Jane Austen. Jane Austen: novels, film adaptations

English novelist, famous for her witty and insightful depictions of provincial society.

Born on December 16, 1775 in Steventon (Hampshire), in the family of a priest. In the priest's house there were not at all prim morals; amateur performances were staged there; read novels with enthusiasm when reading novels was still considered a dubious activity; enthusiastically listened to Jane's youthful comic writings.
Having received almost no formal education, Jane read widely and, at the age of fourteen, could write funny and edifying parodies of various recognized examples of 18th-century literature. – from sentimental novels to the History of England by O. Goldsmith.
Austen's work clearly shows two periods of fruitful activity, separated by a rather long break: 1795–1798, when the early novels were created, and 1811–1816, a strikingly intense period of first dizzying successes and deepening mastery, when Sense and Sensibility was revised and prepared for publication. and Pride and Prejudice and wrote the last three completed novels - Mansfield Park, Emma and Persuasion.
Since all of Jane Austen’s novels were published anonymously, on behalf of a certain “lady,” she, of course, could not enjoy great literary fame, but three novels went through two editions during her lifetime; Pride and Prejudice was especially praised, and Walter Scott himself spoke approvingly of Emma.
However, her success and creativity do not seem to have had much influence on Miss Austen’s life. As far as one can judge from her letters and the memoirs of her relatives, until the very end she remained, first of all, a cheerful, attentive, gentle and affectionately ironic daughter, sister and aunt in her large and loving family. Jane Austen died in Winchester on July 18, 1817.
The youthful works of Jane Austen differ from the first experiences of most other authors in that they are often funny in themselves, regardless of the features of her later work discernible in them. For example, Love and Friendship, a work composed at the age of fourteen, is a hilarious parody of melodramatic opuses of the 18th century. Among Jane's youthful writings, preserved by her family and published in three volumes more than a hundred years after her death, there are other rather witty works. These, without detracting from its literary merits, include Northanger Abbey (published 1818), since this novel was written as a parody of the then very popular “Gothic novel” and in style, material and time of writing is close to Jane’s youthful works Osten. In Northanger Abbey we are talking about a naive young lady who went crazy reading “Gothic novels” and imagined that in real life, if you look at it, sinister mysticism also reigns.
Sense and Sensibility (1811) begins as a parody of the melodramatic works of the last century, which the writer had already ridiculed in Love and Friendship, but then develops in a completely unexpected direction. The message of the novel, lying on the surface, is that sensitivity - enthusiasm, openness, responsiveness - is dangerous if it is not tempered by caution and prudence - a warning that is quite appropriate from the lips of a writer who grew up in a priest's house. Therefore, Marianne, the embodiment of sensitivity, passionately falls in love with a charming gentleman, who turns out to be a scoundrel; Meanwhile, her sensible sister Elinor chooses a completely reliable young man as the object of her affection, for which she ultimately receives a reward in the form of a legal marriage.
Pride and Prejudice (1813) is one of the most famous English novels. This is Jane Austen's undisputed masterpiece. Here, for the first time, she is in complete control of her passions and capabilities; moralizing considerations do not intrude into the analysis and characterization of characters; the plot gives scope to her sense of the comic and the author's sympathies. Pride and Prejudice is a novel about the hunt for suitors, and this theme is illuminated by the author from all sides and explored in all outcomes - comic, mundane, emotional, practical, hopeless, romantic, common sense and even (in the case of Mr. Bennet) tragic.
In the interval between two periods, when large-scale works were created one after another, in 1803–1805, Jane Austen wrote two unique opuses: Lady Susannah - a short novel in letters, in the spirit of the merciless humor of her youthful works, bright , a caustic portrait of a heartless society lady; The Watsons is a not very interesting fragment of the novel, again touching on the theme of hunting for suitors, but in the most serious, strict tone, anticipating her next completed novel. Mansfield Park (1814) is Jane Austen's largest work, with a diverse cast of characters and a wide thematic scope.
Emma (Emma, ​​1815) is considered the pinnacle of Jane Austen's work, the clearest example of her comic writing. The theme of the novel is self-deception. The reader is given the opportunity to follow the changes that occur with the charming Emma, ​​turning from an arrogant, narcissistic young commander into a humble, repentant young lady, ready to marry a man who is able to protect her from her own mistakes.
Persuasion (Persuasion, publ. 1818), Jane Austen's last completed novel, is again radically different from its predecessor. But this is not a turn towards Mansfield Park, but an appeal to as yet unexplored areas, only touched upon in passing by the character of Marianne Dashwood in Sense and Sensibility. The novelty of the Arguments of Reason lies in the serious and compassionate attitude towards feeling. And in Sanditon (published 1925), a work that Jane Austen undertook a few months before her death and which remains an intriguing fragment, it talks about how appearances can be deceptive and how difficult it is to make a fair judgment, all with such technical fearlessness and with such plasticity that, it seems, one could expect even more from this book than was achieved in Pride and Prejudice and in Emma.

A country: Great Britain
Born: December 16, 1775
Died: July 18, 1817

Jane Austen (possibly spelled Austen)- English writer, herald of realism in British literature, satirist, wrote so-called novels of morals. Her books are recognized masterpieces and captivate with their artless sincerity and simplicity of plot against the backdrop of deep psychological insight into the souls of the characters and ironic, soft, truly “English” humor. Jane Austen is still rightfully considered the “First Lady” of English literature. Her works are required reading in all colleges and universities in the UK.

Family

Jane Austen was born on December 16, 1775 in the town of Steventon (Hampshire). Her father, George Austin, was a parish priest. He came from an old Kentish family and was an enlightened and widely educated man. His wife, Cassandra Lee, also belonged to an old but impoverished family. In addition to Jane, the family had six boys and one girl (Cassandra). Jane Austen was the second to last child.

Despite the high infant mortality rate in those years, they all survived. The elder brother, James (1765-1819), had a penchant for literary pursuits: he wrote poetry and prose, but followed in his father’s footsteps. The family preferred not to talk about the second brother, George (1766-1838): he was mentally disabled and never learned to speak. For his sake, Jane learned the alphabet of the mutes. The third brother, Edward (1767-1852), was adopted by wealthy childless relatives of the Austin Knights, which opened up wide opportunities for him - from the gentry he moved into the nobility.

The brightest and most romantic fate was that of Jane Austen's fourth, beloved brother, Henry Thomas (1771-1850). A passionate and not very practical man, he tried many professions in his life: he served in the army, was a banker, at first he was successful, but then he went bankrupt and was ordained. He was married to Eliza de Feyde, the widow of a French nobleman who ended his days in the guillotine. Eliza had a lot of influence on Jane. It is to Eliza that she owes a good knowledge of the French language and French authors: La Rochefoucauld, Montaigne, La Bruyère, as well as a love of theater.

Two other brothers, Francis William and Charles John, were naval sailors who rose to the rank of admiral. But Jane had a special friendship with her sister Cassandra. She shared all her plans with her and confided in her secrets. Cassandra, of course, knew the name of the man to whom Jane Austen remained faithful; Jane died in Cassandra's arms.

Cassandra, like her sister, never got married. Her chosen one, the young priest Thomas Fowle, died of yellow fever in the West Indies, where he went in the hope of earning money for the upcoming wedding. When he died, Cassandra was twenty-four years old.

Youth

Much less definite information is available about the writer herself. Opinions of contemporaries differ even about her appearance. Jane “is not at all pretty, she is prim for her twelve years, capricious and unnatural,” as her cousin Philadelphia said (see in French) [source not specified 2386 days]. “She is attractive, good-looking, thin and graceful, only her cheeks are a little round,” said the brother of her close friend [source not specified 2386 days]. Cassandra's portrait of Jane is similar to this description.

Jane Austen loved dresses, balls, and fun. Her letters are full of descriptions of hat styles, stories about new dresses and gentlemen. Fun was combined in her with a natural intelligence and a decent education, especially for a girl of her circle and position, who had not even graduated from school.

In the period from 1783 to 1786. Together with her sister Cassandra she studied at Oxford, Southampton and Reading. Jane had no luck with schools; in the first, she and Cassandra suffered from the despotic temper of the headmistress and almost died after contracting typhus. Another school in Reading, on the contrary, was run by a very good-natured person, but the knowledge of the students was the last concern of her life. Having returned his daughters home, George Austin decided to educate them himself and was very successful in this. Skillfully guiding their reading, he instilled in the girls a good literary taste and taught them to love classical authors, whom he knew well from his own occupation. Shakespeare, Goldsmith, Hume were read. They were also interested in novels, reading such authors as Ridcharson, Fielding, Stern, Maria Edgeworth, Fanny Burney. Among the poets they preferred were Cowper, Thomson, and Thomas Gray. The formation of Jane Austen's personality took place in an intellectual environment - among books, constant conversations about literature, discussions of what was read and what was happening.
Although the writer spent her entire short life in the provinces, Steventon, Bath, Chotin, Winchester, only occasionally traveling to London, the big world with its events and cataclysms: wars, uprisings, revolutions - constantly broke into the seemingly calm and measured existence of the daughter of an English priest.

Impact on creativity

Jane Austen's youth and maturity occurred in turbulent times: the Napoleonic Wars were underway, the War of Independence in North America, England was gripped by the industrial revolution, the first Luddite speeches had already swept through it, Ireland was engulfed in uprisings.

Jane Austen maintained a lively correspondence with her brothers, their wives, distant relatives, and some of them were direct participants in historical events. The French Revolution radically changed the fate of Eliza de Feyde, brothers Charles and Francis went to war with France. Cassandra's fiancé died in the West Indies; For several years, the Austin family raised the son of former Indian governor Warren Hastings.

Letters provided Jane Austen with invaluable material for her novels. And although in none of them can you find a story about wars or revolutions, and the action is never taken outside of England, the influence of what is happening around is especially noticeable, for example, in her last novel, Persuasion, where there are many sailors who have just returned to land after hostilities, distinguished himself in battles, sailing to the West Indies. However, Austen did not consider herself competent to write in detail about the military operations and the beginning of the colonial expansion of England.

Restraint is a feature not only of Austen’s creative image, but also an integral part of her life position. Austen came from a family with strong English traditions: they knew how to feel and experience deeply, but at the same time they were restrained in expressing feelings.

Jane Austen never married. When Jane was 20 years old, she had an affair with her neighbor, Thomas Lefroy, the future Lord Chief Justice of Ireland, and at that time a law student. However, the marriage of young people would be impractical, since both families were relatively poor and hoped to take advantage of the marriages of their offspring to improve their financial and social situation, so Jane and Tom had to separate. At thirty, Jane put on a cap, thereby announcing to the world that from now on she was an old maid, saying goodbye to hopes for personal happiness, although she had once been proposed to. The Austins had never been rich, and after the death of their father, their financial circumstances became even more constrained. Jane provided for the family and helped her mother with housework.
The writer died on July 18, 1817 in Winchester, where she went to be treated for Addison's disease. Before her death, she did not have time to finish her last novel, Sanditon.
She was buried in Winchester Cathedral.

Virginia Woolf's essay on Jane Austen

If Miss Cassandra Austen had carried out her intention to the end, we would probably have nothing left of Jane Austen except novels. She maintained constant correspondence only with her older sister; with her alone she shared her hopes and, if the rumor was true, her only heartfelt grief. But in her old age, Miss Cassandra Austen saw that her sister’s fame was growing and in the end, you see, the time would come when strangers would begin to be interested and researchers would study, so she reluctantly burned all the letters that could satisfy them curiosity, leaving only those that she considered completely trivial and uninteresting.

Therefore, we know a little about Jane Austen from some gossip, a little from letters and, of course, from her books. As for gossip, gossip that has outlived its time is no longer just despicable chatter, you need to understand it a little, and you will get a most valuable source of information. Here, for example: “Jane is not at all pretty and is terribly prim, you can’t say that she is a girl of twelve years old... Jane breaks down and simpers,” this is how little Philadelphia Austen writes about her cousin. On the other hand, there is Mrs. Mitford, who knew the Austen sisters as girls and claims that Jane is “the most charming, silly and flirtatious dragonfly and groom hunter” she has ever seen in her life. There is also an unnamed friend of Mrs. Mitford, she “now visits her” and finds that she has grown into “a straight-as-a-stick, serious and silent fanatic,” and that before the publication of “Pride and Prejudice”, when the whole world learned what a diamond hidden in this inflexibility, in society they paid no more attention to it than to a poker or a fireplace screen... Now, of course, it’s a different matter,” the kind woman continues, “she still remained a poker, but everyone is afraid of this poker ...

“A sharp tongue and insight, and, moreover, on his own mind - this is truly scary!” There are, however, also the Austens themselves, a tribe not very inclined to bestow each other with panegyrics, but nevertheless we learn from them that “the brothers loved Jane very much and were very proud of her. They were tied to her by her talent, her virtue and tender treatment, and in subsequent years everyone flattered himself with the thought that he saw in his daughter or niece some resemblance to dear sister Jane, with whom, of course, no one can ever be completely compared." Charming and unbending, enjoying the love of her family and inspiring fear in strangers, sharp-tongued and tender-hearted - these opposites do not at all exclude one another, and if we turn to her novels, then there we will stumble upon the same contradictions in the author’s appearance.

Firstly, this prim girl, about whom Philadelphia wrote that she did not at all look like a twelve-year-old child, but cracked and affected like a big girl, was soon to become the author of a wonderfully unchildish story called “Love and Friendship”, which she wrote, surprisingly, fifteen years old. She wrote it, apparently, simply for the amusement of her brothers and sisters, with whom she studied science in the classroom. One chapter is equipped with a comically eloquent dedication to his brother; the other is illustrated with watercolor portraits done by her sister. The jokes in it are family jokes, best understood by those at home - the satirical orientation is especially clear precisely because all the young Austens mockingly treated sensitive young ladies who, "having let out a deep sigh, faint on the sofa."

That is why the brothers and sisters must have roared with laughter when Jane read them a new satire on this vile vice: “Alas, I am dying of grief, because I have lost my beloved Augustus! One fatal fainting spell cost me my whole life. Beware of fainting spells.” , dear Laura, fly into a rage as much as you like, but don’t lose consciousness...” And further in the same spirit, barely having time to write and not having time to keep up the spelling. It tells of the incredible adventures of Laura and Sophia, Philender and Gustavus, of a gentleman who drove a carriage every other day between Edinburgh and Stirling, of a treasure stolen from a drawer, of mothers dying of hunger and sons playing the role of Macbeth.

That's why the whole class room must have laughed. Nevertheless, it is quite obvious that this teenage girl, sitting separately from everyone else in the corner of the living room, was not writing for the amusement of her brothers and sisters or for home consumption at all. What she wrote was intended for everyone and no one, our time and the time in which she lived; in other words, even at such an early age Jane Austen was a writer. This can be heard in the rhythm, in the completeness and compactness of each phrase. “She was just a good-natured, well-mannered and amiable girl, so there was nothing not to love her for, we only despised her.” This phrase is destined to survive the Christmas holidays. Lively, light, funny, relaxed almost to the point of absurdity, this is how the book “Love and Friendship” turned out; but what kind of note is heard everywhere in it, without merging with other sounds, distinct and piercing? This sounds like a joke. A fifteen-year-old girl laughs at the whole world from her corner.

Girls at fifteen always laugh. They pump their fists when Mr. Binny pours salt into the cup instead of sugar. And they just die laughing when Mrs. Tomkins sits on the cat. But another minute, and they burst into tears. They have not yet taken a final position from which they can see how much is funny in human nature and what traits in people are always worthy of ridicule. They don't know that the pouty, insulting Lady Greville and poor, offended Maria are present at every ball. But Jane Austen knew this, knew it from birth. One of the fairies who sit on the edge of the cradle must have had time to fly with her and show her the world as soon as she was born. And after this, the child not only knew what the world looked like, but also made his choice, agreeing that he would gain power over one area and would not encroach on the rest. That is why, by the age of fifteen, she already had few illusions about other people and none about herself. What comes from her pen has a finished, polished form and is correlated not with the parsonage, but with the entire universe. The writer Jane Austen is objective and mysterious. When, in one of the most interesting descriptions, she quotes the words of the arrogant Lady Greville, her letter contains no trace of the resentment that Jane Austen, the daughter of a parish priest, once experienced. Her gaze is fixed exactly on the target, and we know for sure where on the map of human nature she hits. We know because Jane Austen complied with the agreement and did not go beyond the set limits. Never, even at the tender age of fifteen, did she experience reproaches of conscience, did not dull the edge of her satire with compassion, did not cloud her drawing with tears of delight. Delight and compassion, as she seems to say, pointing with her cane, end there; and the line is drawn very clearly.

However, she does not deny the existence of moons, mountain peaks and ancient castles on the other side. She even has her own favorite romantic heroine - Queen of Scots Mary Stuart. She admires her seriously and from the heart. “This is an outstanding character, a charming princess, who during her lifetime had only the Duke of Norfolk as friends, and in our time - Mr. Whitaker, Mrs. Lefroy, Mrs. Knight and myself.” So, in a few words, she precisely outlined her passion and summed it up with a smile. It is funny to remember in what terms, very little later, the young Brontë sisters wrote about the Duke of Wellington in their northern parsonage.

And the prim girl grew up and became “the most charming, stupid and flirtatious dragonfly and groom hunter” that good Mrs. Mitford ever saw in her life, and at the same time the author of the novel “Pride and Prejudice,” which was written in secret, under the protection of a creaky door, and lay unpublished for many years. Soon after that, she apparently began her next novel, The Watsons, but it did not satisfy her in some way and remained unfinished. The bad works of good writers deserve attention because they more clearly show the difficulties the author faces, and the methods by which he overcomes them are less disguised. First of all, from the brevity and bareness of the first chapters, it is clear that Jane Austen belongs to those writers who first quite schematically set out the circumstances of the action, in order to then return to them again and again, clothe them in flesh and create a mood. In what ways she would have done this - what she would have kept silent about, what she would have added, how she would have contrived - now you cannot say. But in the end, a miracle had to happen: the boring fourteen-year chronicle of family life would again turn into a delightful and, in the reader’s opinion, such a relaxed exposition to the novel; and no one would have guessed how many working drafts Jane Austen dragged her pen through. Here we see with our own eyes that she is not a sorceress at all. Like other writers, she needs to create an environment in which her idiosyncratic genius can bear fruit. There are hesitations and delays, but finally everything worked out, and now the action flows freely the way she needs. The Edwardses are on their way to the ball; The Tomlinsons' carriage rolls by; we read that "Charles received gloves and with them instructions not to take them off all evening"; Tom Musgrove with a barrel of oysters, contented, retires to a remote corner. The writer's genius was released and began to work. And our perception immediately becomes sharper, the narrative captures us, as only something created by her can capture. What's in it? Ball in a provincial town; several couples move, sometimes separating, sometimes holding hands; they drink a little, eat a little; and the height of the drama lies in the fact that the young man is given a condescending rebuke by one young lady and shown kindness and sympathy by another. No tragedy, no heroism. And yet this small scene turns out to be much more touching than it appears at a superficial glance. We believe that Emma, ​​who acted this way at the ball, will be tender, attentive and full of sincere feeling in more serious life situations that she will inevitably have to face, as we see. Jane Austen knows how to express much deeper feelings than it seems. She awakens us to imagine what is missing. He offers us seemingly trifles, trifles, but these trifles consist of such matter that has the ability to grow in the reader’s mind and give the most banal scenes the property of undying vitality. The main thing for Jane Austen is character. And we can’t help but worry how Emma will behave when Lord Osborne and Tom Musgrove come to visit her at five minutes to three, and at that time the maid Mary brings in a tray and cutlery? The situation is extremely difficult. Young people are accustomed to a more refined table. No matter how they consider Emma ill-mannered, vulgar, insignificant. Conversation keeps us on edge. Interest bifurcates between the present and the future. And when, in the end, Emma managed to live up to our highest expectations, we were as happy as if we were present at a much more important event. All the hallmarks of Jane Austen's greatness can be found in this unfinished and largely unsuccessful work. Before us is real, immortal literature. Subtracting the superficial experiences and life-like verisimilitudes, what remains is a delightful, subtle understanding of comparative human values. And minus this - pure abstract art, which allows you to enjoy a simple scene at a ball as if it were a beautiful poem taken in itself, and not as a link in a common chain, directing the action in one direction or the other.

But they said about Jane Austen that she was straight as a stick, serious and silent, “the poker that everyone is afraid of.” Signs of this are also visible; it can be quite merciless, and the history of literature does not know a more consistent satirist. Those first angular chapters of The Watsons prove that Jane Austen was not gifted with a rich imagination; she’s not like Emily Brontë, who just had to throw open the door and everyone would pay attention to her. She modestly and joyfully collected twigs and straws and carefully made a nest out of them. The twigs and straws themselves were dry and dusty. Here is a big house, here is a small one; guests for tea, guests for lunch, sometimes a picnic; a life protected by useful acquaintances and sufficient income, plus the fact that the roads are transported, shoes get wet and ladies tend to get tired quickly; a little principle, a little responsibility and the education that wealthy rural dwellers usually received. And vices, adventures, passions remain aside. But from what she has, from all this trifle and everyday life, Jane Austen does not miss or gloss over anything. Patiently and in detail, she tells how "they rode non-stop all the way to Newbury, where a pleasant and tiring day ended with a cozy meal, something between lunch and dinner." And conventions for her are not an empty formality, she not only recognizes their existence, she believes in them. When portraying a priest, for example, Edmund Bertram, or, especially, a sailor, she is so respectful of their activities that she does not reach them with her main weapon - humor, but either falls into eloquent praise, or confines herself to a simple statement of facts. But these are exceptions; and for the most part, as an anonymous correspondent put it in a letter to Mrs. Mitford, “a sharp tongue and insight, and, moreover, on his own mind, it’s truly scary!” She does not seek to correct anyone, does not want to destroy anyone; she remains silent; and it's really scary. One after another, she creates images of stupid people, arrogant people, people with base interests - such as Mr. Collins, Sir Walter Elliot, Mrs. Bennet. Like a whip, her phrase wraps around them, forever drawing characteristic silhouettes. But things don’t go further than this: we see neither pity nor mitigating circumstances. There is absolutely nothing left of Julia and Maria Bertram; from Lady Bertram - only a memory of how she “sits and calls to her Pug so that she doesn’t ruin the flowerbeds.” Each was given the highest justice; Dr. Grant, who began by saying that he “loved goose meat more tenderly,” ends up dying of apoplexy “after three sumptuous banquets in a row in one week.” Sometimes it seems that Jane Austen's heroes are born just so that she can get the highest pleasure by cutting off their heads. And she is completely content and happy, she does not want to move a hair on anyone’s head, move a brick or a blade of grass in this world, which gives her such joy.

We don’t want to change anything in this world either. After all, even if the pangs of unsatisfied vanity or the flame of moral indignation push us to improve reality, where there is so much anger, pettiness and stupidity, we still cannot do it. This is how people are - and a fifteen-year-old girl knew this, and an adult woman convincingly proves it. And now, at this very moment, some Lady Bertram is again sitting and calling out to Moska so that she doesn’t ruin the flowerbeds, and belatedly sends Chapman to help Miss Fanny. The picture is so accurate, the mockery is so deserved, that we, for all its mercilessness, almost do not notice the satire. There is no pettiness or irritation in her that would prevent us from looking and admiring. We laugh and admire. We see the figures of fools in the rays of beauty.

This elusive property is often made up of very different parts, which only a unique talent can bring together. Jane Austen combines a sharp mind with impeccable taste. Her fools are fools and snobs are snobs because they deviate from the standards of common sense that she always keeps in mind and conveys to us, making us laugh at the same time. No novelist had such a precise understanding of human values ​​as Jane Austen. Against the dazzling background of her unerring moral sense, and impeccable good taste, and strict, almost harsh assessments, deviations from the kindness, truth and sincerity that constitute the most admirable features of English literature are clearly visible, like dark spots. So, combining good and evil, she portrays some Mary Crawford. We hear how this person condemns priests, how she sings the praises of baronets and a ten-thousand-dollar annual income, speaking with inspiration and complete freedom. But from time to time, among these reasonings, a separate author’s note suddenly sounds, it sounds very quietly and unusually clear, and immediately Mary Crawford’s speeches lose all persuasiveness, although they retain their wit. In this way, the scene is given depth, beauty and ambiguity. Contrast gives rise to beauty and even a certain pomp; in the works of Jane Austen they are perhaps not as noticeable as wit, but nevertheless they constitute its integral side. This is felt already in The Watsons, where she makes us wonder why an ordinary act of kindness is full of such deep meaning. And in Austen’s masterpieces, the gift of beauty reaches perfection. There is nothing superfluous or extraneous here: midday in Northamptonshire; going up to his room to change clothes for dinner, a bored young man started talking on the stairs with a skinny young lady, and maids were running back and forth past. Gradually, their conversation from banal and empty becomes meaningful, and this minute is memorable for both of them for the rest of their lives. It is filled with meaning, burns and sparkles; hangs before our eyes for a moment, voluminous, vital, high; but then a maid passes by, and the drop, in which all the happiness of life has gathered, quietly breaks off and falls, dissolving in the ebb and flow of everyday existence.

And since Jane Austen has the gift of penetrating into the depths of simple things, it is quite natural that she prefers to write about various trifling incidents - about guests, picnics, village balls. And no advice from the Prince Regent and Mr. Clarke to “change the style of writing” can lead her astray from her chosen path; adventures, passions, politics, intrigue - all this cannot be compared with the events of her familiar living life, taking place on the stairs in a country house. So the Prince Regent and his librarian encountered a completely insurmountable obstacle: they were trying to seduce an incorruptible conscience, to influence an infallible court. The teenage girl who constructed sentences with such grace when she was fifteen years old continued to construct them as an adult; she wrote nothing for the Prince Regent and his librarian - her books were intended for the whole world. She understood well what her strength was and what material was suitable for her in order to write as befits a novelist who places high demands on her work. Some impressions remained outside her area; Some feelings, no matter how you adapt or stretch them, she was not able to clothe in flesh at the expense of her personal reserves. For example, I couldn’t get my heroines to talk enthusiastically about army banners and regimental chapels. I couldn’t put my soul into a love scene. She had a whole set of techniques with which she avoided them. She approached nature and its beauties in her own, roundabout ways. Thus, when describing a fine night, she does not mention the moon at all. And yet, reading the spare, clear phrases that “the night was dazzlingly cloudless, and the forest was enveloped in a black shadow,” you immediately clearly imagine that it really stood as “solemn, peaceful and beautiful” as The author tells us this in simple words.

Jane Austen's powers were exceptionally finely balanced. Among the completed novels she has no unsuccessful ones, and among all the numerous chapters you will not find one that is noticeably lower in level than the rest. But she died at the age of forty-two. At the peak of his talent. Changes, perhaps, were still awaiting her, thanks to which the last period in the writer’s work is the most interesting. Active, tireless, gifted with a rich, vivid imagination, had she lived longer, she would, of course, have written more, and it is tempting to think that she would have written differently. The demarcation line was laid once and for all, moonlight, mountains and castles were on the other side of the border. But what if she was sometimes tempted to cross the line, even for a minute? What if she was already thinking, in her cheerful, bright way, of setting sail on unknown waters?

Let's take a look at Persuasion, Jane Austen's last completed novel, and see what we can learn from it about the books she would write later. Persuasion is Jane Austen's most beautiful and most boring book. Boring, just like what happens during the transition from one period to another. The writer was a little bored and tired of everything, her old world was already too familiar to her, the freshness of her perception was somewhat dulled. And harsh notes appear in the comedy, evidence that she has almost ceased to be amused by the swagger of Sir Walter and the title-worship of Miss Elliot. Satire becomes sharper, comedy - rougher. Funny incidents from everyday life are no longer amusing. The writer's thoughts are distracted. But although Jane Austen already wrote all this, and wrote it better, one feels that she is trying something new, which she has not attempted before. This new element, this new quality of storytelling, must have caused the delight of Dr. Wivell, who proclaimed Persuasion the best of her books. Jane Austen begins to understand that the world is wider, more mysterious and more romantic than she imagined. And when she says about Anne: “In her youth she was unwillingly prudent and only with age did she learn to get carried away - a natural consequence of an unnatural beginning,” we understand that these words apply to herself. Now she pays more attention to nature, its sad beauty, and more often describes autumn, whereas before she always preferred spring. And we read about the “sad charm of the winter months in the village,” about “withered leaves and brown bushes.” “You never stop loving memorial places because you suffered there,” the writer notes. But the changes are noticeable not only in the new perception of nature. Her very attitude towards life changed. Throughout almost the entire book, she looks at life through the eyes of a woman who is herself unhappy, but full of sympathy for the happiness and grief of others and is forced to remain silent about it until the very end. This time the writer pays more attention to feelings than facts. The scene at the concert is full of feeling, as well as the famous scene of the conversation about female constancy, which proves not only the biographical fact that Jane Austen loved, but also the aesthetic fact that she is no longer afraid to admit it. Her own life experience, if it was serious and deeply realized, had to be disinfected by time before she allowed herself to use it in her creativity. Now, in 1817, she is ready for this. Changes were also brewing in her external circumstances. Her fame grew, though surely, but slowly. “There is hardly another writer of note in the world,” observes Mr. Austen Lee, “who has lived in such complete obscurity.” But now, if she had lived at least a few more years, all this would have changed. She would visit London, go on visits, for lunches and dinners, meet various celebrities, make new acquaintances, read, travel and return to her quiet country house with a rich supply of observations to revel in them at her leisure.

How would all this have affected the six novels that Jane Austen did not write? She would not talk about murders, passions and adventures. Under pressure from annoying publishers and flattering friends, she would not have compromised her careful and truthful style of writing. But she would know more now. And I would no longer feel completely safe.

Her laughter would have diminished. In drawing characters, she would rely less on dialogue and more on thought, as is already evident in Persuasion. For an in-depth depiction of the complex human nature, those sweet maxims in the course of a five-minute conversation, which were enough to tell everything you need about some Admiral Croft or Mrs. Musgrove, would be too primitive a tool. The old, seemingly abbreviated way of writing, with slightly arbitrary psychological analysis in separate chapters, would be replaced by a new one, just as clear and concise, but deeper and more meaningful, conveying not only what is said, but also what remains unsaid, not only what people are like, but also what life is like in general. The writer would step back further from her characters and consider them collectively, as a group rather than as individuals.

She would turn to satire less often, but now her mockery would sound more caustic and merciless. Jane Austen would turn out to be the predecessor of Henry James and Marcel Proust... But enough. All these dreams are in vain: the best of the female writers, whose books are immortal, died “just when she had just begun to believe in her success.”

1921

William Somerset Maugham. Jane Austen and her novel Pride and Prejudice

The life of Jane Austen can be told very briefly. The Austens were an ancient family, whose prosperity, like that of many other prominent families in England, was based on the wool trade, which at one time constituted the main industry there. Having made a lot of money, they, again, like many others, bought land and over time joined the ranks of the landed nobility. But the branch of the family to which Jane Austen belonged apparently inherited very little of the wealth that the other members owned. Her situation gradually worsened. Jane's father, George Austen, was the son of William Austen, a doctor from Tonbridge, and this profession at the beginning of the 18th century was considered no higher than that of a solicitor; from the novel “Persuasion” we know that even in Jane’s days, the solicitor was a person who had no social weight. Lady Russell, “merely the widow of a “knight,” was shocked that Miss Elliot, the daughter of a baronet, should communicate on an equal footing with Mrs. Klein, the daughter of a solicitor, who was to her no more than an object of cold courtesy.” The doctor William Austen died early, and his brother Francis Austen sent the orphaned boy first to school in Tonbridge, and then to St. John's College, Oxford. I learned these facts from Dr. Chapman's lectures, which he published under the title “Jane Austen. Facts and problems.” And I also got all the other information from this wonderful book.

George Austen was retained at his college, and being ordained a priest, thanks to his relative Thomas Knight of Godmoresham, he received the parish of Steventon in Hampshire. Two years later, George Austen's uncle bought the nearby parish of Dean for him. Since we know nothing about this generous man, we can assume that he, like Mr. Harder in Pride and Prejudice, was engaged in trade.

The Reverend George Austen married Cassandra Leigh, daughter of Thomas Leigh, who remained at All Saints' College and was the head of the parish of Harpsden, near Henley. She was what in my youth was called well-connected, in other words, like the Hares of Herstmonsay, she was distantly related to the families of the landed gentry and aristocracy. For the son of a doctor, this was a step up the social ladder. From this marriage eight children were born: two daughters, Cassandra and Jane, and six sons. To add to his income, the priest began to take students into his home and raised his sons at home. Two of them went to St John's College, Oxford, because they were related to the founder on their mother's side; nothing is known about one, named George, and Dr. Chapman suggests that he was deaf and dumb; two more entered the navy and went on to distinguished careers; Edward turned out to be the lucky one: he was adopted by Thomas Knight and inherited both of his estates: in Kent and in Hampshire.

Jane, Mrs. Austen's youngest daughter, was born in 1775. When she was twenty-six years old, her father gave the parish to his eldest son, also a priest, and moved to Bath. He died in 1805, and a few months later his widow and daughters settled in Southampton. While they lived there, Jane, having visited the neighbors with her mother, wrote to her sister Cassandra: “We found only Mrs. Lance at home, and it is unclear whether she has any offspring other than a huge piano... They live a beautiful life, they are rich, and she seems to like being rich. We made it clear to her that we are far from rich, she will soon feel that it is not worth getting to know us.” Mrs. Austen was indeed left almost without funds, but her sons generously supplemented her income, so that she could live without denying herself anything. Edward, having made the customary tour of Europe, married Elizabeth, daughter of Sir Brooke Bridges, baronet of Goodneston, and three years after the death of Thomas Knight, in 1794, his widow gave Godmersham and Chawton to Edward and went to Canterbury to live on her rent. Many years later, Edward offered his mother a house on one of his estates, and she chose Chawton; and there, apart from visiting trips that sometimes lasted several weeks, Jane lived until illness forced her to move to Winchester to seek help from more qualified doctors, which were not available in the village. There she died in 1817. There, in the cathedral, she is buried.

Jane Austen's appearance was said to be very attractive. The figure was tall, stately, her gait was light and firm, everything about her spoke of health and cheerfulness. She was dark brown-haired with a bright blush. She had full, round cheeks, a small and well-defined mouth and nose, sparkling round eyes, and brown hair that fell in natural curls around her face. From the only portrait of her that I have seen, a thick-faced young woman with an expressionless face, large round eyes and a voluminous bust looks out; it is possible, however, that the artist did not do her justice.

Jane was very attached to her sister. Both as girls and as adults, they spent a lot of time together, even sleeping in the same room until Jane’s death. When Cassandra was sent to school, Jane went with her, because, although she was still too young to appreciate the information that the “seminary for young girls” provided, she would have withered away from grief without her sister. “If Cassandra had to lay her head on the block,” her mother once said, “Jane would have volunteered to share her fate.” “Cassandra was more beautiful than Jane, had a colder and calmer character, was less demonstrative and less joyful by nature; but she always kept her temper in check, and Jane was fortunate to have a temperament that never required such restraint.” Jane's letters, of those that have survived, were written to Cassandra when one of the sisters for some reason did not live at home. Many of her most ardent admirers found them pathetic; They believe that they indicate coldness and lack of feeling and that her interests were petty and insignificant. This surprises me. These letters are very natural. It never occurred to Jane Austen that anyone other than Cassandra would read them, and she told her sister everything that she knew would interest her. I told her what they were wearing now, and how much she paid for the floral muslin she had just bought, and which old friends she had seen, and what gossip she had heard.

In recent years, several collections of letters from well-known authors have been published, and, reading them, at times I begin to suspect that those who wrote them vaguely expected that sooner or later they would end up in print. And when I find out that they kept copies of their letters, this suspicion turns into confidence. When Andre Gide wanted to publish his correspondence with Claudel, and Claudel, who may not have been eager for such publication, said that Gide's letters had been destroyed, Gide replied that it was no big deal, he still had copies. Andre Gide himself told us that when he learned that his wife had burned his love letters to her, he cried for a whole week, because he considered them the pinnacle of his literary creativity, which, like nothing else, ensured him the attention of his descendants. When Dickens went on a trip, he wrote long letters to friends, which, as John Forster, his first biographer, correctly noted, could be published without correcting a single word. People were more patient in those days, but one can still imagine the disappointment of a person who received a letter from a friend with verbal pictures of mountains and monuments, while he would have been glad to know if he had met anyone interesting, what evenings he had attended and whether he had managed to get books, ties and handkerchiefs that he asked to bring home.

In one of her letters to Cassandra, Jane writes: “I have now mastered the true art of letter writing, for we are always told that it consists in expressing on paper exactly what I would say to the same person orally. I spoke this entire letter to you almost as quickly as I could speak out loud.” Of course she was right. This is the art of writing letters. She mastered it with amazing ease, and since she says that her conversation is exactly the same as her letters, and the letters are full of witty, ironic and sly remarks, we can be sure that it was a pleasure to listen to her. There seems to be not a single letter in which a grin or a smile is not hidden, and for the joy of readers I offer several examples of her style:

“Single women have a terrible desire for poverty, which is one of the compelling arguments in favor of marriage.”

“Just think, Mrs. Holder is dead! Poor woman, she did everything in her power to stop being vilified.”

“Yesterday Mrs. Hale, of Sherborne, gave birth to a stillborn child from fright, several weeks before it was expected. I believe that through carelessness she looked at her husband.”

“We have already read about the death of Mrs. W.K. I had no idea that anyone liked her, so I didn’t worry about anything in relation to the survivors, but now I suffer for her husband and think that he should marry Miss Sharp.”

“I respect Mrs. Chamberlain because she does her hair beautifully, but she does not evoke more tender feelings in me. Mrs. Langley looks like any other fat girl with a flat nose and a big mouth, wearing a fashionable dress and bare breasts. Admiral Stanhope would pass for a gentleman, but his legs are too short and his coattails too long.”

“Eliza saw Dr. Craven in Barton, and now probably also in Canbury, where he was expected for a day this week. She found his manners very pleasant. Such a trifle that he has a mistress and that she now lives with him in Ashdown Park, apparently the only thing that is unpleasant about him.”

“Mr. V. is twenty-five or twenty-six years old. He is not bad-looking and not charming. It certainly does not serve as an ornament to society. Cool, gentlemanly manners, but very silent. His name seems to be Henry, and this shows how unevenly the gifts of fortune are distributed. I’ve met many nicer Johns and Thomases.”

“Mrs. Richard Harvey is getting married, but since it is a great secret and is known only to half the whole neighborhood, it is not recommended to mention it.” “Doctor Hale is in such deep mourning that one wonders who died - his mother, or his wife, or himself.”

Miss Austen loved to dance and described the balls she attended to her sister as follows:

“There were only twelve dances in total, of which I danced nine, and the rest - not, simply because there was no gentleman.”

“There was a gentleman there, an officer of the Cheshire Regiment, a very handsome young man, who, I was told, was very anxious to be introduced to me, but not so keen as to do anything about it, so nothing came of it.”

“There were few beauties, and even those were not particularly good. Miss Ironmonger did not look well, and the only one who was openly admired was Mrs. Blunt. She looked exactly the same as she did in September, with the same wide face, diamond bandeau, white shoes, pink husband and thick neck.”

“Charles Poilet gave a ball on Thursday, and, of course, alarmed the whole district, where, as you know, they are interested in his finances and live in the hope that he will soon go bankrupt. His wife is exactly what the neighbors dreamed of seeing her: not only eccentric, but also stupid and angry.”

One relative of the Austen's apparently caused a stir in connection with the behavior of a certain Dr. Munt, behavior because of which his wife went to live with her mother, as Jane reported: “But since Dr. Munt is a priest, their mutual love “, despite all its immorality, it has a decent appearance.”

Miss Austen had a sharp tongue and a rare sense of humor. She loved to laugh and make people laugh. To expect a comedian not to say what he or she thinks is to ask too much of him or her. And, God knows, it’s hard to be funny without allowing yourself a little mischievous slyness from time to time. “The milk of human kindness” is not such a funny matter. Jane unerringly detected stupidity, pretension, affectation and insincerity in people, and to her credit it must be said that all this amused her rather than annoyed her. She was too well-mannered to say things to people that might offend them, but she saw no harm in having fun at their expense with Cassandra. Even in her most caustic remarks I do not see any malicious intent; her humor, as humor should be, was based on observation and innate wit. But when there were reasons for this, Miss Austen could speak seriously. Edward Austen, although he inherited estates in Kent and Hampshire from Thomas Knight, lived mainly in Godmersham Park near Canterbury, and there his sisters took turns coming to visit him, sometimes for three months at a time. His eldest daughter Fanny was Jane's favorite niece. She married Sir Edward Knatchbull, whose son was raised to the peerage of England and given the title of Lord Branbourne. He was the first to publish letters written to Fanny, when this young lady was thinking about how to react to the courtship of a young man who wanted to marry her. They are amazing both in their balanced intelligence and tenderness.

For many fans of Jane Austen, it was a real blow when, several years ago, Peter Kennel published in the Cornhill magazine a letter that Fanny, then Lady Knatchbull, wrote many years ago to her younger sister Mrs. Rice, where she spoke about their famous aunt. It is so surprising, but so characteristic of that period, that I, having received the permission of the late Braborn, have placed it here. The words underlined by the author of the letter are in italics. Since Edward changed his surname to Knight in 1812, it is worth recalling that the Mrs. Knight mentioned by Lady Natchbull is the widow of Thomas Knight. From the words with which the letter begins, it appears that Mrs. Rice was alarmed to hear something that called into question the good manners of her Aunt Jane, and wanted to know how it could happen, if it were true. Lady Natchbull answered her this way:

“Yes, my dear, it is absolutely true that Aunt Jane, for a number of reasons, was not as refined as her talent should have given her, and had she lived fifty years later, she would in many ways have been more suitable to our more refined tastes. She was not rich, and the people with whom she mainly associated were by no means of a refined upbringing, in short, nothing more than mediocres [*Ordinary (French).], and she, although, of course, surpassed them in mental strength and culture, in the sense of refinement, was on the same level - but I think that over the years their association with Mrs. Knight (who loved them dearly) did them both good, and Aunt Jane was so smart that she did not fail to discard all the usual signs “ ordinariness” (so to speak) and accustom yourself to behave more subtly, at least when communicating with people more or less familiar. Both of our aunts (Cassandra and Jane) grew up in complete ignorance of the world and its demands (I mean fashion, etc.), and if not for Dad’s marriage, which moved them to Kent, and not for the kindness of Mrs. Knight, who often invited to visit first one or the other sister, they would be no more stupid and no less pleasant in themselves, but they would lose greatly in the eyes of good society. If it disgusts you to hear this, I apologize, but I felt that it was all at the tip of my pen, and it wanted to raise its voice and tell the truth. Now it’s time to get dressed... I remain, my beloved sister, always devoted to you

This letter caused indignation among Jane's followers, and they claimed that Mrs. Nachbull wrote it while already suffering from senile dementia. Nothing in the letter suggests this idea; and Mrs. Rice would not have asked her sister such a question if she thought she was unable to answer it. Adherents apparently considered it ungrateful that Fanny, whom Jane adored, should write about her in such terms. It turns out that one is worth the other. It is a pity, but it is a fact that children do not treat their parents or, in general, people from another generation with the same love as these parents or relatives treat them. It is very unreasonable for parents and relatives to expect this. Jane, as we know, did not marry at all and gave Fanny part of that maternal love that, if she had been married, would have gone to her own children. She loved children, and children adored her. They loved that they could play with her and that she could tell long, detailed stories. She became close friends with Fanny. Fanny could speak to her in a way that she could not, perhaps, speak to either her father, who was absorbed in the activities of the landowner he had become, or her mother, who was busy only with procreating offspring. But children have keen eyes, and they judge cruelly. When Edward Austen inherited Godmersham and Chawton, he moved up the ladder and united by marriage with the best families of the county. We don't know what Cassandra and Jane thought about his wife. Dr. Chapman condescendingly notes that it was only after losing her that Edward felt “that he should take more care of his mother and sisters, and offered them a house to live on one of his estates.” He had owned them for twelve years. It seems more likely to me that his wife, most likely, believed that they cared enough about his family members if they occasionally invited them to visit, and did not at all dream of seeing them on her doorstep forever. And it was with her death that he was free to do with his property as he wanted. If this were so, it would not have escaped Jane's keen eye, and would probably have suggested those pages in Common Sense and Sensibility that describe John Dashwood's treatment of his stepmother and her daughters. Jane and Cassandra were poor relatives. If they were invited to stay longer with a rich brother and his wife, or with Mrs. Knight in Canterbury, or with Lady Bridges (Elizabeth Knight's mother) in Goodneston, it was a favor and was felt as such by those inviting. Few of us are so well-built that we can serve someone and not take credit for it. When Jane visited the elder Mrs. Knight, she always gave her a little money before leaving, which she accepted with joy, and in one of her letters to Cassandra she said that brother Edward gave her and Fanny five pounds each. Not a bad gift for a young daughter, a sign of attention to the governess, but in relation to her sister it is only a gesture of condescension.

I am sure that Mrs. Knight, Lady Bridges, Edward and his wife were very kind to Jane and appreciated her, because it could not have been otherwise; however, it is not difficult to imagine that they considered both sisters not quite up to par. They were provincial. In the 18th century there was an even greater difference between people who spent at least part of their lives in London and those who had never been there. This difference provided comedians with the most rewarding material. The Bingley sisters in Pride and Prejudice despised all the Miss Bennets for their lack of “style,” and Elizabeth Bennet was irritated by what she called their affectations. All Miss Bennets stood a step higher on the social ladder than both Miss Austens, because Mr Bennet was a landowner, albeit a poor one, and the Reverend George Austen was a poor provincial priest. It would be strange if Jane, in her upbringing, lacked the sociality so valued by Kentish ladies; and if this had been so and had escaped Fanny's watchful eye, we can be sure that her mother would have spoken on the matter somehow. Jane was frank and unrestrained by nature and probably often indulged in crude humor, which these humorless ladies did not know how to appreciate. One can imagine how embarrassed they would have been if they had heard from her what she wrote to Cassandra - that she would immediately recognize an unfaithful wife. She was born in 1775. Only twenty-five years have passed since the release of Tom Jones, and it is difficult to believe that during this time provincial morals have changed much. Jane may well have been what Lady Natchbull, fifty years later, considered in her letter to be “below the norm” of good society and its demands. And when Jane went to stay with Mrs. Knight in Canterbury, it is quite possible, judging by Lady Natchbull’s letter, that the elder hinted to her about details of behavior that would help her become more “refined.” Maybe that’s why she emphasizes good manners so much in her novels. A writer of today, bringing out the same class as she, would take this for granted. The tip of her pen wanted to raise her voice and tell the truth. So what? I am not at all offended by the thought that Jane spoke with a Hampshire accent, that her manners were not polished, and that her home-made dresses indicated bad taste. It’s true, we know from Caroline Austen’s “Memoir” that, according to the family, both sisters, although interested in dressing, were always poorly dressed, but it is not said how this should be understood - sloppy or unbecoming. All the family members who wrote about Jane Austen tried to give it more importance than it deserved. It was unnecessary. The Ostens were decent, honest, worthy people, close to the big bourgeoisie, and, perhaps, were better aware of their position than if it had been more clear. The sisters, as Lady Natchbull noted, got along well with the people with whom they mainly interacted, and those, according to her, were not distinguished by the subtlety of their upbringing. When they dated slightly taller people, like the fashionable women of Bingley, they defended themselves by criticizing them. We know nothing about the Reverend George Austen. His wife was a kind woman, a bit stupid, an eternal victim of illnesses, which her daughters treated kindly, but not without irony. She lived to be almost ninety years old. The boys, before leaving home, apparently had fun with what the village had to offer, and when they managed to get a horse for a day, they went hunting.

Jane's first biographer was Austen Lee. There is a passage in his book from which, with a little help of imagination, one can imagine what kind of life she led during those long quiet years that she spent in Hampshire. “It can be stated as a proven truth,” he writes, “that then less was left to the responsibility and discretion of servants and more was done by hand or under the supervision of the master and mistress. As for the housewives, everyone seems to agree that they were personally involved in the higher realms of cooking, as well as the composition of homemade wines and the infusion of herbs for home medicine. Ladies did not disdain to spin threads from which table linen was woven. Some liked to wash the “best porcelain” with their own hands after breakfast and after tea. From the letter it is clear that the Austens manage without a servant at all, or with a girl who does not know how to do anything. Cassandra did not cook because “less was left to the responsibility and discretion of the servants,” but simply because there were no servants. The Ostens were neither poor nor rich. Mrs. Austen and her daughters made their own dresses, and the girls made shirts for their brothers. The honey was made at home and Mrs. Austen smoked the hams. The pleasures were simple. The main holiday was dancing, organized by one of the wealthier neighbors. At that time in England there were hundreds of families living such a quiet, monotonous and decent life; Isn’t it a miracle that in one of them, out of the blue, a highly gifted writer appeared?

Jane was very human. In her youth, she loved dancing, flirting and amateur performances. And so that young people are beautiful. Like any normal girl, she was interested in dresses, hats and scarves. She was excellent with a needle, “both sewing and embroidering,” and this probably came in handy when she remade an old dress or made a new bonnet from a part of a discarded skirt. Her brother Henry in his “Memoir” says: “None of us could throw the spillikins in such a neat circle or remove them with such a firm hand. She performed miracles in the bilbok. In Chawton it was not heavy, and sometimes she would catch the ball a hundred times in a row until her arm got tired. Sometimes she would relax with this simple game when, due to her weak eyes, she was tired of reading and writing.”

Lovely picture.

No one would call Jane Austen a bluestocking; she did not like this type, but it is clear that she was by no means devoid of culture. She knew no less than any woman of her time and her circle. Dr. Chapman, a great authority on her novels, compiled a list of books that she certainly read. This is an interesting list. Of course she read novels - novels by Fanny Burney, Miss Edgeworth and Mrs. Radcliffe; I also read novels translated from French and German (among others, Goethe’s “The Sorrows of Young Werther”) and any novels that I could get from the libraries of Southampton and Bath. She was interested not only in fiction. She knew Shakespeare well, and of her contemporaries Scott and Byron, but her favorite poet was, apparently, Cooper. It is quite clear that his calm, graceful and intelligent poems won her. She read Johnson and Boswell and many books on history, as well as all kinds of mixed literature. She loved to read aloud, and they say her voice was pleasant.
She read sermons, especially those of Sherlock, the 17th-century theologian. This is not as surprising as it might seem. As a boy, I lived in a village in a priest’s house, and there in the office several shelves were crowded with collections of beautifully bound sermons. Since they were published, it is clear that they were sold, and since they were sold, it means that people read them. Jane Austen was religious, but not pious. On Sundays, of course, she went to church and took communion, and, of course, both in Steventon and in Godmarshan, prayers were read at the table in the morning and evening. But, as Dr. Chapman writes, “this was by no means a period of religious ferment.” Just as we take a bath every day and brush our teeth morning and evening, and without this we lack something - I think that Miss Austen, like almost all people of her generation, performed her religious duties, and then cleaned up everything connected with religion, as we put away something from our clothes that we don’t need now, until the end of the day or week, and with a clear conscience gave myself to worldly affairs. “Evangelists have not yet been born.” The youngest son in a noble family was well off if he received rank, and with it the parish. It was not necessary for him to have a calling, but it was desirable that he get a comfortable home and a sufficient income. But for a person who has received holy orders, it would be indecent not to fulfill the duty associated with his profession. Jane Austen undoubtedly believed that a priest should “live among his parishioners and prove by constant attention to them that he is their well-wisher and friend.” This is what her brother Henry did: he was witty, cheerful, the most brilliant of her brothers; he chose a business career and prospered for several years, but then went bankrupt. Then he was ordained and became an exemplary parish priest.
Jane Austen shared the views accepted in her time, and, as can be judged from her books and letters, she was quite happy with the existing state of affairs. She had no doubt about the importance of social differences and considered it natural that there were both rich and poor in the world. Young men are promoted in the royal service through the patronage of powerful friends, and rightly so. A woman’s job is marriage (of course, for love, but on satisfactory terms). This was in the order of things, and there is nothing to suggest that Miss Austen objected to it. In one of her letters to Cassandra, she notes: “Carlo and his wife live in Portsmouth in the most inconspicuous way, without any servants. How much virtue must she have to get married in such circumstances.” The banal squalor in which Fanny Price's family lived as a result of her mother's imprudent marriage was an object lesson in how careful a young woman should be.

Jane Austen's novels are pure entertainment. If you believe that entertaining should be the main goal of a writer, it has a very special place among such writers. More significant novels have been written, such as “War and Peace” or “The Brothers Karamazov,” but to read them properly, you need to be fresh and collected, and Jane Austen’s novels enchant, no matter how tired and dejected you are.
In those years when she wrote, it was by no means considered a woman’s occupation. “Monk” Lewis remarked: “I have disgust, contempt and pity for all female scribblers. Not a pen, but a needle - this is the tool with which they must work, and, moreover, the only one with which they are agile.” The novel as such was not highly respected, and Miss Austen herself was greatly concerned that Sir Walter Scott, the poet, began to write prose. She tried very hard so that servants, or guests, or anyone other than her household would not suspect her occupation. She wrote on small pieces of paper that could easily be hidden or covered with a blotter. Between the front door of the house and my father's office there was a revolving door that creaked when it was opened; but she did not want this trifling inconvenience to be removed, because it warned her that someone was coming. Her elder brother James did not even tell his son, then a schoolboy, that the books he read with such delight were written by his Aunt Jane, and her brother Henry in his “Memoir” claims that, had she lived longer, “no glory will ever come.” I would not have forced her to put her name on any work of her pen.” And the first of the books she published, “Common Sense and Sensibility,” had the following definition on the title page: “The work of one lady.”

This was not her first completed work. Before it there was the novel “First Impressions”. Her father wrote to a publisher and offered for publication, at the author's expense or on other terms, a manuscript novel in three volumes, about the same length as Miss Burney's Evelina. This proposal was immediately rejected. “First Impressions” was begun in the winter of 1796 and completed in August 1797. It is believed that this is basically the same book that was published sixteen years later under the title Pride and Prejudice. After that, she wrote quickly, one after another, “Common Sense and Sensibility” and “Northanger Abbey,” but she had no luck with them either, although five years later the publisher Richard Crosby bought the last of them, at that time called “Susan,” for ten pounds. He never released it, but eventually sold it back for the same amount he paid. Miss Austen's novels were published anonymously, and he had no idea that the book with which he parted for such a paltry sum was written by the successful and popular author of Pride and Prejudice. From 1798, when "Northanger Abbey" was completed, until 1809, she seems to have written only a fragment - "The Watsons". For a writer of such creative energy this is a long period of silence, and it has been suggested that the reason was love, which occupied her and excluded all other interests. We learned that she, while living with her mother and sister at a seaside resort in Devonshire, “had become acquainted with a gentleman whose appearance, intelligence and manners” Cassandra considered to be such as to deserve her sister’s love. When they parted, he expressed his intention to meet again soon, and Cassandra did not doubt his intentions. But they never had the chance to meet again. They soon learned of his sudden death. It was a short acquaintance, and the author of the Memoir adds that he cannot say “whether her feeling was of such an order that her happiness depended on it.” I think not. I don't believe that Miss Austen was capable of strong love. Otherwise, she, of course, would have endowed her heroines with more ardent feelings. There is no passion in their love. Their inclinations are tempered by caution and controlled by reason. True love has nothing to do with these praiseworthy qualities. Take Persuasion: Jane says that Anne and Wentworth fell deeply in love. Here, it seems to me, she deceived both herself and her readers. For Wentworth it was, of course, what Stendhal called amour passion, but for Anne it was nothing more than what he called amour gout [*Love-passion and love-inclination (French. )]. They got engaged. Anne allows the sneaky and snobby Lady Russell to convince her that it is imprudent to marry a poor man, a naval officer who might be killed in the war. If she had loved Wentworth, she would certainly have taken this risk. And the risk was not very great, since by the wedding she was to receive her share of her mother’s fortune, and this share was more than three thousand pounds, which in our times is more than twelve thousand; so there is no way she would have remained poor. She could very well, like Captain Benwick and Miss Hargreaves, remain Wentworth's bride until he receives rank and can marry her. Anne Elliot broke off the engagement because Lady Russell convinced her that if she waited, a better match could be found, and it was only when no suitor showed up that she would agree to marry that she realized how much she loved Wentworth. And we can be sure that Jane Austen found her behavior natural and reasonable.

The easiest way to explain her long silence is that she could not find a publisher. Close relatives to whom she read her novels were delighted with them, and she may have decided that they appealed only to those who loved her, and perhaps understood who served as her prototypes. The author of the Memoir resolutely denies the existence of such prototypes, and Dr. Chapman seems to agree with him. Both attribute to her a wealth of imagination that is, frankly, unprecedented. All the greatest novelists - Stendhal and Balzac, Tolstoy and Turgenev, Dickens and Thackeray - had models on the basis of which they created characters. True, Jane said: “I am too proud of my gentlemen to admit that they were only Mr. A. or Colonel B.” The most important words here are “only”. Like any other author, after her imagination had time to work on the face that suggested this or that hero to her, he actually became her creation; but that does not mean that he was not originally descended from Mr. A. or Colonel B.

Be that as it may, in 1809, when Jane settled with her sister and mother in quiet Chawton, she began to revise her old manuscripts, and in 1811 “Common Sense and Sensibility” was finally published. At this time, the woman writing no longer caused horror. Professor Spurgeon, in a lecture on Jane Austen given at the Royal Society of Literature, quotes Eliza Fay's preface to her Letters from India. This lady was persuaded to publish them back in 1792, but public opinion was so disgusted with “female authorship” that she refused. And in 1816 she wrote: “Since then, significant changes have gradually occurred in the public mood; now we have not only, as in the old days, many women who have created the glory of their sex as literary characters, but also many unassuming women who, undaunted by the critical dangers sometimes associated with such voyages, dare to launch their little boats into the boundless ocean, by which entertainment or enlightenment reaches the reading public.”

The novel “Pride and Prejudice” was published in 1813. Jane Austen sold the copyright for one hundred and ten pounds.

In addition to those already mentioned novels, she wrote three more: “Mansfield Park”, “Emma” and “Persuasion”. Her fame rests on these few books, and her fame is firmly secured. She had to wait a long time to publish the book, but as soon as the book came out, the author’s charming talent was recognized. Since then, the most famous people have done nothing but praise her. I will quote only what Sir Walter Scott wanted to say, words characteristic of his generosity. “This young lady had a talent for describing the complexities, feelings and characters of everyday life that I have never seen before. I can bark loudly myself, but the subtlest touch, thanks to which even vulgar events and characters become interesting from the truthfulness of the description and feeling, is not given to me.” It is strange that Sir Walter did not mention the most precious talent of this young lady: she observed carefully, and experienced sublime feelings, but humor gave the sharpness of her observations and the sly liveliness of her feelings. Her horizons were not broad. All of her books tell roughly the same story, and the characters aren't particularly diverse. It’s as if these are the same people, seen each time from a different point of view. She was generously endowed with common sense, and no one knew better than she herself what she could not do. Her life experience was limited to a small circle of provincial society, and she did not strive beyond its boundaries. She wrote only about what she knew. As Dr. Chapman was the first to point out, she never tried to reproduce a conversation between men alone, which, in fact, she could never hear.

It has long been noted that although Jane Austen lived during the most exciting periods in the history of the world - the French Revolution, the Terror, the rise and fall of Napoleon - her novels do not say a word about them. In this regard, she was censured for inappropriate impartiality. It should be remembered that in her day it was considered shameful for a woman to engage in politics, it was a man’s business; Even the newspapers were read only by a few women; but nothing would justify the assumption that since she did not write about these events, it means that she did not respond to them in any way. She loved her family, her two brothers served in the navy and were often in danger, and her letters show that she was very worried about them. But wasn't it wise not to write about these things? Out of modesty, she did not imagine that her novels would be read long after her death, but even if that had been her goal, she could not have acted more wisely than to refuse to talk about things that, from a literary point of view, were of only passing interest. How many novels about the Second World War, written in recent years, have already turned out to be stillborn! They were as ephemeral as the newspapers that informed us day after day of what was happening.

Most writers have ups and downs. Miss Austen is the only exception, confirming the rule that only the insignificant can stay on one level, on the level of the insignificant. If it deviates from the best it can give, it is only very slightly. Even in “Common Sense and Sensibility” and “Northanger Abbey,” where there is something to complain about, there is more that pleases. Of the other novels, each has its own devoted, almost fanatical fans. Macaulay considered it the greatest achievement of Mansfield Park; other readers, equally illustrious, preferred Emma. Disraeli read Pride and Prejudice seventeen times. Nowadays, “Persuasion of Reason” is considered to be her most completed work. Most of the readers, apparently, devoted space to the masterpiece “Pride and Prejudice,” and in this matter, it seems to me, their opinion can be accepted. A book becomes a classic not because it is praised by critics, dissected by professors and taught in schools, but because large masses of readers from generation to generation receive pleasure and spiritual benefit from reading it.

So, in my opinion, “Pride and Prejudice” is the best of all her novels. The very first phrase puts us in a good mood: “Everyone knows the truth that a young bachelor with means needs a wife.” It sets the tone, and the good humor contained in it does not leave you until you turn the last page with regret. “Emma” is the only novel that seems drawn out to me. I cannot get interested in the romance between Frank Churchill and Miss Fairfax; and while Miss Bates is endlessly funny, have we had too much of her? The heroine is a snob, and her manner of patronizing those whom she considers socially inferior to herself is disgusting. But Miss Austen cannot be blamed for this: we must understand that today we are not reading the same novel as the people of her day read. Changes in customs and mores have caused changes in our worldview; in some matters we now judge less broadly than our ancestors, in others more liberally; a position that was the most common a hundred years ago now makes you cringe with awkwardness. We judge the books we read according to our preconceptions and our standards of behavior. It's unfair, but inevitable. In Mansfield Park the hero and heroine, Fanny and Edmund, are insufferable prudes, and all my sympathy goes to the shameless, cheerful and wonderful Henry and Mary Crawford. I cannot understand why Sir Thomas was furious when, on returning from overseas, he found his family making merry preparations for an amateur performance. Since Jane herself adored them, it is unclear why his anger seemed righteous to her. Persuasion is a book of rare charm, and although I wish Anne had been a little less calculating, thought a little more about others, and been less impulsive - in general, that she had less of an old maid in her - however, if case on the pier at Lyme Regis, I would be forced to award her first place out of six. Jane Austen had no gift for inventing unusual cases, and this one seems to me very clumsily constructed. Louise Musgrove runs up some steps and is helped down by her admirer, Captain Wentworth. But he failed to catch her, she falls to the ground and loses consciousness. If he wanted to stretch out his arms to her, as he (as we are told) was accustomed to do on their walks, and even if the pier were twice as high as it is now, she could not be more than six feet from the ground, and since she was falling she was down, there was no way she could fall head first. But one way or another, she would have fallen on the strong sailor, and although she might have been scared, she could hardly have hurt herself. Be that as it may, she lost consciousness, and an incredible fuss arose. Captain Wentworth, who had been in battle and made a fortune from prize money, was numb with horror. All the participants in this scene behave so idiotically in the first minutes that it is difficult to believe how Miss Austen, who, having learned about the illness and death of her relatives or friends, showed great fortitude, could not consider her stupid in the extreme.

Professor Garrod, a learned and witty critic, said that Jane Austen was incapable of writing a story, and explains that by a story he means a chain of events either romantic or extraordinary. But this was not what she had talent for and this was not what she was striving for. To be romantic, she had too much common sense and too much cheerful humor, and she was interested not in the extraordinary, but in the most ordinary. She herself transformed him into something extraordinary with the sharpness of her eye and her irony and playfulness of mind. By story we usually mean a coherent narrative that has a beginning, middle and end. “Pride and Prejudice” begins with the appearance on stage of two young people, whose love for Elizabeth Bennet and her sister Jane forms the plot of the novel, and ends with their weddings. This is a traditional happy ending. Such an end aroused the contempt of the sophisticated, and, of course, one cannot argue with the fact that many marriages, perhaps the majority of them, are not happy. And further, that nothing ends with marriage, it is only an introduction to an experience of a different order. Therefore, many writers begin their novels with marriage and deal with its results. It's their right. But something can also be said in defense of simple-minded people who consider marriage a satisfactory conclusion to a literary work, because they instinctively feel that a man and a woman, having merged into one, have fulfilled their physiological function; It is quite natural the interest with which the reader followed the various vicissitudes leading to this conclusion - the birth of love, obstacles, misunderstandings, recognition - now all this is transferred to the result, that is, to their offspring, that is, to the next generation. For nature, each pair is just a link in a chain, and the only meaning of a link is that another link can be added to it. This is the writer's justification for a happy ending. In “Pride and Prejudice,” the reader’s satisfaction is noticeably enhanced by the message that the groom has serious income and that he will take his young wife to a beautiful house, surrounded by a park and filled from top to bottom with elegant and expensive furniture.

“Pride and Prejudice” is a well-constructed novel. The episodes follow one after another naturally, our sense of authenticity does not suffer anywhere. It may seem strange that Elizabeth and Jane are well-bred and well-behaved, while their mother and three younger sisters are, as Lady Knatchbull puts it, “considerably below the norm,” but making them that way was necessary for the development of the plot. I myself remember wondering how Miss Austen did not avoid this dangerous turn by making Eliza and Jane Mrs. Bennet's daughters from Mr. Bennet's first marriage, and Mrs. Bennet his second wife and the mother of three younger daughters. Elizabeth was her favorite heroine. “I must admit,” she wrote, “that, in my opinion, such a charming creature has never appeared in print before.” If, as others believe, she herself served as the original for the portrait of Elizabeth, and she, of course, gave her her own gaiety, cheerfulness and courage, then perhaps it is not a sin to assume that in portraying the kind, peaceful and beautiful Jane Bennet, she meant her sister Cassandra. Darcy earned a reputation as a terrifying boor. His first sin was his reluctance to dance with unfamiliar girls, whom he did not want to meet, at a public ball, where he was almost dragged by force. It wasn't such a deadly sin. It was unfortunate that Eliza accidentally heard how Darcy described her destructively to his friend Bingley, but he did not know that she heard him, and could justify himself by saying that his friend begged him to do something that he did not want to do at all. True, when Darcy proposes to Elizabeth, it sounds unforgivably arrogant. But pride, pride in his origin and position, was the primary trait of his character, and without it nothing would have happened. Moreover, the form of this sentence gave Miss Austen the opportunity to write the most dramatic scene in the entire book. One can imagine that later, having enriched herself with experience, she could show Darcy’s feelings (very natural and understandable) so as not to antagonize Elizabeth, without putting into his mouth speeches so ugly that they hopelessly shocked the reader. There is, perhaps, an exaggeration in the portrayal of Lady Catherine and Mr. Collins, but if this is more than what comedy allows, it is perhaps only a little. Comedy sees life in a light more brilliant, but also colder than mere daylight, and a little exaggeration, that is, slapstick, like sugar on strawberries, can make comedy more palatable. As for Lady Catherine, it must be remembered that in Miss Austen's time the holders of titles felt immeasurably superior to mere mortals and not only expected to be treated with the utmost respect, but were not deceived in their calculations. In my youth I knew noble ladies whose sense of superiority was much like Lady Catherine's, though not so blatant. And as for Mr. Collins, who has not known, even in these days, men endowed with this mixture of sycophancy and pomposity? The fact that they have learned to hide it under a mask of complacency only adds to their odiousness.

Jane Austen was not a great stylist, but she wrote clearly, without affectation. It seems to me that the influence of Dr. Johnson can be discerned in the construction of her sentences. She has a tendency to use words of Latin origin rather than simple English ones. This gives her phrase a certain bookishness, which is not at all unpleasant; Moreover, it often adds poignancy to a witty remark, and pseudo-chaste charm to slyness. Her dialogue, I believe, is as natural as it could be at that time. It may seem a little unnatural to us. Jane Bennet says about her admirer’s sisters: “They, of course, did not encourage his acquaintance with me, and I cannot be surprised at this, because he could have chosen someone else, more advantageous in many respects.” Maybe she uttered these very words, but I don’t believe them; the current writer would have expressed the same remark differently. Writing down a conversation on paper exactly as it sounds is a very boring task, and some kind of arrangement is certainly necessary. Only in recent years have writers, striving for authenticity, tried to make the dialogue as conversational as possible. I suspect that in the past it was customary for educated characters to express themselves with poise and grammatical correctness, but this, of course, was beyond their ability, and readers, presumably, accepted it as something quite natural.

So, having explained where Miss Austen gets this light bookishness in her dialogue, we must also remind you that in her novels everyone speaks in accordance with their character. I only noticed one instance where she slipped: “Anne smiled and said, “My idea of ​​good company, Mr. Elliott: it's a company of smart, knowledgeable people who know how to have a conversation - that's what I call good company.” “You are mistaken,” he said softly, “this is not just a good society, but the best.”

Mr. Elliott had some flaws in his character; but if he was able to respond so wonderfully to Anne's words, it means that he also had qualities with which his author did not find it necessary to introduce us to. I personally am so charmed by this answer that I would be glad if she married him instead of that boring Captain Wentworth. It is true that Mr. Elliot married a woman of “lower rank” for her money and neglected her; and he treated Mrs. Smith ungenerously, but, after all, we know his story only as it is told, and it is quite possible that if we had been allowed to listen to him, we would have considered his behavior excusable.

Miss Austen has one merit that I almost forgot to mention. She is amazingly easy to read, easier than some greater and more celebrated writers. As Walter Scott said, she deals “with the complexities, feelings and characters of everyday life,” nothing out of the ordinary happens in her books, and yet, having read to the end of the page, you turn it hastily to find out what happened next . There is nothing special there either, and again you rush to turn the page. The writer who has the ability to achieve this is endowed with the most precious gift that a writer can have.

A short film from Youtube.com about the life and work of Jane Austen:

Another short film from Youtube.com about the life and work of Jane Austen in English:

An English writer who was the first to give the novel a modern character by introducing everyday life into it. Although Austen was widely read during her lifetime, she published her novels anonymously. Austin has never married. Her most famous books are Pride and Prejudice (1813) and Emma (1816). Virginia Woolf called Austen “the most remarkable creative person among women.”

Jane Austen (also spelled “Austen”) was born in the town of Steventon, Hampshire, where her father, the Reverend George Austen, was a parish priest. She was the second daughter and seventh child in a family of eight. The Austins did not lose any of their children. Cassandra Leigh, Jane's mother, nursed the babies for several months at a time and then sent them to a wet nurse in a nearby village to be cared for for a year or more.

Jane spent the first 25 years of her life in Hampshire. When her father unexpectedly retired, the family sold everything, including Jane's piano, and moved to Bath. Jane, aged 25, and her older sister, twenty-eight, considered old maids in the opinion of the time, followed their parents. Uprooted from her friends and rural roots in Steventon, Austen abandoned her literary pursuits for a decade.

In all of Austen's novels, her heroines eventually marry. Pride and Prejudice describes the clash between Elizabeth Bennet, the independent and intelligent daughter of a provincial nobleman, and Fitzwilliam Darcy, a wealthy aristocratic landowner, blinded by their own arrogance and desires. Their relationship begins with hostility, but Darcy is attracted to her intelligence, character and “the beautiful expression of her dark eyes.” She rejects his first proposal of marriage, but eventually barriers are thrown away and Elizabeth and Darcy are happily reunited. Austen completed an earlier version of this story in 1797 called First Impressions. The book was published in three editions during Austen's lifetime. In 1998, a sequel to the novel appeared, entitled Desire and Duty, written by Teddy F. Bader and others. It develops the ideas that Jay Austen spoke about to her family.

“Emma” was written in a humorous tone. Austen began the novel in January 1814 and completed it the following March. The book was published in three volumes. It describes the story of Emma Woodhouse, who finds happiness in marriage. Emma is a wealthy, sweet, self-satisfied young girl. She is left alone with her father, who suffers from hypochondria. Her governess, Miss Taylor, marries her neighbor, Mr. Weston. Emma has a lot of time, and she spends it choosing suitable partners for her friends and neighbors, without paying attention to her own feelings. She takes under her protection Harriet Smith, an illegitimate girl with no position in society, and tries to arrange a marriage between Harriet and Mr. Elton, a young priest who has taken a fancy to Emma. Emma has feelings for Mr. Weston's son. When Harriet becomes interested in George Knightley, a neighboring landowner who was her friend, Emma begins to realize her own delusions. He was her spiritual mentor and secretly loved her. Emma finally finds happiness in her marriage to him. Harriet, who is left to decide everything herself, marries Robert Martin, a young farmer.

Jane Austen portrays middle-class provincial life with humor and insight. She describes small landowners, rural priests and their families, in which the social status of women is determined mainly by marriage. What was most important to her were those little nuances, as Emma says, “on which the everyday happiness of her personal life depends.” Although Austen limited herself to family matters and omitted the historical events of the Napoleonic Wars, her keen wit and precise storytelling were an enduring delight for readers. Of her six great novels, four were published anonymously during her lifetime. Austen had difficulties with a publisher who wanted to change the love scenes in Pride and Prejudice. In 1811 she wrote to Thomas Egerton: “You say the book is indecent. You say I'm immodest. But sir, in describing love, modesty is the completeness of truth; decency is frankness, and therefore I must also be frank with you and ask you to remove my name from the title page in all future publications.” She died on 18 July 1817 at Winchester, aged 41, and Sanditon was left unfinished. Until March 18, when she stopped working due to poor health, Austen was able to write 12 chapters. The cause of her death is unknown. It was announced that Austin had become a victim of Addison's disease*. Claire Tomalin said she may have died from lymphoma. Catherine White in the British Medical Journal of Humane Medicine suggested that Austen died of tuberculosis, which she contracted from cows.

Jane Austen is buried in Winchester Cathedral, near the middle of the north aisle. “It is important for me to know that she rests in the building that she admired so much,” Cassandra Austin later wrote. Cassandra destroyed many of her sister's letters; 160 letters survive, but none written before her twentieth birthday.

After Jane Austen's death, her brother Henry made her authorship public. "Emma" received a favorable review from Walter Scott, who wrote in his diary on March 14, 1826: "[Miss Austen] has the most remarkable talent for describing the passions, feelings, and characteristics of daily life that I have ever encountered." Charlotte Brontë and E.B. Browning found her narrow-minded, and Elizabeth Hardwick* wrote: “I do not think that her excellent mind will bring her happiness.” Austen's popularity increased with the publication of J. E. Austen-Lee's Memoirs in 1870. Her unfinished novel Sanditon was published in 1925.

* Addison's disease, bronze disease - chronic insufficiency of the adrenal cortex.

Film adaptations

Jane Austen's House
House Museum in Choten, Hampshire, where Jane Austen lived

Advertisement for the film version of Pride and Prejudice, 2005. Starring: Keira Knightley, Donald Sutherland, Matthew Macfadyen and others.

Biographical materials, photos of the Austen family home and Winchester Cathedral

The Selected Works:

LADY SUSAN, 1793-94
SENSE AND SENSIBILITY, 1811
MANSFIELD PARK, 1814
EMMA, 1815
NORTHANGER ABBEY, 1817
LETTERS, 1925
SANDITON (unfinished), 1925
JANE AUSTEN'S LETTERS TO HER SISTER CASSANDRA AND OTHERS, 1964 (ed. by R.W. Chapman, 2nd ed.)

To this day, Miss Austen Jane is one of the most famous English writers. She is often called the First Lady of English Literature. Her works are required reading in all British colleges and universities. So who was this woman?

Brief biographical information

Jane Austen was born on December 16, 1775. Her family's home was in the small provincial town of Steventon, in the county of Hampshire. Her father George, a truly educated and enlightened man, came from an old Kentish family and was a parish priest.

The writer's mother, Cassandra Lee, also came from an old but impoverished family. In addition to Jane, the family had seven more children - brothers James, George, Edward, Henry, Francis and Charles, as well as sister Cassandra. The writer was especially close to her sister. It was from their correspondence that some facts about Jane’s life and hobbies became known.

Childhood and youth of the famous writer

In fact, not much is known about Miss Austen’s childhood and youth. The same applies to her appearance, because descriptions from different sources sound different. However, it is generally accepted that Jane was an elegant, graceful and pretty girl with an inquisitive mind, a subtle sense of humor and incredible curiosity. Moreover, the girl loved fashion, was interested in gentlemen, attended balls, adored joyful walks and playful skirmishes with family and friends.

Where was Miss Austin educated?

The writer's works demonstrate not only extraordinary talent, but also considerable intellectual development of Miss Austen. Jane was educated at several different institutions. In 1783, the future writer, together with her sister Cassandra, began studying at Oxford. But here the sisters were unlucky, as they suffered due to the despotism of the headmistress, and then became infected. Then there was a school in Southampton, after which the girls changed schools again. The educational institution in Reading also did not suit the inquisitive girl, because the kindness of the headmistress was combined with absolute indifference to the education of children.

After so many failures, Jane returned home, where her father took care of her education. George Austin managed to instill in his daughters not only a love of reading, but also a subtle literary taste. The girl grew up and developed in an intellectual atmosphere, and her evenings were spent reading and discussing classic books.

Influence on the writer’s work

Of course, her father’s home education and literary knowledge left an imprint on the writer’s work. But there were other factors that influenced the process of creating the novels of the famous Miss Austen. Jane, after all, lived during the time of well-known historical events - this was the revolution in France, in England, uprisings in Ireland, the War of Independence in America, etc.

Despite the fact that Jane spent most of her life in the provinces, she actively corresponded with her relatives and acquaintances, who vividly described to her the historical events in which they participated. It was these letters that became an inexhaustible source of ideas and useful information for the young girl.

Jane Austen: Early Works

Not all fans of the writer know that she created her first works at the age of fifteen. For example, one of these works was the epistolary novel “Love and Friendship,” which was created as a kind of parody of the English romance novels popular at that time.

At the same time, she also worked on the “History of England,” which, in fact, was a parody, a pamphlet on O. Goldsmith’s textbook. Here Jane skillfully and wittily satirized the author's claims to objectivity, while at the same time presenting some real historical facts. Another parody of the traditional ones was the short story “The Beautiful Cassandra”.

Famous novels by the writer

Surely almost every person has had the opportunity to become familiar with the works of Jane Austen at least once in their life. Her novels are extremely popular among fans of classical literature.

Jane Austen's first work, Sense and Sensibility, was published in 1811. By the way, she published this book under the pseudonym “Lady”. This is a simple and at the same time exciting story about two sisters with different characters. Marianne is an emotional and sensitive girl who wants to find true love, while Elinor is more reserved, reasonable and practical.

The success of this work allowed the writer to publish her next book in 1813 - a well-known novel called “Pride and Prejudice,” which, by the way, was written much earlier. It is said that this work was written immediately after the breakup with Tom Lefroy, but because the publishers initially rejected it, it waited fifteen years for its turn. The love story, which has to go through a lot of prejudice and overcome pride, is one of the most written by writers today.

The next published work was the book Mansfield Park. Jane Austen worked on it for three years. By the way, this work is classified as a so-called educational novel. The story about a girl who has to choose between her heart, the rules of decency and reasonable arguments became the plot for a mini-series.

In 1816, another famous novel was published, Emma. Jane Austen here, in a humorous manner, described the story of a cheerful, perky girl who has fun helping her friends get married. Busy with the role of matchmaker, which, by the way, she doesn’t cope with very well, Emma almost overlooked her own happiness.

In 1817, another book entitled “Arguments of Reason” was published posthumously. Jane Austen told the reader the sad story of how Anne Elliot, guided by the practical advice of her mother's friends, rejected the only person she loved. By the way, this particular book is often considered a kind of autobiography of the writer herself.

A year later, another novel was published - Northanger Abbey, which is a cheerful and witty parody of mystical Gothic novels.

Jane's Work in Progress

In fact, not all of the famous writer’s works were completed. For example, during Miss Austen's lifetime, a short epistolary novel called Lady Susan was not published. Written between 1803 and 1805, the story of a cunning and treacherous woman trying to find a suitable husband raises important issues of morality and morality.

The same theme of hunting for suitors was touched upon in another unfinished novel by the writer called “The Watsons.” By the way, this work was subsequently completed by Jane’s niece and published under the title “The Younger Sister.”

There is another popular work by the British writer, which she never managed to complete. Jane began working on the novel Sanditon several months before her death and only managed to compose a fragment of it. In 2000, this work was completed by the English writer Julia Barrett - a novel published under the title “Charlotte”.

Personal life of the writer

It's no secret that, despite her rather pleasant appearance, Jane Austen remained lonely. In her youth, she received a marriage proposal from the nephew of the wealthy Lady Gresham Weasley, but refused because she did not have any feelings for him.

In 1795, poor law student Thomas Lefroy and Miss Austin met. Jane mentioned these events several times in her letters to her sister. Mutual feelings immediately flared up between the young people, but they had to part. After all, the young people came from poor families, and only a profitable marriage with rich heirs could correct the situation. By the way, Thomas eventually became Lord Chief Justice of Ireland. And Jane, at the age of 30, put on an old maid's cap, informing the whole world that she was not going to get married.

After the death of her father, the writer helped her mother with housework, since the family’s financial situation was extremely difficult. In 1817, Jane moved to Winchester, where she received treatment while working on the novel Sanditon. She died here on July 18.

Jane Austen: film adaptations of novels

In fact, the works of the English writer have always aroused great interest. For example, the book “Pride and Prejudice” alone has been filmed ten times. The film based on the novel first appeared on screens in 1938. The last television version of the famous novel was released in 2005 - the role of Elizabeth Bennet went to Keira Knightley, and Mr. Darcy was brilliantly played by Matthew Macfadyen.

The novel Sense and Sensibility has been filmed five times. Another popular work called “Emma” formed the basis of the plot for eight paintings. Of course, these are not all Jane Austen films. For example, there are four films based on the novel Persuasion. And "Northanger Abbey" was filmed twice - in 1986 and 2006. There are also three film adaptations of Mansfield Park. As you can see, all of Jane Austen's completed novels became the basis for the plot of many films. And despite time, changes in lifestyle and traditions, these simple stories about love, friendship and morality are still of great interest to viewers and readers.

Films about the life of the writer

In fact, the object of interest on the part of cinema gurus was not only the works of Jane Austen, but also her life itself. To date, three films have been shot, the plot of which is in one way or another based on the biographical data of the famous writer. For example, in 2002, a documentary film called “The Real Jane Austen” was released, which was based on well-known biographical information and the remaining letters of the writer to her sister Cassandra.

In 2007, a drama appeared on the screens called “Jane Austen's Love Misfortunes,” which tells the story of the last years of the life of a talented but lonely writer and her relationship with one of her nieces. Here the role of Jane went to Olivia Williams.

Also in 2007, the melodrama “Jane Austen” (“Becoming Jane”) was filmed, the plot of which is based on the sad love story of an aspiring writer and a poor, arrogant, but charming lawyer Tom Lefroy.