Jane Austen

Jane Austen is one of the major novelist in English literature. She was born in her father was the rector of the parishes of Steventon and Deane in Hampshire. The years of her youth were free and happy but her life was spent in a very limited environment. She observed the human society and English country offered the material of her novels. She had a very romantic story with a young man who had no money or position, therefore went abroad and seek fortune but he never returned. This personal experience, so tender and so sad, may have inspired the story of Ann Elliot in "Persuasion". She began write very soon, she was not yet sixteen. In 1811 she published "Sense and Sensibility", in 1813 "Pride and Prejudice and in 1818 Northanger Abbey. In 1811 she begun "Mansfield Park", in 1814 "Emma" and in 1815 "Persuasion". Jane Austen dedicated "Emma" to the Prince Regent, one of her admirers. In 1817 she died.

"Pride and Prejudice" describes the small world of a few families living in a country village with their routine of visit, balls, walks and gossip. Elizabeth Bennet is the heroine. Through various incidents the events develop into happy conclusion: good marriages, settlement of awkward situation, clearing up of all uncertainties. Elizabeth Bennet is clever, high-spirited and capable of great loyalty and generosity.

"Emma" is independent and determined, but having an assured social background and she organizes other people's lives as they were puppets. In particular she amuses herself by ning marriages and she is exquisitely discomfited.

"Persuasion" presents an older heroine, Ann Elliot, who has experienced suffering and has developed great depth of feeling and a wise, tender heart. Jane Austen given her a very moving love story, which perhaps reflects an episode in her own life. Ann Elliot allows social prejudice to influence her and breaks off her engagement to a young naval officer, even if she is in love with him. The young man leaves and spends seven years sailing the seas. Then he returns and the story develops along the gradual revival of his love for her.

Jane Austen is one of the major novelist in English literature. Chronologically she belongs to the romantic period, but her realism, clear-sightedness and balance in construction place her in line with the tradition of the 18^th century. She wrote domestic novels giving portraits of the provincial middle class and country gentry. The important moments of their life were visits, weddings, shopping and polite chatting. New arrivals represented real events and were conspicuous subjects of conversation, and they offered opportunity for balls. This was the world which characterized England before the Industrial Revolution. The clean, quiet little towns, the beauty of the countryside and the cheerful farms form the background of her stories. Her world is small but she gives such a precise analysis of man. With irony, wit and keen she explores human emotion and behaviour and with a few brief strokes she can convey a complete delineation of character. Each of her novels is a story of marriage, or better, about providing matches for her heroines because in her world women had no future but what their husbands could provide. In her novels there is economy, mastery of tone and sense of structure.