Although she died almost two hundred years ago, the work of this British writer continues to have a huge influence on modern literary and popular culture.
Perhaps you have recently been to the cinema and seen The Jane Austen Book Club, or you have read the 2005 novel on which it was based. Maybe you enjoyed the Emma Thomson film Sense and Sensibility in 1995, or you have continually pressed “pause” on your DVD of Andrew Davies’ version of Pride and Prejudice where Mr Darcy emerges from the lake. In other words, whether you are male or female, old or young, it is unlikely you have never encountered something to do with Jane Austen. So why this enduring appeal?
Early Life
Jane Austen was born on 16th December 1775 at her father’s rectory in Steventon, Hampshire. She enjoyed writing from an early age, producing poems, plays and short stories for the amusement of herself and her family: these were later copied by Austen into three notebooks that are now referred to as the Juvenilia, providing our evidence of her early talent.
Austen continued to produce plays and stories into adulthood, such as Lady Susan, a short novel in epistolary or letter form, between 1793 and 1795. She also produced work which although unsuccessful at the time was later developed into published novels: her first attempt at a full length novel, Elinor and Marianne, was later rewritten as Sense and Sensibility, and her 1796 draft of First Impressions, which was to become Pride and Prejudice. Austen herself never married, although she does allow her heroines (eventually!) to find love.
Success at Last
Austen and her family moved into a cottage in Chawton in 1809, and it was whilst living here that she published her first four novels. In the years that had elapsed, she had continued to write but also suffered the serious setback of the death of her beloved father in 1805. Sense and Sensibility was published in 1811, thanks to her brother Henry and his dealings with the publisher Thomas Egerton. This was the piece of fortune Jane had been working towards: the novel was very favourably received and the first edition had sold out by the summer of 1813.
A further three novels were published during her lifetime: Pride and Prejudice in 1813; Mansfield Park in 1814; and Emma in 1815. These three novels all sold very well, with the exception of a second edition of Mansfield Park, a novel that was also largely ignored by the critics. As well as this comparative failure, the Austen family as a whole were experiencing financial hardship, largely due to the failure of the bank holding Henry’s assets. Thus no further Austen novels were published before Jane’s death on the 18th July 1817, most likely from Addison’s disease.
Posthumous Success
Austen’s final two novels, Persuasion and Northanger Abbey appeared in December 1817, published as a pair. They sold well at first, but a decline in sales meant a twelve year period when Austen’s novels went out of print. However, since 1833 all of her six novels have been constantly in print and continue to sell today.
During the twentieth century her reputation as a writer has steadily increased, and she is often studied in school by students as a set author. Although her drawing-room settings have dated over the years, her sense of humour has worn well, and in her creation of strong-minded, witty female characters she has produced heroines who continue to resonate with modern audiences despite the passing years.
