Rationale

Even it has only been relatively recent that her work has become mainstream-thanks in
part to required reading in school, reproductions of her classical works at the bookstores
or television and cinema productions covering her novels-the lure of the romantic period
that Jane Austen created in the minds of men and women alike has reasoned for decades.
Her careful selection of characters placed in ordinary positions of their time, only to
develop into a more dramatic situation by the turn of the last page, has kept readers
revisiting these ageless classics time and again. Having read her works, I was left
wondering who Jane Austen really was- how close were the predicaments in these works
to her real life? What kind of woman was she in the world that she lived in? Did she ever
find the love so elusive in her own novels? With these in mind, when it came the time to
choose the theme for my Atestat Paper, I had no doubts in making a quick decision.
My Atestat Paper contains a presentation of Jane Austens life and creative works. The
paper is structured in two chapters, each one with two subchapters, emphasizing Jane
Austens personal and professional life. Chapter 1 focuses on her origin, the members of
her family and her relations with them and her romantic and social life. In Chapter 2 are
listed the writers main works, classified by their publishing order, with details about
composition, theme and characters.
Her novels center on the lives of young women in middle class Regency England, and
every novel ends with a happy marriage or two. But don't expect simple love stories in all
of Jane Austen's works. As an unmarried woman of very modest financial means, Jane
Austen understood the hopes and fears of women who had to rely on marriage and family
connections to provide them with a home and means to live. Miss Austen was fortunate
in having the support of her family and a successful literary career, but she knew how
easy it would be to become a tedious Miss Bates, a pitiable Jane Fairfax, or a sickly and
forgotten Mrs Smith.
The enormous popularity of Jane Austen's novels has led to many movie and television
adaptations of her novels, beginning with Laurence Olivier and Greer Garson in the 1940
version of Pride and Prejudice, continuing to the nearly legendary wet shirt of Colin
Firth as Mr. Darcy in the 1995 BBC mini-series, and now including Bollywood musicals
and zombies. In recent years, there has been an explosion of popular novels based on
Jane Austen and her works.
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Introduction
Jane Austen is generally acknowledged to be one of the great English novelists, so it is no
surprise that her novels have remained continuously in print from her day to the present.
Contemporary reviewers found much to praise in them.
In her completed novels, Austen generally explores the same issues or questions, though
she explores them from different perspectives, under different situations, and with varied
consequences. However, this does not mean that the endings are necessarily different;
being comic novels, they all end with at least one marriage.
Jane Austen's literary style relies on a combination of parody, burlesque, irony, free
indirect speech, and a degree of realism. She uses parody and burlesque for comic effect
and to critique the portrayal of women in 18th-century sentimental and gothic novels.
Austen's irony is used similarly, but extends her critique, highlighting social hypocrisy.
She often creates an ironic tone through free indirect speech, in which the thoughts and
words of the characters mix with the voice of the narrator.
Austen's novels have often been characterized as "country house novels" or as "comedies
of manners". Compared to other early 19th-century novels, Austen's have little narrative
or scenic descriptionthey contain much more dialogue. Within the many conversations
that her characters have, Austen shapes a distinctive and subtlety-constructed voice for
each of them.
Austen's plots are fundamentally about education; her heroines come to see themselves
and their conduct more clearly, and become better, more moral people. Throughout her
novels, serious reading is associated with intellectual and moral development.
Austen's novels have variously been described as politically conservative and
progressive. Within her exploration of the political issues surrounding the gentry, Austen
addresses issues relating money and property, particularly the arbitrariness of property
inheritance and the precarious economic position of women. Throughout Austen's work
there is a tension between the claims of society and the claims of the individual. Austen is
often considered one of the originators of the modern, interiorized novel character.

Chapter 1: Early life

1.1: Family
Jane Austen was born on December 16th, 1775 at Steventon, Hampshire, England. She
was the seventh child (out of eight) and the second daughter (out of two), of the Rev.
George Austen, 1731-1805 (the local rector, or Church of England clergyman), and his
wife Cassandra, 1739-1827 (born Leigh). He had a fairly respectable income of about
600 a year, supplemented by tutoring pupils who came to live with him, but was by no
means rich, and (like Mr. Bennet in Pride and Prejudice) couldn't have given his
daughters much to marry on.
Jane's eldest brother, James (1765-1819) was studious, went away to Oxford University
at the age of 14 in 1779, and was ordained a clergyman in 1787. He had some literary
preoccupations and in 1789-1790 edited (with his brother Henry) a university magazine
at Oxford called The Loiterer, which ran for sixty issues. He took on the duties of the
Steventon parish after his father's retirement. His second wife, Mary Lloyd, was not a
favorite of Jane Austen.
His daughter Anna (1793-1872), was Jane Austen's first niece; some pieces in
Juvenilia (written when Anna was an infant) are dedicated to her. During Jane Austen's
life, she worked on a never-completed novel (to be titled Which is the Heroine?) with
the help of her aunt's advice, but eventually destroyed it after Jane Austen's death.
Edward (1767-1852) was steady and business-like, and in the early 1780's was adopted
by rich childless cousins of the Austens, Thomas and Catherine Knight. He was sent by
them on the "grand tour" of continental Europe in 1786-1788, and eventually inherited
their estate of and took the last name of "Knight".
His oldest child Fanny (1793-1882) was (along with Anna), one of Jane Austen's favorite
nieces; some pieces in Jane Austen's Juvenilia were also dedicated to her in her
infancy. Her mother died before she was sixteen. She asked her aunt Jane's advice about
several of her unsettled romantic courtships, and about whether or not to break them off.
Henry (1771-1850) was Jane Austen's favorite brother; he was witty and enthusiastic in
whatever he did, but not always successful. He entered Oxford University in 1788,
married Eliza de Feuillid (who died in 1813), and eventually ended up as a Calvinistleaning minister, after a business bankruptcy in 1815. He saw Jane Austen's novel
Persuasion and Northanger Abbey through the press after her death.
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Cassandra Elizabeth (1773-1845) was Jane Austen's only sister, and her closest
confidante. Over a hundred letters from Jane Austen to Cassandra have survived, giving
us our most intimate look at some of the details of Jane Austen's life. Cassandra's
fianc Thomas Fowle died of yellow fever in the Caribbean in 1797; he had gone there as
a military chaplain. Possibly Cassandra's experience is reflected in Mrs. Musgrove and
Mrs. Croft's abomination of "long engagements" and "uncertain engagements" in Jane
Austens Persuasion. After this, Cassandra never married. Cassandra (like Jane)
frequently visited her brothers and their families, and other relatives and friends (it was
the separations between herself and Jane, resulting from visits on which they did not both
go,
that
necessitated
the
letters
between
them).
Frank (1774-1865) and Charles (1779-1852) both entered the Royal Naval Academy
at Portsmouth at the age of 12, fought in the British navy during the Napoleonic wars,
and both eventually rose to become admirals. This naval connection influenced Jane's
novels Mansfield Park and Persuasion.
More than one reader has wondered whether the childhood of the character Catherine
Morland in Jane Austen's novel Northanger Abbey might not reflect her own
childhood, at least in part - Catherine enjoys "rolling down the green slope at the back of
the house" and prefers cricket and baseball to girls' play.
In 1783, Jane and her older sister Cassandra went briefly to be taught by a Mrs. Cawley
(the sister of one of their uncles), who lived first in Oxford and then moved
to Southampton. They were brought home after an infectious disease broke out
in Southampton. In 1785-1786 Jane and Cassandra went to the Abbey boarding
school in Reading, which apparently bore some resemblance to Mrs. Goddard's casual
school in Emma. This was Jane Austen's only education outside her family. Within
their family, the two girls learned drawing, playing the piano, etc.
Jane Austen did a fair amount of reading, of both the serious and the popular literature of
the day. However decorous she later chose to be in her own novels, she was very familiar
with eighteenth century novels, such as those of Fielding and Richardson, which were
much less inhibited than those of the later (near-)Victorian era. She frequently reread
Richardson's Sir Charles Grandison, and also enjoyed the novels of Fanny Burney (a.k.a.
Madame D'Arblay). She later got the title for Pride and Prejudice from a phrase in
Burney's Cecilia, and when Burney's Camilla came out in 1796, one of the
subscribers was "Miss J. Austen, Steventon".

1.2: Social interactions

Jane Austen enjoyed social events, and her early letters tell of dances and parties she
attended in Hampshire, and also of visits to London, Bath, Southampton etc., where she
attended plays and such.
There is little solid evidence of any serious courtships with men. In 1795-1796, she had a
mutual flirtation with Thomas Lefroy (an Irish relative of Jane Austen's close older friend
Mrs. Anne Lefroy).However, it was always known that he couldn't afford to marry
Jane .Many years later, after he had become Chief Justice of Ireland, he confessed to his
nephew that he had had a "boyish love" for Jane Austen.
In late 1800 her father decided to retire to Bath and the family moved there the next year.
During the years in Bath, the family went to the sea-side every summer, and it was while
on one of those holidays that Jane Austen's most mysterious romantic incident occurred.
All that is known is what Cassandra told various nieces, years after Jane Austen's death.
While the family were staying somewhere on the coast (probably in south Devonshire,
west of Lyme), Jane Austen met a young man who seemed to Cassandra to have quite
fallen in love with Jane; Cassandra later spoke highly of him, and thought he would have
been a successful suitor. According to her:"They parted -but he made it plain he should
seek them out again"; however, shortly afterwards they instead heard of his death! There
is no evidence as to how seriously this disappointment affected Jane Austen, but a
number of people have wondered whether or not Jane Austen's 1817 novel Persuasion
might not reflect this experience to some degree, with life transmuted into art; Jane
Austen would have been 27 (the age of Anne Elliot, the heroine) during 1802-1803, and a
crucial scene in Persuasion takes place in Lyme.
A more clearly-known incident occurred on December 1802, when Jane Austen
and Cassandra were staying with the Bigg family, near Steventon. Harris Bigg-Wither,
proposed to Jane, and she accepted, though she did not love him. However, the next day
she thought better of it, and she and Cassandra showed up unexpectedly at
Steventon (where their brother James was now the clergyman), insisting they be taken out
of the neighborhood to Bath the next day. This was socially embarrassing, but her heart
does not seem to have been seriously affected
Notoriously, none of Jane Austen's letters to Cassandra from June 1801 to August 1804,
in which she probably would have alluded to these incidents, have been preserved. In the
end, Jane Austen never married.

Chapter 2: Creative period

2.1: Novels published during life
Three of Jane Austen's six novels were written, at least in their first versions, before
1800, while the other three were not started until after Sense and Sensibility was
accepted for publication in 1811. Jane Austen published four of the novels in her lifetime,
and the two others were published together soon after her death in 1817; none of the
books had her name on the title page (though the two posthumous works were published
together with a short biographical preface by her brother Henry, identifying her as the
author for the first time). Her various minor works were not fully published until the 20th
century.
Sense and Sensibility was the first of Jane Austen's novels to be published. She began
to write it sometime around 1797, and she worked on it for many years before its
publication in 1811. The title page said that it was written "By a Lady", and only her
immediate family knew that Jane Austen was the author. Impetuous Marianne Dashwood
tumbles into a fairytale romance that goes sour, and her practical older sister Elinor copes
with the family's financial problems while hiding her own frustrated romantic hopes. The
book was a success, and it even earned a profit! The book has been adapted for film and
television a number of times, including a 1981 serial for TV directed by Rodney Bennett;
a 1995 movie adapted by Emma Thompson and directed by Ang Lee; a version
in Tamil called Kandukondain Kandukondain released in 2000; and a 2008 TV
series on BBC adapted by Andrew Davies and directed by John Alexander.
Pride and Prejudice was first written in the late 1700's, then rewritten in 1811-1812 and
finally published in early 1813. It is probably the most-read of all of Jane Austen's novels
and is a popular favorite among many. Originally entitled First Impressions, the novel
deals with the misjudgments that often occur at the beginning of an acquaintance and
how those misjudgments can change as individuals learn more about each other. The
story follows the main character Elizabeth Bennet as she deals with issues of manners,
upbringing, morality, education and marriage in the society of the landed gentry of early
19th-century England. Elizabeth is the second of five daughters of a country gentleman.
Though the story is set at the turn of the 19th century, it retains a fascination for modern
readers, continuing near the top of lists of 'most loved books'. It has become one of the
most popular novels in English literature, and receives considerable attention from
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literary scholars. Modern interest in the book has resulted in a number of dramatic
adaptations and an abundance of novels and stories imitating Austen's memorable
characters or themes. To date, the book has sold about 20 million copies worldwide
Mansfield Park was written between February, 1811 and the summer of 1813. It was
the third novel Jane Austen had published and it first appeared on May 4, 1814. During
her lifetime, it was attributed only to The author of Sense and Sensibility and Pride
and Prejudice, and the author's identity was unknown beyond her family and friends. It
is Jane Austen's most complex novel and deals with many different themes, from the
education of children, to the differences between appearances and reality. The main
character, Fanny Price, is a young girl from a relatively poor family, raised by her rich
uncle and aunt, Sir Thomas and Lady Bertram, at Mansfield Park. She grows up with her
four cousins, Tom Bertram, Edmund Bertram, Maria Bertram and Julia, but is always
treated inferior to them; only Edmund shows his real kindness. He is also the most
virtuous of the siblings: Maria and Julia are vain and spoiled, while Tom is an
irresponsible gambler. Over time, Fanny's gratitude for Edmund's kindness secretly
grows into romantic love which finally results in marriage.
Emma was written in 1814-1815, and while Jane Austen was writing it, it was
suggested to her by a member of the Prince Regents' household that she dedicates it to
His Royal Highness. Austen took the suggestion as it was intended-as a commandand Emma was thus dedicated, but the dedication itself is rather slyly worded.
Emma deals with a young woman's maturation into adulthood and the trouble she gets
herself into along the way. Before she began the novel, Austen wrote, "I am going to take
a heroine whom no one but myself will much like."] In the very first sentence she
introduces the title character as "Emma Woodhouse, handsome, clever, and rich." Emma,
however, is also rather spoiled; she greatly overestimates her own matchmaking abilities;
and she is blind to the dangers of meddling in other people's lives and is often mistaken
about the meanings of others' actions.

2.2: Works published after death

Jane Austen died on July 18, 1817 at Winchester. Although the cause of her final illness
is not known for certain, the symptoms seem to suggest that she may have been affected
by Addison's disease. Jane's funeral was held in Winchester Cathedral and she was buried
in the north aisle. Just as her novels were published anonymously, the inscription on her
tomb
makes
no
mention
of
her
literary
talents:
In Memory of JANE AUSTEN, youngest daughter of the late Revd GEORGE
AUSTEN, formerly Rector of Steventon in this County. She departed this Life on the
18th of July 1817, aged 41, after a long illness supported with the patience and the hopes
of a Christian. The benevolence of her heart, the sweetness of her temper, and the
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extraordinary endowments of her mind obtained the regard of all who knew her and the
warmest love of her intimate connections. Their grief is in proportion to their affection,
they know their loss to be irreparable, but in their deepest affliction they are consoled by
a firm though humble hope that her charity, devotion, faith and purity have rendered her
soul acceptable in the sight of her REDEEMER.
After Jane's death, her brother, Henry, recalled that she decided to write professionally in
1789. Between 1793 and 1794 she began the first draft of a novel entitled Susan. The
book, a parody of the gothic novel, was written in 1798-1799. It was offered for
publication in 1803 and purchased for 10 by Crosby and Company. The firm allowed
the manuscript to languish on its shelves for six years. In 1809, Jane Austen
unsuccessfully tried to get the manuscript back from the publisher, but she did not have
enough money to repurchase it. Henry finally got it back from the publisher in 1816, or
13 years after it was first published. Jane renamed the book Catherine, since a book
entitled Susan had already been published. After Jane's death in 1817, Henry retitled
the book to Northanger Abbey and published it along with Persuasion.
When Jane began a new novel in the summer of 1815, she named it The Elliots. In
March of 1816, she described it in a letter as "something ready for publication". While
writing the novel, Jane fell ill and she stopped working on it. Jane replaced her first
version of the last two chapters of The Elliots with a newer, more successful ending.
The book was published in December 1817 with the new ending, and renamed it
Persuasion. In his biographical note, her brother Henry identified Jane publicly for the
first time as the author of her first four published novels.
Jane Austen worked on the first draft of Sanditon, her last novel in 1816,but it
remained unfinished. The fragment was published in 1871 as The last Work.
Jane Austen wrote between 1787-1793 short pieces in a collection known as
the Juvenilia. Over her lifetime she frequently copied these early stories, histories, and
plays into numerous 3-volume notebooks that were distributed to family members. In
1922, Volume the Second of the Juvenilia was first printed; and all three volumes in
1954 as Janes Minor Works .

Conclusion
Because Jane Austen does not deal with adventure and action in exotic places, but
exclusively with the 3 or 4 families in a country village which she once described
as the perfect subject for a novelist it is sometimes asserted that her works are
limited in scope, even if not in appeal. But human emotions are the same whether they
are played out in exotic locations or in a country village. The truth of the description
and the sentiment: this is what connects us with her works and surely why we
continue to read them and to wish there were more.
Austen wrote her books at the dawn of the nineteenth century, when vast social
changes were already encroaching on the way of life she so loved and rendered with
such exquisite artistry. We read her books today on the cusp of a new century, with an
unfathomable world, one globally interconnected, technologically complex,
economically uncertain. Perhaps we find on Austen's rural estates and in her
charming, insular society the same peace and pleasure she found there; and an
analogue for the simpler, more circumscribed world of our own childhoods, itself
passing quickly away into history. The time in which Jane Austen wrote her novels
was a period of great stability just about to give way to a time of unimagined changes.
While writing this Atestat Paper I reached the conclusion that circumstances play a
more important role than intention in a humans life. Like most of her characters, Jane
Austen was a strong woman in a world that needed changes, but unlike her heroines
who in the end find their happiness, she was hardly ever happy.

Bibliography
1. Jane Austen and the War of Ideas. Oxford University Press, 1975
2. Jane Austen. Catharine and Other Writings. Ed. Margaret Anne Doody and Douglas
Murray, 1993
3. Henry Thomas Austen. "Biographical Notice of the Author". Northanger Abbey
and Persuasion. John Murray, 1817
4. Jane Austen: A Collection of Critical Essays. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall,
1963
5. James Edward Austen-Leigh. A Memoir of Jane Austen. 1926
6. Janet Todd. Jane Austen In Context. Cambridge University Press, 2005
7. Jan Fergus. Jane Austen and the Didactic Novel. Barnes & Noble, 1983
8. Mary Waldron. Jane Austen and the Fiction of Her Time. Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press, 1999
9. Mary Lascelles. Jane Austen and Her Art. Original publication 1939
10. Southam. Criticism, The Jane Austen Companion, 1870-1940
11. Honan Trott. Critical Responses. Jane Austen in Context 1970

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