250 years of Jane Austen (1775 - 1817) still has a major impact on literature today

Jane Austen (1775 – 1817) was a prominent English novelist whose work is now part of the Western literary canon. The form and dramatic content of her fiction stand in stark contrast to the reclusive life she led in reality. Her realism, biting social commentary, and her use of free indirect discourse, a stylistic device rarely used until then, have ensured that she has become one of the most widely read and beloved writers in English literature. What do you know about Jane Austen? Are you attending the many events being organized for the anniversary year?

Her life

Austen grew up in a close-knit family in the lower echelons of the English aristocracy. She was primarily educated by her father and older brothers. She also learned through extensive reading. In 1783, she followed her older sister Cassandra to a boarding school in Oxford. When an illness broke out at that school, they moved to Southampton. Subsequently, a typhoid epidemic broke out there; Jane and Cassandra both became seriously ill but survived the disease. Two years later, the girls were sent to the boarding school in Reading, which is now called Abbey School for Girls. Jane remained there for two years, until she completed her formal education at the age of 11. Jane Austen's preserved letters suggest that she may have shared a brief romance with the Irishman Tom Lefroy in January 1796, but that his family opposed an engagement.

Jane Austen, painted by her sister Cassandra in 1804. Source: Wikipedia.

In 1800, her father decided to retire as a minister and move to Bath. As an unmarried daughter, Jane naturally had to go along, although she felt much more drawn to the rural conviviality of Steventon than to sophisticated Bath. In 1802, she accepted a marriage proposal from Harris Bigg-Wither, but changed her mind the very next day. In 1803, the first version of the novel Northanger Abbey was indeed “accepted” and paid for by the publisher Crosby & Co. under the name Susan, but to Jane’s dismay, it was never printed.

Jane Austen's house (now a museum). Photo: Joaotg / Wikipedia.

In 1805, her father George died. His widow and her unmarried daughters had to live in cheap rooms until they were allowed to move in 1808 to one of the smaller houses on a brother Edward's estate in Chawton. She continued to live there until shortly before her death; the move to Winchester was an attempt to improve her health—likely a hopeless endeavor, as she suffered from Addison's disease or a form of cancer. Jane Austen is buried in Winchester Cathedral.

Highlights of her work

The unwavering support of her family was of crucial importance to Austen's development as a professional writer. Austen continued to develop artistically as a writer until she was about thirty-five years old. All this time she experimented with various literary forms, including the epistolary novel, although she set that form aside fairly quickly. The only epistolary novel she wrote was Lady Susan. She wrote (and rewrote) three major novels and began a fourth. From 1811 to 1816, she achieved success as a writer with the novels Sense and Sensibility (1811), Pride and Prejudice (1813), Mansfield Park (1814), and Emma (1816). She wrote two more novels, Northanger Abbey and Persuasion; these were published posthumously in 1818. One novel remained unfinished because she died before she could complete it; this last novel was eventually titled Sanditon.

England (1975): 200 years of Jane Austen (1775 – 1817)

Austen's works constitute a critical reaction to sentimental novels, a literary genre that was very popular in the second half of the eighteenth century. Her books form part of the transition to nineteenth-century realism. Austen's (essentially comic) plotlines highlight the significant degree to which women at the time were dependent on marriage to guarantee social status and economic security. Her books delve extensively into contemporary moral issues, just like those of Samuel Johnson, one of the strongest influences on her work.

200 Years of Pride and Prejudice (1813)

Pride and Prejudice (Dutch: Trots en vooroordeel or Waan en eigenwaan) is a novel, published in 1813, written by the British author Jane Austen. She began writing the original manuscript of Pride and Prejudice between 1796 and 1797, under the title First Impressions (specifically because she wanted to emphasize that these give rise to so many prejudices; see the Dutch translation of the title). However, a publisher did not consider it good enough, so she did not revise it until 1811. Pride and Prejudice was first printed in January 1813, two years after Sense and Sensibility, her first book, by the Military Library in Whitehall.

To prevent the book summary from becoming a spoiler, it is advised to buy the book yourself or borrow it from the library. Austen's novel has been adapted into a film several times, including in 1940 and in 2005. In the Netherlands, the NCRV broadcast a six-part television adaptation in 1961–2, titled *De vier dochters Bennet* (The Four Daughters of Bennett). A 'Bollywood' adaptation was also made, titled *Bride and Prejudice*. The best-known visual adaptation is probably the six-part BBC series from 1995, starring Colin Firth, Anna Chancellor, and Jennifer Ehle, among others. The popular novel *Bridget Jones's Diary* by writer and columnist Helen Fielding is loosely based on this version of *Pride and Prejudice*. In 2005, the book was adapted into a film again, starring Keira Knightley and Matthew Macfadyen. In 2009, American author Seth Grahame-Smith published a new adaptation of Pride & Prejudice titled Pride & Prejudice & Zombies. The book was adapted into a film in 2016. In 2011, British detective writer P.P. James wrote a sequel to Pride and Prejudice titled Death Comes to Pemberley, in which Fitzwilliam Darcy and Elizabeth Bennet, married for several years by then, are confronted with a murder on their estate. In 2012, Pride & Prejudice was adapted by Hank Green and Bernie Su, who created a web series of the story titled The Lizzie Bennet Diaries.