159-682: Mansfield Park is the third published novel by the English author Jane Austen , first published in 1814 by Thomas Egerton . A second edition was published in 1816 by John Murray , still within Austen's lifetime. The novel did not receive any public reviews until 1821. The novel tells the story of Fanny Price, starting when her overburdened family sends her at the age of ten to live in the household of her wealthy aunt and uncle and following her development into early adulthood. From early on critical interpretation has been diverse, differing particularly over
318-464: A barrister . Lefroy and Austen would have been introduced at a ball or other neighbourhood social gathering, and it is clear from Austen's letters to Cassandra that they spent considerable time together: "I am almost afraid to tell you how my Irish friend and I behaved. Imagine to yourself everything most profligate and shocking in the way of dancing and sitting down together." Austen wrote in her first surviving letter to her sister Cassandra that Lefroy
477-491: A 16th-century house in disrepair, underwent necessary renovations. Cassandra gave birth to three children while living at Deane: James in 1765, George in 1766, and Edward in 1767. Her custom was to keep an infant at home for several months and then place it with Elizabeth Littlewood, a woman living nearby to nurse and raise for twelve to eighteen months. In 1768, the family finally took up residence in Steventon. Henry
636-494: A Novel, according to Hints from Various Quarters , a satiric outline of the "perfect novel" based on the librarian's many suggestions for a future Austen novel. Austen was greatly annoyed by Clarke's often pompous literary advice, and the Plan of a Novel parodying Clarke was intended as her revenge for all the unwanted letters she had received from the royal librarian. In mid-1815 Austen moved her work from Egerton to John Murray ,
795-734: A better-known publisher in London, who published Emma in December 1815 and a second edition of Mansfield Park in February 1816. Emma sold well, but the new edition of Mansfield Park did poorly, and this failure offset most of the income from Emma . These were the last of Austen's novels to be published during her lifetime. While Murray prepared Emma for publication, Austen began The Elliots , later published as Persuasion . She completed her first draft in July 1816. In addition, shortly after
954-472: A carpenter could make about £100 annually while the typical annual income of a gentry family was between £1,000 and £5,000. Mr. Austen also rented the 200-acre Cheesedown farm from his benefactor Thomas Knight which could make a profit of £300 (equivalent to £48,000 in 2023) a year. During this period of her life, Jane Austen attended church regularly, socialised with friends and neighbours, and read novels—often of her own composition—aloud to her family in
1113-404: A closer relationship with her. When Henry returns to Mansfield Park, he decides to entertain himself by making Fanny fall in love with him. Fanny's brother William visits, and Sir Thomas holds what is effectively a coming-out ball for her. Although Mary dances with Edmund, she tells him it will be the last time, as she will never dance with a clergyman. Edmund drops his plan to propose and leaves
1272-474: A fortune and large estate from his great-aunt Perrot, with the only condition that he change his name to Leigh-Perrot. George Austen and Cassandra Leigh were engaged, probably around 1763, when they exchanged miniatures . He received the living of the Steventon parish from Thomas Knight, the wealthy husband of his second cousin. They married on 26 April 1764 at St Swithin's Church in Bath , by license , in
1431-482: A husband for Maria, finds the rich but weak-willed Mr Rushworth, whose proposal Maria accepts but only for his money. Henry Crawford and his sister Mary arrive at the parsonage to stay with their half-sister, the wife of the new incumbent, Dr Grant. With their fashionable London ways, they enliven the great house. Edmund and Mary then start to show interest in one another. On a visit to Mr Rushworth's estate, Henry flirts with both Maria and Julia. Maria believes Henry
1590-416: A legend of "good quiet Aunt Jane", portraying her as a woman in a happy domestic situation, whose family was the mainstay of her life. Modern biographers include details excised from the letters and family biographies, but the biographer Jan Fergus writes that the challenge is to keep the view balanced, not to present her languishing in periods of deep unhappiness as "an embittered, disappointed woman trapped in
1749-509: A man very hard to like, let alone love". In 1814, Austen wrote a letter to her niece Fanny Knight, who had asked for advice about a serious relationship, telling her that "having written so much on one side of the question, I shall now turn around & entreat you not to commit yourself farther, & not to think of accepting him unless you really do like him. Anything is to be preferred or endured rather than marrying without Affection". The English scholar Douglas Bush wrote that Austen had "had
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#17327795866811908-478: A method for persuasion became an orthodoxy, challenged in mid-century by Henry Noble Day . Elements of Rhetoric is still cited, for thought about presumption , burden of proof , and testimony . Irish historian William Edward Hartpole Lecky thought Whately’s importance and influence greater than his later historical repute would indicate, and that Whately’s unsystematic, aphoristic style of writing might explain history’s relative forgetfulness of him: He had
2067-421: A mile from the west front. Mr Rushworth misunderstands Repton. In his book, Repton writes cautiously of 'the fashion ... to destroy avenues', and he parodies fashion that is merely doctrinaire. Rushworth's conversation follows closely that of Repton's parody. Fanny is disappointed and quotes Cowper, valuing what has emerged naturally over the centuries. David Monaghan (1980) contrasts Fanny's perspective with that of
2226-510: A more intellectual approach to religion. He also disagreed with the later Tractarian emphasis on ritual and church authority. Instead, he emphasised careful reading and understanding of the Bible. His cardinal principle was that of Chillingworth —‘the Bible , and the Bible alone, is the religion of protestants ;’ and his exegesis was directed to determine the general tenor of the scriptures to
2385-487: A national and non-sectarian system of education in Ireland, on the basis of common instruction for Protestants and Catholics alike in literary and moral subjects, religious instruction being taken apart. In 1841, Catholic archbishops William Crolly and John MacHale debated whether to continue the system, with the more moderate Crolly supporting Whately's gaining papal permission to go on, given some safeguards. In 1852,
2544-401: A new manuscript of Susan if needed to secure the immediate publication of the novel, and requesting the return of the original so she could find another publisher. Crosby replied that he had not agreed to publish the book by any particular time, or at all, and that Austen could repurchase the manuscript for the £10 he had paid her and find another publisher. She did not have the resources to buy
2703-479: A new novel, The Watsons , but there was nothing like the productivity of the years 1795–1799. Tomalin suggests this reflects a deep depression disabling her as a writer, but Honan disagrees, arguing Austen wrote or revised her manuscripts throughout her creative life, except for a few months after her father died. It is often claimed that Austen was unhappy in Bath, which caused her to lose interest in writing, but it
2862-628: A nineteenth century Cinderella . A major debate concerns whether or not the character of Fanny is meant to be ironic, a parody of the wholesome heroines so popular in Regency novels. Lionel Trilling (1957) maintained that Austen created Fanny as "irony directed against irony itself". William H. Magee (1966) wrote that "irony pervades, if (it) does not dominate, the presentation of Fanny Price". By contrast, Andrew Wright (1968) argued that Fanny "is presented straight-forwardly, without any contradiction of any kind". Thomas Edwards (1965) regarded Fanny as
3021-570: A parliamentary committee appearance speaking on tithes , an acceptable option. Behind the scenes Thomas Hyde Villiers had lobbied Denis Le Marchant on his behalf, with the Brougham Whigs. The appointment was challenged in the House of Lords , but without success. In Ireland, Whately's bluntness and his lack of a conciliatory manner caused opposition from his own clergy, and from the beginning he gave offence by supporting state endowment of
3180-508: A posthumous edition of Northanger Abbey and included extracts from two letters, against the judgement of other family members. Details of Austen's life continued to be omitted or embellished in her nephew's A Memoir of Jane Austen , published in 1869, and in William and Richard Arthur Austen-Leigh's biography Jane Austen: Her Life and Letters , published in 1913, all of which included additional letters. Austen's family and relatives built
3339-524: A professional writer. When she was around eighteen years old, Austen began to write longer, more sophisticated works. In August 1792, aged seventeen, Austen started Catharine or the Bower , which presaged her mature work, especially Northanger Abbey , but was left unfinished until picked up in Lady Susan , which Todd describes as less prefiguring than Catharine . A year later she began, but abandoned,
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#17327795866813498-591: A relapse, writing: "I am ashamed to say that the shock of my Uncle's Will brought on a relapse ... but a weak Body must excuse weak Nerves." Austen continued to work in spite of her illness. Dissatisfied with the ending of The Elliots , she rewrote the final two chapters, which she finished on 6 August 1816. In January 1817, Austen began The Brothers (titled Sanditon when published in 1925), completing twelve chapters before stopping work in mid-March 1817, probably due to illness. Todd describes Sanditon ' s heroine, Diana Parker, as an "energetic invalid". In
3657-500: A result of a fall from his horse. Edmund takes Fanny back to Mansfield Park, where she is a healing influence. Sir Thomas realises that Fanny was right to reject Henry's proposal and now regards her as a daughter. During a meeting with Mary Crawford, Edmund discovers that Mary's regret is only that Henry's adultery was discovered. Devastated, he breaks off the relationship and returns to Mansfield Park, where he confides in Fanny. Eventually
3816-695: A set). They gradually gained wide acclaim and popular readership. In 1869, fifty-two years after her death, her nephew's publication of A Memoir of Jane Austen introduced a compelling version of her writing career and her supposedly uneventful life to an eager audience. Her work has inspired a large number of critical essays and has been included in many literary anthologies. Her novels have also inspired many films, including 1940's Pride and Prejudice , 1995's Sense and Sensibility , and 2016's Love & Friendship . The scant biographical information about Austen comes from her few surviving letters and sketches her family members wrote about her. Only about 160 of
3975-462: A short play, later titled Sir Charles Grandison or the happy Man, a comedy in 6 acts , which she returned to and completed around 1800. This was a short parody of various school textbook abridgements of Austen's favourite contemporary novel, The History of Sir Charles Grandison (1753), by Samuel Richardson . When Austen became an aunt for the first time aged eighteen, she sent new-born niece Fanny Catherine Austen Knight "five short pieces of ...
4134-477: A simple ceremony, two months after Cassandra's father died. Their income was modest, with George's small per annum living; Cassandra brought to the marriage the expectation of a small inheritance at the time of her mother's death. After the living at the nearby Deane rectory had been purchased for George by his wealthy uncle Francis Austen, the Austens took up temporary residence there, until Steventon rectory,
4293-401: A singular felicity of illustration, and especially of metaphor, and a rare power of throwing his thoughts into terse and pithy sentences; but his many books, though full of original thinking and in a high degree suggestive to other writers, had always a certain fragmentary and occasional character, which prevented them from taking a place in standard literature. He was conscious of it himself, and
4452-494: A sort of part-time job, and was not seeking to become a "literary lioness" (i.e. a celebrity). Another reason noted is that the novel was still seen as a lesser form of literature at the time compared with poetry, and many female and male authors published novels anonymously, whereas works of poetry, by both female and male writers were almost always attributed to the author. During her time at Chawton, Austen published four generally well-received novels. Through her brother Henry,
4611-548: A summary, which she then translated into an embellished French that often radically altered Austen's plots and characters. The first of the Austen novels to be published that credited her as the author was in France, when Persuasion was published in 1821 as La Famille Elliot ou L'Ancienne Inclination . Austen learned that the Prince Regent admired her novels and kept a set at each of his residences. In November 1815,
4770-748: A third On the Errors of Romanism Traced to Their Origin in Human Nature . In 1837 he wrote his handbook of Christian Evidences , which was translated during his lifetime into more than a dozen languages. In the Irish context, the Christian Evidences was adapted to a form acceptable to Catholic beliefs, with the help of James Carlile . Whately's works included: (Linked works are from Internet Archive ) Humphrey Lloyd told Caroline Fox that Whately's eccentric behaviour and body language
4929-461: A thoroughly unpleasant family". Jane Austen was born in Steventon, Hampshire on 16 December 1775. Her father wrote of her arrival in a letter that her mother "certainly expected to have been brought to bed a month ago". He added that the newborn infant was "a present plaything for Cassy and a future companion". The winter of 1775-1776 was particularly harsh and it was not until 5 April that she
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5088-440: A tourist's introduction to the house by Mrs Rushworth, and finally a tour of the estate guided by the serpentine wanderings of the young people. The theme of country in conflict with city recurs throughout the novel. Symbolically, life-renewing nature is under attack from the artificial and corrupting effects of city society. Canadian scholar David Monaghan draws attention to the rural way of life which, with its careful respect for
5247-635: A very high ideal of the love that should unite a husband and wife ... All of her heroines ... know in proportion to their maturity, the meaning of ardent love". A possible autobiographical element in Sense and Sensibility occurs when Elinor Dashwood contemplates "the worse and most irremediable of all evils, a connection for life" with an unsuitable man. In 1804, while living in Bath, Austen started, but did not complete, her novel The Watsons . The story centres on an invalid and impoverished clergyman and his four unmarried daughters. Sutherland describes
5406-701: A view of political economy as an essentially logical subject. It proved influential in Oxford. The Noetics were reformers but largely centrist in politics, rather than strong Whigs or Tories. One of Whately's initial acts on going to Dublin was to endow a chair of political economy in Trinity College . Its first holder was Mountifort Longfield . Later, in 1846, he founded the Dublin Statistical Society with William Neilson Hancock. Whately's view of political economy, and that common to
5565-473: A wide range of topics, a flamboyant character, and one of the first reviewers to recognise the talents of Jane Austen . Whately was born in London, the son of the Rev. Dr. Joseph Whately (1730–1797). He was educated at a private school near Bristol , and at Oriel College, Oxford , from 1805. He obtained a B.A . in 1808, with double second-class honours, and the prize for the English essay in 1810; in 1811, he
5724-451: A world where everything is to be got with money, and where impersonal crowds have replaced peace and tranquillity as the social benchmarks. Austen gives further glimpses of London society when Maria is married and gains what Mary Crawford describes as "her pennyworth", a fashionable London residence for the season. For Monaghan, it is Fanny alone who senses the moral values that lie beneath the old unfashionable manners. It falls to her to defend
5883-513: A year later. In early 1803, Henry Austen offered Susan to Benjamin Crosby, a London publisher, who paid £10 for the copyright. Crosby promised early publication and went so far as to advertise the book publicly as being "in the press", but did nothing more. The manuscript remained in Crosby's hands, unpublished, until Austen repurchased the copyright from him in 1816. In December 1800, George Austen unexpectedly announced his decision to retire from
6042-406: Is Fanny's lack of the "will to dominate" that enables her 'will' to succeed. Her struggle just to be herself causes her to exercise moral influence, and this leads her to triumph in the end. Nina Auerbach recognises an extraordinary tenacity in Fanny "with which she adheres to an identity validated by none of the conventional female attributes of family, home, or love". By so doing, Fanny "repudiates
6201-642: Is Fanny’s aunt and her four children – Tom, Edmund, Maria and Julia – are older than Fanny. All but Edmund mistreat her and her other aunt, Mrs Norris, wife of the clergyman at the Mansfield parsonage, makes herself particularly unpleasant. When Fanny is fifteen, Aunt Norris is widowed and her visits to Mansfield Park increase, as does her mistreatment of Fanny. A year later, Sir Thomas leaves to deal with problems on his sugar plantation in Antigua , taking with him his spendthrift eldest son Tom. Mrs Norris, looking for
6360-512: Is in love with her and so treats Mr Rushworth dismissively, provoking his jealousy, while Julia struggles with jealousy and resentment towards her sister. Mary is disappointed to learn that Edmund will be a clergyman and tries to undermine his vocation. After Tom returns to Mansfield Park ahead of his father, he encourages the young people to begin rehearsals for an amateur performance of Elizabeth Inchbald's play Lovers' Vows . Edmund objects, believing Sir Thomas would disapprove and feeling that
6519-450: Is just as possible that Austen's social life in Bath prevented her from spending much time writing novels. The critic Robert Irvine argued that if Austen spent more time writing novels when she was in the countryside, it might just have been because she had more spare time as opposed to being more happy in the countryside as is often argued. Furthermore, Austen frequently both moved and travelled over southern England during this period, which
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6678-471: Is manuscript evidence that Austen continued to work on these pieces as late as 1811 (when she was 36), and that her niece and nephew, Anna and James Edward Austen, made further additions as late as 1814. Between 1793 and 1795 (aged eighteen to twenty), Austen wrote Lady Susan , a short epistolary novel , usually described as her most ambitious and sophisticated early work. It is unlike any of Austen's other works. Austen biographer Claire Tomalin describes
6837-645: Is not clear whether the decision to print more copies than usual of Austen's novels was driven by the publishers or the author. Since all but one of Austen's books were originally published "on commission", the risks of overproduction were largely hers (or Cassandra's after her death) and publishers may have been more willing to produce larger editions than was normal practice when their own funds were at risk. Editions of popular works of non-fiction were often much larger. Austen made £140 (equivalent to £12,800 in 2023) from Sense and Sensibility , which provided her with some financial and psychological independence. After
6996-474: Is portrayed as having no moral appreciation at all. On a visit to London in 1796, Austen wrote jokingly to her sister, "Here I am once more in this Scene of Dissipation & vice, and I begin already to find my Morals corrupted." Through the Crawfords the reader is given glimpses of London society. They represent London's money-grubbing, vulgar middle class, the opposite of Austen's rural ideal. They come from
7155-499: Is primarily that of a victim determined to survive, the result of the trauma of her dislocation and the internal complexities of her mental well-being. The once beautiful aunt Bertram, in her indolence and passivity, also satirises the stereotype. In the end, Fanny survives by unwittingly undermining prevailing attitudes to propriety as she finds the strength to place conscience above obedience and love above duty. Fanny's refusal to capitulate to Sir Thomas' wish that she marry Henry Crawford
7314-602: Is seen as mentally and physically fragile, a little girl with low self-esteem, vulnerable and thin-skinned. The rock on which she stands, enabling her to survive, is the love of her older brother William. At Mansfield, her cousin Edmund gradually takes on a similar role; both young men fulfil the essential role of care-giver left vacant by the adults. The East room, which Fanny gradually appropriates, becomes her safe place, her "nest of comforts" to which, though unheated, she retreats in times of stress. Here she reflects on her sufferings;
7473-547: Is seen by Kirkham as the moral climax of the novel. Through her deep-seated integrity and compassion, her reason and common sense, she is able to triumph, thus challenging the prevailing ideal of femininity (and propriety) in Regency England. The American literary critic Harold Bloom calls Fanny Price "a co-descendant, together with Locke's association-menaced will, of the English Protestant emphasis upon
7632-464: Is taken aback by the contrast between their chaotic household and the harmonious environment at Mansfield. Henry visits, but although she still refuses him, she begins to appreciate his good features. Later, Fanny learns that Henry and Maria have had an affair which is reported in the newspapers. Mr Rushworth sues Maria for divorce and the Bertram family is devastated. Tom meanwhile falls gravely ill as
7791-407: Is thought to have written her fair copy of Lady Susan and added its "Conclusion". In 1806, the family moved to Southampton , where they shared a house with Frank Austen and his new wife. A large part of this time they spent visiting various branches of the family. On 5 April 1809, about three months before the family's move to Chawton , Austen wrote an angry letter to Richard Crosby, offering him
7950-859: The Canterbury Association . He was elected a Foreign Honorary Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1855. After his marriage to writer Elizabeth Whately ( née Pope) in 1821, Whately lived in Oxford . He gave up his college fellowship, which could not then be held by married men, and began tutoring and writing. An uncle, William Plumer , presented him with a living in Halesworth in Suffolk, and Whately moved there. His daughters were writer Jane Whately and missionary Mary Louisa Whately . One of his nephews
8109-825: The Catholic clergy. He enforced strict discipline in his diocese; and he published a statement of his views on Sabbath ( Thoughts on the Sabbath , 1832). He lived in Redesdale House in Kilmacud , just outside Dublin, where he could garden. He was concerned to reform the Church of Ireland and the Irish Poor Laws . He considered tithe commutation essential for the Church. In 1831, Whately attempted to establish
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#17327795866818268-419: The "extraordinary endowments of her mind", but does not explicitly mention her achievements as a writer. Richard Whately Richard Whately (1 February 1787 – 8 October 1863) was an English academic, rhetorician, logician, philosopher, economist, and theologian who also served as a reforming Church of Ireland Archbishop of Dublin . He was a leading Broad Churchman , a prolific and combative author over
8427-413: The 'kingdom' relating to both contemporary society and a kingdom yet to be revealed. Nina Auerbach (1980), identifying with the ambivalence experienced by many readers, asks "how ought we to feel about Fanny Price?" Austen's mother thought Fanny insipid, though other unpublished private reviewers liked the character (Austen collected comments by those in her social circle). Many have seen Fanny Price as
8586-474: The 1970s, Mansfield Park was considered Austen's most controversial novel. In 1974, the American literary critic Joel Weinsheimer described Mansfield Park as perhaps the most profound of her novels and certainly the most problematic. The American scholar John Halperin (1975) was particularly negative, describing Mansfield Park as the "most eccentric" of Austen's novels and her greatest failure. He attacked
8745-406: The Austen family were elided by intention, such as any mention of Austen's brother George, whose undiagnosed developmental challenges led the family to send him away from home; the two brothers sent away to the navy at an early age; or wealthy Aunt Leigh-Perrot, arrested and tried on charges of larceny. The first Austen biography was Henry Thomas Austen 's 1818 "Biographical Notice". It appeared in
8904-420: The Austen heroines in that her story begins when she is ten and traces her story up to age eighteen. Byrne says, " Mansfield Park is perhaps the first novel in history to depict the life of a little girl from within". By the beginning of the 21st century, says John Wiltshire, critics, appreciating Austen's highly sophisticated renderings of her character's psychological lives, now understood Fanny, formerly seen as
9063-414: The Bertram family as greedy, selfish and materialistic, Austen, in the last chapters, presented life at Mansfield Park in idealised terms. The latter part of the twentieth century saw the development of diverse readings, including feminist and post-colonial criticism, the most influential of the latter being Edward Said 's Jane Austen and Empire (1983). While some continued to attack, and others to praise
9222-570: The Crawfords, they have rejected the orientation and obscured the moral perspective that inspired Austen in her writing of Mansfield Park . This is the affliction of our times. We are too easily charmed by the subversive. In 2014, celebrating the passing of 200 years since the novel's publication, Paula Byrne wrote: "Ignore its uptight reputation, Mansfield Park ... seethes with sex and explores England's murkiest corners". She called it pioneering for being about meritocracy. In 2017, Corinne Fowler revisited Said's thesis, reviewing its significance in
9381-743: The Hall, which was also a target for expansion by Oriel. Whately returned to the University of Oxford , where he had seen the social impact of unemployment on the city and region. A reformer, Whately was initially on friendly terms with John Henry Newman . They fell out over Robert Peel 's candidacy for the Oxford University seat in Parliament. In 1829, Whately was elected as Drummond Professor of Political Economy at Oxford in succession to Nassau William Senior. His tenure of office
9540-561: The Juvenilia now known collectively as 'Scraps' .., purporting to be her 'Opinions and Admonitions on the conduct of Young Women ' ". For Jane-Anna-Elizabeth Austen (also born in 1793), her aunt wrote "two more 'Miscellanious [ sic ] Morsels', dedicating them to [Anna] on 2 June 1793, 'convinced that if you seriously attend to them, You will derive from them very important Instructions, with regard to your Conduct in Life. ' " There
9699-494: The Priceless Heroine of Mansfield Park" argued that Austen was a feminist writer who liked complexity and humour and enjoyed presenting puzzles for her readers. Many have missed the feminist irony of the character of Fanny. Austen was a feminist in the sense that she believed women were as endowed with reason and common sense as men, and that the ideal marriage should be between two people who love each other. Ironically,
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#17327795866819858-561: The Prince Regent's librarian James Stanier Clarke invited Austen to visit the Prince's London residence and hinted Austen should dedicate the forthcoming Emma to the Prince. Though Austen disapproved of the Prince Regent, she could scarcely refuse the request. Austen disapproved of the Prince Regent on the account of his womanising, gambling, drinking, spendthrift ways, and generally disreputable behaviour. She later wrote Plan of
10017-547: The Royal Navy's North America stations in Halifax and Bermuda . In Fanny's East room, Edmund speculates from her reading that she will be 'taking a trip into China' in the footsteps of Lord Macartney 's pioneering cultural mission. The first critic to draw attention to the novel's extensive use of symbolic representation was Virginia Woolf in 1913. Three overtly symbolic events are: the visit to neighbouring Sotherton and
10176-464: The age of fifteen, George Austen's sister Philadelphia was apprenticed to a milliner in Covent Garden . At the age of sixteen, George entered St John's College, Oxford , where he most likely met Cassandra Leigh (1739–1827). She came from the prominent Leigh family . Her father was rector at All Souls College, Oxford , where she grew up among the gentry. Her eldest brother James inherited
10335-557: The approximately 3,000 letters Austen wrote have survived and been published. Cassandra Austen destroyed the bulk of the letters she received from her sister, burning or otherwise destroying them. She wanted to ensure that the "younger nieces did not read any of Jane's sometimes acid or forthright comments on neighbours or family members". In the interest of protecting reputations from Jane's penchant for honesty and forthrightness, Cassandra omitted details of illnesses, unhappiness and anything she considered unsavoury. Important details about
10494-413: The author. If a novel did not recover its costs through sales, the author was responsible for them. The alternative to selling via commission was by selling the copyright, where an author received a one-time payment from the publisher for the manuscript, which occurred with Pride and Prejudice . Austen's experience with Susan (the manuscript that became Northanger Abbey ) where she sold the copyright to
10653-509: The best values of English society, despite in many ways being unequipped for the task. At Sotherton, Mr. Rushworth considers employing the popular landscape improver Humphry Repton , his rates being five guineas a day. Repton had coined the term "landscape gardener" and also popularised the title Park as the description of an estate. Austen is thought to have based her fictional Sotherton partly on Stoneleigh Abbey , which her uncle, Rev Thomas Leigh, inherited in 1806. On his first visit to claim
10812-416: The bounds of her immediate family environment". Her education came from reading, guided by her father and brothers James and Henry. Irene Collins said that Austen "used some of the same school books as the boys". Austen apparently had unfettered access both to her father's library and that of a family friend, Warren Hastings . Together these collections amounted to a large and varied library. Her father
10971-575: The brooding character of Hamlet , or even the monster of Mary Shelley 's Frankenstein (published only four years later). Auerbach says there is "something horrible about her that deprives the imagination of its appetite for ordinary life and compels it toward the deformed, the dispossessed". Auerbach argues that Fanny defines herself best in assertive negatives. Fanny's response to the invitation to take part in Lovers' Vows is, "No, indeed, I cannot act." In life she rarely acts, only counteracts, watching
11130-470: The character of the heroine, Austen's views about theatrical performance and the centrality or otherwise of ordination and religion, and on the question of slavery. Some of these problems have been highlighted in the several later adaptations of the story for stage and screen. Ten-year-old Fanny Price is sent from her impoverished home in Portsmouth to live with the family at Mansfield Park. Lady Bertram
11289-575: The completion of First Impressions , Austen returned to Elinor and Marianne and from November 1797 until mid-1798, revised it heavily; she eliminated the epistolary format in favour of third-person narration and produced something close to Sense and Sensibility . In 1797, Austen met her cousin (and future sister-in-law), Eliza de Feuillide , a French aristocrat whose first husband the Comte de Feuillide had been guillotined, causing her to flee to Britain, where she married Henry Austen. The description of
11448-401: The consolidation of British imperial power. Colleen Sheehan (2004) said: Despite Austen's ultimate and clear condemnation of the Crawfords, much of contemporary scholarship bemoans their literary fates. It is a common cant of critics that they would delight in an evening with Henry and Mary Crawford and anticipate in horror having to spend one with Fanny Price and Edmund Bertram. ... Like
11607-533: The copyright back at that time, but was able to purchase it in 1816. Around early 1809, Austen's brother Edward offered his mother and sisters a more settled life—the use of a large cottage in Chawton village which was part of the estate around Edward's nearby property Chawton House . Jane, Cassandra and their mother moved into Chawton cottage on 7 July 1809. Life was quieter in Chawton than it had been since
11766-458: The deepest rebellion against them", a rebellion scarcely conscious. Negative criticism of Fanny sometimes identifies with that voiced by characters in the novel. For some early feminists, Fanny Price was close to being considered, as she was by Mrs Norris, "the daemon of the piece". Many have despised her as "creepmouse", as her cousin Tom does. Margaret Kirkham (1983) in her essay "Feminist Irony and
11925-512: The distinctive qualities of her siblings, and works hard not to cause offence. In the wider community, judgement is more even-handed; Fanny does not take to the young ladies of the town and they, offended by the 'airs' of one who neither plays on the pianoforte nor wears fine pelisses , do not take to her. She comes to see that part of her physical frailty stems from the debilitating effect of the internal arguments, conversations and identifications that sap her energy. Auerbach suggests that Fanny, as
12084-575: The early holders of the Trinity college professorship, addressed it as a type of natural theology . He belonged to the group of supporters of Thomas Malthus that included Thomas Chalmers , some others of the Noetics, Richard Jones and William Whewell from Cambridge. He saw no inconsistency between science and Christian belief, which differed from the view of other Christian critics of Malthus. He differed also from Jones and Whewell, expressing
12243-483: The estate, he took Austen, her mother, and her sister with him. Leigh, who had already employed Repton at Adlestrop, now commissioned him to make improvements at Stoneleigh where he redirected the River Avon , flooded a section of the land to create a mirror lake, and added a bowling green lawn and cricket pitch. Over family dinner, Mr Rushworth declares that he will do away with the great oak avenue that ascends half
12402-507: The evenings. Socialising with the neighbours often meant dancing, either impromptu in someone's home after supper or at the balls held regularly at the assembly rooms in the town hall. Her brother Henry later said that "Jane was fond of dancing, and excelled in it". In 1783 Austen and her sister Cassandra were sent to Oxford to be educated by Ann Cawley who took them to Southampton later that year. That autumn both girls were sent home after catching typhus , of which Jane nearly died. She
12561-492: The exclusion of dogmas based on isolated texts. There is no reason to question his reception of the central doctrines of the faith , though he shrank from theorising or even attempting to formulate them with precision. On election he held, broadly speaking, the Arminian view, and his antipathy to Calvinism was intense. He dwelt more on the life than on the death of Christ , the necessity of which he denied. Whately took
12720-475: The execution of the Comte de Feuillide related by his widow left Austen with an intense horror of the French Revolution that lasted for the rest of her life. During the middle of 1798, after finishing revisions of Elinor and Marianne , Austen began writing a third novel with the working title Susan —later Northanger Abbey —a satire on the popular Gothic novel . Austen completed her work about
12879-416: The family's move to Bath in 1800. The Austens did not socialise with gentry and entertained only when family visited. Her niece Anna described the family's life in Chawton as "a very quiet life, according to our ideas, but they were great readers, and besides the housekeeping our aunts occupied themselves in working with the poor and in teaching some girl or boy to read or write." Like many women authors at
13038-543: The ha-ha with its locked gate (ch. 9–10), the extensive preparation for the theatricals and its aftermath (ch. 13–20), and the game of Speculation (ch. 25) where, says David Selwyn, the card game is a "metaphor for the game Mary Crawford is playing, with Edmund as stake". 'Speculation' also references Sir Thomas's unpredictable investments in the West Indies and Tom's gambling, which causes financial embarrassment to Sir Thomas and reduced prospects for Edmund, not to mention
13197-575: The ideas of those with whom members of the Austen family might disagree politically or socially were considered and discussed. The family relied on the patronage of their kin and hosted visits from numerous family members. Mrs Austen spent the summer of 1770 in London with George's sister, Philadelphia, and her daughter Eliza , accompanied by his other sister, Mrs. Walter and her daughter Philly. Philadelphia and Eliza Hancock were, according to Le Faye, "the bright comets flashing into an otherwise placid solar system of clerical life in rural Hampshire , and
13356-658: The juvenilia (or childhood writings) that Austen compiled fair copies consisted of twenty-nine early works into three bound notebooks, now referred to as the Juvenilia . She called the three notebooks "Volume the First", "Volume the Second" and "Volume the Third", and they preserve 90,000 words she wrote during those years. The Juvenilia are often, according to scholar Richard Jenkyns, "boisterous" and "anarchic"; he compares them to
13515-612: The latter part of the story. Her faith, which gives her the courage to resist what she thinks is wrong, sometimes makes her intolerant of the sinners. Fanny, always self-reflective, is intolerant of her own intolerance. Change in her character is most marked during her three months exposure to Portsmouth life. Initially, shocked by the coarseness and impropriety of her parental home and its neighbourhood, she condemns it. While now recognising she can never be at home in Portsmouth, she gradually overcomes her acknowledged prejudices, recognises
13674-464: The light of more recent critical developments in imperial history. The novel has many autobiographical associations; some of these are indicated in the following sections about critical discussions of important themes. Austen drew considerably on her own experience and the knowledge of her family and friends. Her acute observation of human behaviour informs the development of all her characters. In Mansfield Park , she continues her practice, like that of
13833-480: The line that the civil disabilities imposed on non-Anglicans made the state only nominally Christian, and supported disestablishment . He was a follower of Edward Copleston, regarded as the founder of the Noetics taken as apologists for the orthodoxy of the Church of England . A devout Christian, Whately took a practical view of Christianity. He disagreed with the Evangelical party and generally favoured
13992-436: The love match portrayed between Fanny's parents is far from ideal. Kirkham sees Mansfield Park as an attack on Jean-Jacques Rousseau 's popular 1762 work, Emile, or On Education , which depicted the ideal woman as fragile, submissive, and physically weaker than men. Rousseau stated: "So far from being ashamed of their weakness, they glory in it; their tender muscles make no resistance; they affect to be incapable of lifting
14151-403: The love of her adopted family and, despite its traumas, achieves a sense of home. Alistair Duckworth noted that a recurring theme in Austen's novels is the way the condition of the estates mirrors that of their owners. The very private landscape (and house) of Mansfield Park is only gradually revealed, unlike transparent Sotherton where the reader is given an introduction to its environs by Maria,
14310-462: The ministry, leave Steventon, and move the family to 4, Sydney Place in Bath , Somerset. While retirement and travel were good for the elder Austens, Jane Austen was shocked to be told she was moving 50 miles (80 km) away from the only home she had ever known. An indication of her state of mind is her lack of productivity as a writer during the time she lived in Bath. She was able to make some revisions to Susan , and she began and then abandoned
14469-633: The misunderstanding of her motives, her disregarded feelings, and her understanding undervalued. She considers the pain of tyranny, ridicule and neglect, but concludes that nearly every incident led to some benefit and the chief consolation had always been Edmund. The trauma of her dislocation at the age of ten is recalled by Fanny eight years later when she is promised a visit to her birth family. "The remembrance of all her earliest pleasures, and of what she had suffered in being torn from them, came over her with renewed strength, and it seemed as if to be at home again would heal every pain that had since grown out of
14628-435: The model for the title character may have been Eliza de Feuillide , who inspired Austen with stories of her glamorous life and various adventures. Eliza's French husband was guillotined in 1794; she married Jane's brother Henry Austen in 1797. When Austen was twenty, Tom Lefroy , a neighbour, visited Steventon from December 1795 to January 1796. He had just finished a university degree and was moving to London for training as
14787-499: The most vulnerable of all the Austen heroines and therefore the most human. He argued that even Fanny's limited morality had much to commend it. Austen biographer Claire Tomalin (1997) argues that Fanny rises to her moment of heroism when she rejects the obedience that, as a woman, she has been schooled to accept and follows the higher dictate of her own conscience. Clara Calvo (2005) says that many modern readers find it difficult to sympathise with Fanny's timidity and her disapproval of
14946-579: The news of their foreign travels and fashionable London life, together with their sudden descents upon the Steventon household in between times, all helped to widen Jane's youthful horizon and influence her later life and works." Cassandra Austen's cousin Thomas Leigh visited a number of times in the 1770s and 1780s, inviting young Cassie to visit them in Bath in 1781. The first mention of Jane occurs in family documents upon her return, "... and almost home they were when they met Jane & Charles,
15105-534: The next day, as do Henry and William. When Henry next returns, he announces to Mary his intention to marry Fanny. To assist his plan, he has used his family's naval connections to help William achieve promotion. However, when Henry proposes marriage, Fanny rejects him, disapproving of his past treatment of women. Sir Thomas is astonished by her continuing refusal, but she does not explain, afraid of compromising Maria. To help Fanny appreciate Henry's offer, Sir Thomas sends her to visit her parents in Portsmouth, where she
15264-512: The next four years, the family's living arrangements reflected their financial insecurity. They spent part of the time in rented quarters in Bath before leaving the city in June 1805 for a family visit to Steventon and Godmersham . They moved for the autumn months to the newly fashionable seaside resort of Worthing , on the Sussex coast , where they resided at Stanford Cottage. It was here that Austen
15423-473: The novel Austen mocked hypochondriacs , and although she describes the heroine as "bilious", five days after abandoning the novel she wrote of herself that she was turning "every wrong colour" and living "chiefly on the sofa". She put down her pen on 18 March 1817, making a note of it. Austen made light of her condition, describing it as "bile" and rheumatism . As her illness progressed, she experienced difficulty walking and lacked energy; by mid-April she
15582-551: The novel as "a study in the harsh economic realities of dependent women's lives". Honan suggests, and Tomalin agrees, that Austen chose to stop work on the novel after her father died on 21 January 1805 and her personal circumstances resembled those of her characters too closely for her comfort. Her father's relatively sudden death left Jane, Cassandra, and their mother in a precarious financial situation. Edward, James, Henry, and Francis Austen (known as Frank) pledged to make annual contributions to support their mother and sisters. For
15741-476: The novel for what he saw as its inane heroine, its pompous hero, a ponderous plot, and "viperish satire". He described the Bertram family as appalling characters, full of self-righteousness, debauchery and greed, personal financial advantage being their only interest. He complained that the scenes set in Portsmouth were far more interesting than those in Mansfield Park, and that having consistently portrayed
15900-657: The novel refers to the ship in its historical context, this would date the main events of the novel as 1810–1811. William's tales of his life as a midshipman recounted to the Bertrams would have indicated to early readers that he had sailed with Nelson to the Caribbean. Lady Bertram requests two shawls if he goes to the East Indies. William gives Fanny the gift of an amber cross. This echoes the gift of topaz crosses given by Charles Austen to his sisters before he set sail to
16059-422: The novel's conservative morality, yet others saw it as ultimately challenging formal conservative values in favour of compassion and a deeper morality, and posing an ongoing challenge to subsequent generations. Isobel Armstrong (1988) argued for an open understanding of the text, that it should be seen as an exploration of problems rather than a statement of final conclusions. To Susan Morgan (1987), Mansfield Park
16218-467: The novel's deep moral strength. Thomas Edwards (1965) argued that there were more shades of grey in Mansfield Park than in her other novels, and that those who craved a simple dualist worldview might find this off-putting. In the 1970s, Alistair Duckworth (1971) and Marilyn Butler (1975) laid the foundation for a more comprehensive understanding of the novel's historical allusions and context. By
16377-549: The novel-reading public and the large costs associated with hand production (particularly the cost of handmade paper) meant that most novels were published in editions of 500 copies or fewer to reduce the risks to the publisher and the novelist. Even some of the most successful titles during this period were issued in editions of not more than 750 or 800 copies and later reprinted if demand continued. Austen's novels were published in larger editions, ranging from about 750 copies of Sense and Sensibility to about 2,000 copies of Emma . It
16536-591: The novella's heroine as a sexual predator who uses her intelligence and charm to manipulate, betray and abuse her lovers, friends and family. Tomalin writes: Told in letters, it is as neatly plotted as a play, and as cynical in tone as any of the most outrageous of the Restoration dramatists who may have provided some of her inspiration ... It stands alone in Austen's work as a study of an adult woman whose intelligence and force of character are greater than those of anyone she encounters. According to Janet Todd,
16695-405: The one hand, and between Henry and Jane on the other." From 1773 until 1796, George Austen supplemented his income by farming and by teaching three or four boys at a time, who boarded at his home. The Reverend Austen had an annual income of £200 (equivalent to £32,000 in 2023) from his two livings. This was a very modest income at the time; by comparison, a skilled worker like a blacksmith or
16854-511: The order and rhythm of times and seasons, reinforces and reflects the values of "elegance, propriety, regularity, harmony". Sotherton with its carefully maintained avenue of trees is Austen's reminder of the organic principles which form the basis of society. Austen portrays Mr Rushworth and Sir Thomas as landed gentry who are unable to appreciate the principles that lie beneath received standards, consequently leaving "landed society ... ripe for corruption". Henry Crawford, as an absentee landlord,
17013-533: The others: materialistic Mary Crawford thinks only of the future, willing to accept any improvements money can buy as long as she does not have to experience present inconvenience, and Henry lives for the present moment, solely interested in playing the role of improver. Introverted and reflective Fanny, alone, can hold in her mind the bigger picture of past, present and future. Jane Austen Jane Austen ( / ˈ ɒ s t ɪ n , ˈ ɔː s t ɪ n / OST -in, AW -stin ; 16 December 1775 – 18 July 1817)
17172-408: The portrait miniaturist, of painting on ivory "with so fine a brush". Apart from a day's visit to Sotherton and three months' confinement in Portsmouth, the novel's action is restricted to a single estate, yet its subtle allusions are global, touching on India, China and the Caribbean. Austen knew Portsmouth from personal experience. She records that Admiral Foote, then Second-in-Command at Portsmouth,
17331-502: The price at 18 shillings (equivalent to £74 in 2023). He advertised the book widely and it was an immediate success, garnering three favourable reviews and selling well. Had Austen sold Pride and Prejudice on commission, she would have made a profit of £475, or twice her father's annual income. By October 1813, Egerton was able to begin selling a second edition. Mansfield Park was published by Egerton in May 1814. While Mansfield Park
17490-426: The principled pivot of moral right (celebrated by some critics, berated by others) as "a trembling, unstable entity, [an] erotically driven and conflicted figure, both victim and apostle of values inscribed within her by her history of adoption". Joan Klingel Ray suggests that Fanny is Austen's insightful study of "the battered-child syndrome", a victim of emotional and material abuse in both households. From early on she
17649-713: The prologues and epilogues and she probably joined in these activities, first as a spectator and later as a participant. Most of the plays were comedies, which suggests how Austen's satirical gifts were cultivated. At the age of 12, she tried her own hand at dramatic writing; she wrote three short plays during her teenage years. From at least the time she was aged eleven, Austen wrote poems and stories to amuse herself and her family. She exaggerated mundane details of daily life and parodied common plot devices in "stories [] full of anarchic fantasies of female power, licence, illicit behaviour, and general high spirits", according to Janet Todd . Containing work written between 1787 and 1793,
17808-525: The publication of Emma , Henry Austen repurchased the copyright for Susan from Crosby. Austen was forced to postpone publishing either of these completed novels by family financial troubles. Henry Austen's bank failed in March 1816, depriving him of all of his assets, leaving him deeply in debt and costing Edward, James, and Frank Austen large sums. Henry and Frank could no longer afford the contributions they had made to support their mother and sisters. Austen
17967-402: The publisher Thomas Egerton agreed to publish Sense and Sensibility , which, like all of Austen's novels except Pride and Prejudice , was published "on commission", that is, at the author's financial risk. When publishing on commission, publishers would advance the costs of publication, repay themselves as books were sold and then charge a 10% commission for each book sold, paying the rest to
18126-608: The publisher Crosby & Sons for £10, who did not publish the book, forcing her to buy back the copyright in order to get her work published, left Austen leery of this method of publishing. The final alternative, of selling by subscription, where a group of people would agree to buy a book in advance, was not an option for Austen as only authors who were well known or had an influential aristocratic patron who would recommend an up-coming book to their friends, could sell by subscription. Sense and Sensibility appeared in October 1811, and
18285-409: The quiet observer, adopts "the audience's withering power over performance". She says, "our discomfort at Fanny is in part our discomfort at our own voyeurism", and that we implicate ourselves as well as Fanny "in a community of compelling English monsters". Paula Byrne (2014) says, "At the centre of the book is a displaced child with an unshakeable conscience. A true heroine." Fanny is unique amongst
18444-472: The scheme broke down due to the opposition of the new ultramontanist Catholic archbishop of Dublin, Paul Cullen , who would later become the first Irish prelate named Cardinal. Whately withdrew from the Education Board the following year. During the famine years of 1846 and 1847, the archbishop and his family tried to alleviate the miseries of the people. On 27 March 1848, Whately became a member of
18603-419: The separation." The pain of separation is as evident as is the idealisation of her former life at Portsmouth, an idealisation that masks the deeper pain of an abandonment soon to be acknowledged. John Wiltshire, returning to the theme in 2014, describes Fanny as "a heroine damaged early by her upbringing, as well as by her quasi-adoption, who experiences intense conflict between gratitude to her adoptive family and
18762-580: The smallest burdens, and would blush to be thought robust and strong." The contemporary philosopher Mary Wollstonecraft wrote at length against Rousseau's views in A Vindication of the Rights of Woman . She also challenged followers of Rousseau like James Fordyce , whose sermons had long been a part of a young woman's library. At the beginning of the novel, Fanny, with her constant illnesses, timid disposition, submissiveness and fragility, conforms outwardly to Rousseau's ideal woman. Subversively, her passivity
18921-539: The speculative nature of the marriage market. Also to be found are underlying allusions to Biblical themes of temptation, sin, judgement and redemption. The 'keys' to these are found at Sotherton. Felicia Bonaparte argues that in a striking postmodern way, Fanny Price is a realistic figure, but also a figure in a design. She sees Fanny as the 'pearl of great price' in the parable of the Kingdom recorded in Matthew 13:45-46 ,
19080-502: The statements about Lefroy may have been ironic. However, it is clear that Austen was genuinely attracted to Lefroy and subsequently none of her other suitors ever quite measured up to him. The Lefroy family intervened and sent him away at the end of January. Marriage was impractical as both Lefroy and Austen must have known. Neither had any money, and he was dependent on a great-uncle in Ireland to finance his education and establish his legal career. If Tom Lefroy later visited Hampshire, he
19239-552: The subject matter is inappropriate but, after much pressure, he agrees to take on the role of the lover of the character played by Mary. The play also provides further opportunity for Henry and Maria to flirt. When Sir Thomas arrives home unexpectedly, he is furious to find the play still in rehearsal and it is cancelled. Henry departs without explanation, and in reaction Maria goes ahead with marriage to Mr Rushworth. The couple then settle in London, taking Julia with them. Sir Thomas sees many improvements in Fanny and Mary Crawford initiates
19398-518: The success of Sense and Sensibility , all of Austen's subsequent books were billed as written "By the author of Sense and Sensibility " and Austen's name never appeared on her books during her lifetime. Egerton then published Pride and Prejudice , a revision of First Impressions , in January 1813. Austen sold the copyright to Pride and Prejudice to Egerton for £110 (equivalent to £9,100 in 2023). To maximise profits, he used cheap paper and set
19557-455: The theatricals, finding her " priggish , passive, naive and hard to like". Priggishness has been a longstanding criticism of Austen's heroine. Wiltshire (2005) challenges the negative judgement of Fanny suggesting that it is the apparent conservatism of the novel that makes it confronting, and that "many readers cannot get past it". Tomalin sees Fanny as a complex personality who, despite her frailty, shows courage and grows in self-esteem during
19716-415: The time for lush romantic fantasies, it was remarkable that her novels with the emphasis on everyday English life had any sort of a market in France. King cautioned that Austen's chief translator in France, Madame Isabelle de Montolieu , had only the most rudimentary knowledge of English, and her translations were more of "imitations" than translations proper, as Montolieu depended upon assistants to provide
19875-409: The time, Austen published her books anonymously. At the time, the ideal roles for a woman were as wife and mother, and writing for women was regarded at best as a secondary form of activity; a woman who wished to be a full-time writer was felt to be degrading her femininity, so books by women were usually published anonymously in order to maintain the conceit that the female writer was only publishing as
20034-542: The transition to 19th-century literary realism . Her use of social commentary , realism, wit , and irony have earned her acclaim amongst critics and scholars. The anonymously published Sense and Sensibility (1811), Pride and Prejudice (1813), Mansfield Park (1814), and Emma (1816) were modest successes, but they brought her little fame in her lifetime. She wrote two other novels— Northanger Abbey and Persuasion , both published posthumously in 1817—and began another, eventually titled Sanditon , but it
20193-409: The two little ones of the family, who had to go as far as New Down to meet the chaise , & have the pleasure of riding home in it." Le Faye writes that "Mr Austen's predictions for his younger daughter were fully justified. Never were sisters more to each other than Cassandra and Jane; while in a particularly affectionate family, there seems to have been a special link between Cassandra and Edward on
20352-506: The two marry and move to Mansfield parsonage after Dr Grant secures a post in Westminster. Meanwhile, those left at Mansfield Park have learned from their mistakes and life becomes pleasanter there. Although Mansfield Park was initially ignored by reviewers, it was a great success with the public. The first printing in 1814 sold out within six months. The second in 1816 also sold out. The first critical review in 1821 by Richard Whately
20511-399: The view that the inductive method was of less use for political economy than the deductive method , properly applied. In periodicals, Whately addressed other public questions, including the topic of transportation and the "secondary punishments" on those who had been transported; his pamphlet on this topic influenced the politicians Lord John Russell and Henry George Grey . Whately
20670-643: The vulnerability of the waif to the unlovable toughness of the authentic transplant". Fanny emerges from the isolation of the outcast, becoming instead the conqueror, thus "aligning herself rather with the Romantic hero than with the heroine of romance". To Auerbach, Fanny is a genteel version of a popular archetype of the Romantic age, "the monster", who by the sheer act of existing does not and cannot ever fit into society. In this interpretation, Fanny has little in common with any other Austen heroine, being closer to
20829-426: The will's autonomy". He draws attention to C. S. Lewis 's observation that "into Fanny, Jane Austen, to counterbalance her apparent insignificance, has put really nothing except rectitude of mind, neither passion, nor physical courage, nor wit, nor resource". Bloom agrees with Lewis but argues that he misses the importance of Fanny's "will to be herself" as a causal agent in the plot. Bloom argues that paradoxically it
20988-468: The work aloud to her family as she was working on it and it became an "established favourite". At this time, her father made the first attempt to publish one of her novels. In November 1797, George Austen wrote to Thomas Cadell , an established publisher in London, to ask if he would consider publishing First Impressions . Cadell returned Mr. Austen's letter, marking it "Declined by Return of Post". Austen may not have known of her father's efforts. Following
21147-692: The work of 18th-century novelist Laurence Sterne . Among these works is a satirical novel in letters titled Love and Freindship [ sic ], written when aged fourteen in 1790, in which she mocked popular novels of sensibility . The next year, she wrote The History of England , a manuscript of thirty-four pages accompanied by thirteen watercolour miniatures by her sister, Cassandra. Austen's History parodied popular historical writing, particularly Oliver Goldsmith 's History of England (1764). Honan speculates that not long after writing Love and Freindship , Austen decided to "write for profit, to make stories her central effort", that is, to become
21306-420: The world around her in silent judgement. Fanny is "a woman who belongs only where she is not". Her solitude is her condition, not a state from which she can be rescued. "Only in Mansfield Park does Jane Austen force us to experience the discomfort of a Romantic universe presided over by the potent charm of a heroine who was not made to be loved." Auerbach's analysis seems to fall short when Fanny finally experiences
21465-669: Was "surprised that I had the power of drawing the Portsmouth-Scenes so well". Her brother Charles Austen served as a Royal Navy officer during the Napoleonic Wars . In the novel, Fanny's brother William joins the Royal Navy as an officer, whose ship, HMS Thrush , is sited right next to HMS Cleopatra at Spithead . Captain Austen commanded HMS Cleopatra during her cruise in North American waters to hunt French ships from September 1810 to June 1811. If
21624-480: Was Canon William Pope . Beginning in 1856, Whately began experiencing symptoms of decline, including paralysis of his left side, but he continued his public duties. In the summer of 1863, Whately was prostrated by an ulcer in his leg; after several months of acute suffering, he died on 8 October 1863. Whately was a prolific writer, a successful expositor and Protestant apologist in works that ran to many editions and translations. His Elements of Logic (1826)
21783-677: Was a "very gentlemanlike, good-looking, pleasant young man". Five days later in another letter, Austen wrote that she expected an "offer" from her "friend" and that "I shall refuse him, however, unless he promises to give away his white coat", going on to write "I will confide myself in the future to Mr Tom Lefroy, for whom I don't give a sixpence" and refuse all others. The next day, Austen wrote: "The day will come on which I flirt my last with Tom Lefroy and when you receive this it will be all over. My tears flow as I write at this melancholy idea". Halperin cautioned that Austen often satirised popular sentimental romantic fiction in her letters, and some of
21942-449: Was also at home. Bigg-Wither proposed and Austen accepted. As described by Caroline Austen, Jane's niece, and Reginald Bigg-Wither, a descendant, Harris was not attractive—he was a large, plain-looking man who spoke little, stuttered when he did speak, was aggressive in conversation, and almost completely tactless. However, Austen had known him since both were young and the marriage offered many practical advantages to Austen and her family. He
22101-458: Was also tolerant of Austen's sometimes risqué experiments in writing, and provided both sisters with expensive paper and other materials for their writing and drawing. Private theatricals were an essential part of Austen's education. From her early childhood, the family and friends staged a series of plays in the rectory barn, including Richard Sheridan 's The Rivals (1775) and David Garrick 's Bon Ton . Austen's eldest brother James wrote
22260-431: Was an English novelist known primarily for her six novels , which implicitly interpret, critique, and comment upon the English landed gentry at the end of the 18th century. Austen's plots often explore the dependence of women on marriage for the pursuit of favourable social standing and economic security. Her works are implicit critiques of the novels of sensibility of the second half of the 18th century and are part of
22419-525: Was an important figure in the revival of Aristotelian logic in the early nineteenth century. The Elements of Logic gave an impetus to the study of logic in Britain, and in the United States of America, logician Charles Sanders Peirce (1839–1914) wrote that his lifelong fascination with logic began when he read Whately's Elements as a 12-year-old boy. Whately's view of rhetoric as essentially
22578-510: Was baptised at the local church and christened Jane. Her father, George Austen (1731–1805), served as the rector of the Anglican parishes of Steventon and Deane . The Reverend Austen came from an old and wealthy family of wool merchants. As each generation of eldest sons received inheritances, George's branch of the family fell into poverty. He and his two sisters were orphaned as children and had to be taken in by relatives. In 1745, at
22737-411: Was carefully kept away from the Austens, and Jane Austen never saw him again. In November 1798, Lefroy was still on Austen's mind as she wrote to her sister she had tea with one of his relatives, wanted desperately to ask about him, but could not bring herself to raise the subject. After finishing Lady Susan , Austen began her first full-length novel Elinor and Marianne . Her sister remembered that it
22896-542: Was confined to bed. In May, Cassandra and Henry brought her to Winchester for treatment, by which time she suffered agonising pain and welcomed death. Austen died in Winchester on 18 July 1817 at the age of 41. Henry, through his clerical connections, arranged for his sister to be buried in the north aisle of the nave of Winchester Cathedral . The epitaph composed by her brother James praises Austen's personal qualities, expresses hope for her salvation, and mentions
23055-401: Was cut short by his appointment to the archbishopric of Dublin in 1831. He published only one course of Introductory Lectures in two editions (1831 & 1832). Whately's appointment by Lord Grey to the see of Dublin came as a political surprise. The aged Henry Bathurst had turned the post down. The new Whig administration found Whately, who was known at Holland House and effective in
23214-407: Was described as being written "By a Lady". As it was sold on commission, Egerton used expensive paper and set the price at 15 shillings (equivalent to £69 in 2023). Reviews were favourable and the novel became fashionable among young aristocratic opinion-makers; the edition sold out by mid-1813. Austen's novels were published in larger editions than was normal for this period. The small size of
23373-748: Was drawn from an article "Logic" in the Encyclopædia Metropolitana . The companion article on "Rhetoric" provided Elements of Rhetoric (1828). In these two works Whately introduced erotetic logic . In 1825 Whately published a series of Essays on Some of the Peculiarities of the Christian Religion , followed in 1828 by a second series On Some of the Difficulties in the Writings of St Paul , and in 1830 by
23532-417: Was elected Fellow of Oriel, and in 1814 took holy orders . After graduation he acted as a private tutor, in particular to Nassau William Senior who became a close friend, and to Samuel Hinds . In 1825, Whately was appointed principal of St. Alban Hall at the University of Oxford , a position obtained for him by his mentor Edward Copleston , who wanted to raise the notoriously low academic standards at
23691-744: Was exacerbated in Dublin by a sycophantic circle of friends. He was a great talker, a wit, and loved punning . In Oxford his white hat, rough white coat, and huge white dog earned for him the sobriquet of the White Bear, and he exhibited the exploits of his climbing dog in Christ Church Meadow . A member of the loose group called the Oriel Noetics , Whately supported religious liberty, civil rights, and freedom of speech for dissenters, Roman Catholics, Jews, and even atheists. He took
23850-514: Was feeling unwell by early 1816, but ignored the warning signs. By the middle of that year, her decline was unmistakable, and she began a slow, irregular deterioration. The majority of biographers rely on Zachary Cope 's 1964 retrospective diagnosis and list her cause of death as Addison's disease , although her final illness has also been described as resulting from Hodgkin's lymphoma . When her uncle died and left his entire fortune to his wife, effectively disinheriting his relatives, she suffered
24009-503: Was from then home-educated, until she attended boarding school with her sister from early in 1785 at the Reading Abbey Girls' School , ruled by Mrs La Tournelle. The curriculum probably included French, spelling, needlework, dancing, music and drama. The sisters returned home before December 1786 because the school fees for the two girls were too high for the Austen family. After 1786 Austen "never again lived anywhere beyond
24168-701: Was hardly a conducive environment for writing a long novel. Austen sold the rights to publish Susan to a publisher Crosby & Company, who paid her £10 (equivalent to £1,020 in 2023). The Crosby & Company advertised Susan , but never published it. The years from 1801 to 1804 are something of a blank space for Austen scholars as Cassandra destroyed all of her letters from her sister in this period for unknown reasons. In December 1802, Austen received her only known proposal of marriage. She and her sister visited Alethea and Catherine Bigg, old friends who lived near Basingstoke . Their younger brother, Harris Bigg-Wither, had recently finished his education at Oxford and
24327-421: Was ignored by reviewers, it was very popular with readers. All copies were sold within six months, and Austen's earnings on this novel were larger than for any of her other novels. Without Austen's knowledge or approval, her novels were translated into French and published in cheaply produced, pirated editions in France. The literary critic Noel King commented in 1953 that, given the prevailing rage in France at
24486-504: Was left unfinished upon her death. She also left behind three volumes of juvenile writings in manuscript, the short epistolary novel Lady Susan , and the unfinished novel The Watsons . Since her death Austen's novels have rarely been out of print. A significant transition in her reputation occurred in 1833, when they were republished in Richard Bentley 's Standard Novels series (illustrated by Ferdinand Pickering and sold as
24645-411: Was positive. At first, critics praised the novel's wholesome morality. The Victorian consensus treated Austen's novels as social comedy. In 1911, A. C. Bradley restored the moral perspective, praising Mansfield Park for being artistic while having "deeply at heart the importance of certain truths about conduct". The influential Lionel Trilling (1954), and later Thomas Tanner (1968), maintained emphasis on
24804-511: Was read to the family "before 1796" and was told through a series of letters. Without surviving original manuscripts, there is no way to know how much of the original draft survived in the novel published anonymously in 1811 as Sense and Sensibility . Austen began a second novel, First Impressions (later published as Pride and Prejudice ), in 1796. She completed the initial draft in August 1797, aged 21; as with all of her novels, Austen read
24963-464: Was the first child to be born there, in 1771. At about this time, Cassandra could no longer ignore the signs that little George was developmentally disabled . He had seizures and may have been deaf and mute. At this time she chose to send him to be fostered. In 1773, Cassandra was born, followed by Francis in 1774, and Jane in 1775. According to the biographer Park Honan the Austen home had an "open, amused, easy intellectual atmosphere", in which
25122-494: Was the heir to extensive family estates located in the area where the sisters had grown up. With these resources, Austen could provide her parents a comfortable old age, give Cassandra a permanent home and, perhaps, assist her brothers in their careers. By the next morning, Austen realised she had made a mistake and withdrew her acceptance. No contemporary letters or diaries describe how Austen felt about this proposal. Irvine described Bigg-Wither as somebody who "...seems to have been
25281-432: Was the most difficult of Austen's novels, featuring the weakest of all her heroines yet one who ends up the most beloved member of her family. Readings by the beginning of the 21st century commonly took for granted Mansfield Park as Austen's most historically searching novel. Most engaged with her highly sophisticated renderings of the character's psychological lives and with historical formations such as Evangelicalism and
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