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Jane Austen
was born in the year 1775 in the village of Steventon, in
Hampshire, England. She was the seventh child of her parents' marriage.
She lived a quiet life: she never married, lived with her family until
the end of her life, and died at the age of 41 in the arms of her sister
at No. 8 College Street in Winchester, England.
But, over the course of her life, she wrote six great novels, four of which
were published during her life-time.
"It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession
of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife." This
famous quotation, the opening sentence of Pride and Prejudice, demonstrates
not only her inimitable style and ironical humor, but also her typical
subject matter. Austen depicted with a sympathetic imagination the lives of
minor landed gentry, country clergymen, and families in various economic
circumstances struggling to maintain or enhance their social position. The
most urgent preoccupation of her young, well-bred heroines and heroes
is courtship and marriage. Her interest lay in life's little conundrums
of sentiment and conduct. -- from
"Online
Literature"
Sense and Sensibility (1811)
Although this novel was written after Pride and Prejudice, it found
publication sooner, due to the publisher's delay with First Impressions
(the earlier title of Pride and Prejudice).
Sense and Sensibility
by Jane Austen |
Size: 364 KB |
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Pride and Prejudice (1813)
Pride and Prejudice
by Jane Austen |
Size: 374 KB |
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Mansfield Park (1814)
Mansfield Park, volume 1
by Jane Austen |
Size: 238 KB |
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Mansfield Park, volume 2
by Jane Austen |
Size: 244 KB |
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Emma (1815)
Emma, volume 1
by Jane Austen |
Size: 148 KB |
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Emma, volume 2
by Jane Austen |
Size: 162 KB |
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Emma, volume 3
by Jane Austen |
Size: 176 KB |
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Northanger Abbey (1818)
Well, actually, this novel first went to press in December of 1817, but it
is customary to list the publication date as 1818 since it is unlikely
that many copies reached the book buyers before January of that later year.
This is Jane's gothic novel, patterned
in part after the gothic novels that were popular in the late years of the
18th century, but, of course, with Miss Austen's own perspective and a
courageous young heroine (sort of a Buffy the Vampire Slayer in
ringlet curls and a regency gown).
Although this book was written twenty years before her death, and the
last revisions were completed in 1803, it was only sold in 1816 to the
publisher who eventually printed it in December of 1817 with an introductory
note from the author(ess), just five months after Jane's passing. It was the
first of her novels to be published posthumously.
Northanger Abbey
by Jane Austen |
Size: 238 KB |
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