Jane Austen ’s Authorship Through History

Jane Austen, the novelist and the daughter of a middle-class English family in the 18th and 19th centuries, is among the most recognized authors in English literature and her works are considered symbolic of the literary era that she lived in. Jane Austen was born in the Hampshire village of Steventon in England and died in Winchester, Hampshire in England by 1817. 

Her authorship was characterized by being the first author to give the English novel a modern dimension by writing about people and events that took place in the society, while still recognizable to ordinary people. Surprisingly, Austen did not publish many literary works, but rather only 6 novels which are: Sense and Sensibility (1811), Pride and Prejudice (1813), Mansfield Park (1814), and Emma (1815) whereas two of them were published after her death in 1817, Persuasion and Northanger Abbey. However, her novel Pride and Prejudice is among the most recognized works that Austen published because the novel describes relationships, ambitions, circumstances, and prevailing ideas of the English middle-class by that time. 

Austen’s way to develop her novels and describe society from the realistic perspective of the middle-class in England gained popularity among readers, although she lived during the romantic period as a literary era. In other words, Austen wrote about ordinary people, ordinary places, and real social life in society from a social realistic perspective in contrast to what was prevailing in literature during the romantic era. The romantic era in which Austen lived was characterized by works that are beyond reality and the realism that her works developed upon.

Jane Austen’s social realism perspective that can be perceived by her novels is developed upon the notion that women were limited in regards to possibilities in society regardless of which social class those women belong to. Furthermore, marriage was considered more of a tool in her novels to save women and provide them with freedom and social status. Moreover, the modern dimension in the English novel that emerged because of her works and writings considered describing real-life events and recognizable people that the reader, to an extent, would feel that they already know. Austen developed even the environment of her novels in southern England, a place that she knew everything about very well. All these aspects in her works were revolutionary in the English novel and got the readers closer to the reality of their society at that time. In simpler words, the revolutionary aspect of Austen’s works is about depicting reality in such a manner that is close to the reader and that includes inner messages about social criticism about women’s situation and the class society that was prevailing at that time. Another interesting aspect of her works was humor and romantic comedy. That is, readers can follow a clear line in her novels of portraying a mixture of love, fortune, and future whilst still, describing other couples as not fitting each other. However, her social realism was not developed upon depicting the society as it exactly was at that time but rather, giving it a lifelike dimension where a fictive society is built in her novels. This enhanced the reading experience and contributed to becoming among the most recognized English authors at this time despite the flourishing in literary and authorship during this era. 

Finally, Jane Austen is a recognized English writer who lived during the romantic era but who wrote about life from a social realistic perspective which characterizes her novels. Several dimensions made her works interesting and gained the attention of the reader. Mainly, her works were revolutionary for her time such as illustrating women’s situation that was deviating from the normative acceptance in the society. They are ambitious and strong women who took care of their matters with their hands. Furthermore, she realistically depicted a society but still with fictional elements that are lifelike events and people. 

Sources

Southam, B. C. (2021, December 12). Jane Austen. Encyclopedia Britannica. https://www.britannica.com/biography/Jane-Austen 

Sutherland, K. /2014, May, 15). Jane Austen: social realism and the novel. The British Library. https://www.bl.uk/romantics-and-victorians/articles/jane-austens-social-realism-and-the-novel 

Source Criticism

In this essay, there are mainly two sources that are the base of which facts are based upon. The first source is Encyclopedia Britannica which is a website with information about various subjects. Generally, Britannica is a trustworthy website, and facts are reviewed by experts. This specific article is written by the editors of the platform and updated regularly by several contributors. The article is written objectively with no subjective thoughts and the main aim of this article is to inform the reader. The article was first published in 1999 and lastly updated in 2021. It includes facts and nothing else than facts. The article is considered therefore trustworthy. 

The second source is an article published by The British Library and written by Kathryn Sutherland who is a Professorial Fellow in English at St. Anne’s College, University of Oxford. Her research interests include writings from the romantic period, Scottish Enlightenment, textual theory, and Jane Austen. She is currently directing an AHRC research project: Jane Austen’s Fiction Manuscripts: A Digital Edition and Print Edition (to be published by Oxford University Press). The article includes facts and analysis that Sutherland could conduct and achieve through Jane Austen’s literary works. It is written objectively and includes the date that it was published. This article is considered trustworthy too.