her: for one thing, I have the impression that, like me, she could never resist responding to a straight line, even if it meant saying something sharp-tongued that she probably shouldn't have. I think we could have been friends. | |||
| This author has had a good deal of effect on me as a writer. I often tell people I want to be Jane Austen when I grow up! I read her works several times before I even noticed she never truly described her characters, or their surroundings, except in the very broadest of strokes, because she made them come alive in my mind so thoroughly that my imagination supplied the features without my even realizing. It is enough to learn that Mr. Darcy is a tall and well-looking man---my mind supplies its own definition of these terms to my complete satisfaction. I have integrated this approach into my own writing, I believe to good advantage. (And you would agree if you read some of the stuff I was writing at 14.) | |||
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Her stories have also conveyed values I think are beneficial to a young woman entering the world. Within her comedies, and her dramas, we learn that the only marriage worth having is one of mutual esteem. We learn that, for good or ill, peeple reveal their true characters in life's small things, such as manners and consideration towards those who have no power. We learn that character is quite a separate thing from charm. We learn the danger of enjoying our own cleverness at the expense of others. |
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Modern women can thank God for the changes since Jane Austen's day, when a woman's life was so circumscribed. We should, most of us, also be thankful that we live in a very different society, in which wealth and title aren't major considerations in choosing our life's mates. Despite this, there is much advice in Jane Austen's stories that can serve us well in making that choice: Don't choose for gain's sake. Seek one you can respect, and who respects you. Seek someone of character and of charitable heart. Choose for life, not the moment. Expect love. |
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