Characteristics of Austen’s Writings
Jane Austen is known as an English writer, who first gave the novel its modern character through the treatment of everyday life.
Although Austen was widely read in her lifetime, she published her works anonymously. The most urgent preoccupation of her bright, young heroines is courtship and finally marriage. Austen herself never married. Her best-known books include PRIDE AND PREJUDICE (1813) and EMMA (1816). Virginia Woolf called Austen "the most perfect artist among women."
Austen was well connected with the middling-rich landed gentry that she portrayed in her novels. In Chawton she started to write her major works, among them SENSE AND SENSIBILITY, the story of the impoverished Dashwood sisters,
and Elinor, who try to find proper husbands to secure their social position. The novel was written in 1797 as the revision of a sketch called Elinor and Marianne, composed when the author was 20. According to some sources, an earlier version of the work was written in the form of a novel in letters, and read aloud to the family as early as 1795.
Austen's heroines are determined to marry wisely and well, but romantic Marianne of Sense and Sensibility is a character, who feels intensely about everything and loses her heart to an irresponsible seducer. "I could not be happy with a man whose taste did not in every point coincide with my own. He must enter into all my feelings; the with books, the same music must charm us both." Reasonable Elinor falls in love with a gentleman already engaged. '"I have frequently detected myself in such kind of mistakes," said Elinor, "in a total misapprehension of character in some point or another: fancying people so much more gay or grave, or ingenious or stupid than they really are, and I can hardly tell why or in what the deception originated. Sometimes one is guided by what they say of themselves, and very frequently by what other people say of them, without giving oneself time to deliberate and judge."' When Marianne likes to read and express her feelings, Elinor prefers to draw and design and be silent of his desires. They are the daughters of Henry Dashwood, whose son, John, from a former marriage. After his death, John inherits the Norland estate in Sussex, where the sisters live. John's wife, the greedy and selfish Fanny, insists that they move to Norland. The impoverished widow and her daughters move to Barton Cottage in Devonshire. Marianne is surrounded by a devious heartbreaker Willoughby, who has already loved another woman. Elinor becomes interested in Edward Ferrars, who is proud and ignorant. Colonel Brandon, an older gentleman, doesn't attract Marianne. She is finally rejected by Willoughby. "Marianne Dashwood was born to an extraordinary fate. She was born to discover the falsehood of her own opinions, and to counteract, by her conduct, her most favorite maxims."
In all of Austen's novels her heroines are ultimately married. Pride and Prejudice described the clash between Elisabeth Bennet, the daughter of a country gentleman and an intelligent young woman, and Fitzwilliam Darcy, a rich aristocratic landowner.
Their relationship starts from dislike, but Darcy becomes intrigued by her mind and spirit.
At last they fall in love and are happily united. Austen had completed the early version of the story in 1797 under the title "First Impressions". The book went to three printings during Austen's lifetime. In 1998 appeared a sequel to the novel, entitled Desire and Duty, written by Teddy F. Bader, et al. It followed the ideas Jane Austen told her family. Emma was written in comic tone. Austen begun the novel in January 1814 and completed it in March of the next year. The book was published in three volumes. It told the story of Emma Woodhouse, who finds her destiny in marriage. Emma is a wealthy, pretty, self-satisfied young woman. She is left alone with her hypochondriac father. Her governess, Miss Taylor, marries a neighbor, Mr. Weston. Emma has too much time and she spends it choosing proper partners for her friends and neighbors - blind to her own feelings. She makes a protégée of Harriet Smith, an illegitimate girl of no social status and tries to manipulate a marriage between Harriet and Mr. Elton, a young clergyman, who has set his sight on Emma. Emma has feelings about Mr. Weston's son. When Harriet becomes interested in George Knightley, a neighboring squire who has been her friend, Emma starts to understand her own limitations. He has been her moral adviser, and secretly loves her. Finally Emma finds her destiny in marriage with him. Harriet, who is left to decide for herself, marries Robert Martin, a young farmer.
Austen focused on middle-class provincial life with humor and understanding. She depicted minor landed gentry, country clergymen and their families, in which marriage mainly determined women's social status. Most important forher were those little matters, as Emma says, "on which the daily happiness of private life depends." Although Austen restricted to family matters, and she passed the historical events of the Napoleonic wars, her wit and observant narrative touch has been inexhaustible delight to readers. Of her six great novels, four were published anonymously during her lifetime. Austen also had troubles with her publisher, who wanted to make alterations to her love scenes in Pride and Prejudice. In 1811 he wrote to Thomas Egerton: "You say the book is indecent. You say I am immodest. But Sir in the depiction of love, modesty is the fullness of truth; and decency frankness; and so I must also be with you, and ask that you remove my name from the title page in all future printings; 'A lady' will do well enough."
简·奥斯丁对女性婚姻的研究和态度
Marriage and the Alternatives: The Status of Women
"Single women have a dreadful propensity for being poor, which is one very strong argument in favour of matrimony"
-- Jane Austen, letter of March 13, 1816
In Jane Austen's time, there was no real way for young women of the "genteel" classes to strike out on their own or be independent. Professions, the universities, politics, etc. were not open to women (thus Elizabeth's opinion "that though this great lady [Lady Catherine] was not in the commission of the peace for the county, she was a most active magistrate in her own parish" is ironic, since of course no woman could be a justice of the peace or magistrate). Few occupations were open to them -- and those few that were (such as being a governess, i.e. a live-in teacher for the daughters or young children of a family) were not highly respected, and did not generally pay well or have very good working conditions: Jane Austen wrote, in a letter of April 30th 1811, about a governess hired by her brother Edward: "By this time I suppose she is hard at it, governing away -- poor creature! I pity her, tho' they are my neices"; and the patronizing Mrs. Elton in Emma is "astonished" that Emma's former governess is "so very lady-like ... quite the gentlewoman" (as opposed to being like a servant).
Therefore most "genteel" women could not get money except by marrying for it or inheriting it (and since the eldest son generally inherits the bulk of an estate, as the "heir", a woman can only really be a "heiress" if she has no brothers). Only a rather small number of women were what could be called professionals, who though their own efforts earned an income sufficient to make themselves independent, or had a recognized career (Jane Austen herself was not really one of these few women professionals -- during the last six years of her life she earned an average of a little more than ￡100 a year by her novel-writing, but her family's expenses were four times this amount, and she did not meet with other authors or move in literary circles).
And unmarried women also had to live with their families, or with family-approved protectors -- it is almost unheard of for a genteel youngish and never-married female to live by herself, even if she happened to be a heiress (Lady Catherine: "Young women should always be properly guarded and attended, according to their situation in life"). So Queen Victoria had to have her mother living with her in the palace in the late 1830's, until she married Albert (though she and her mother actually were not even on speaking terms during that period). Only in the relatively uncommon case of an orphan heiress who has already inherited (i.e. who has "come of age" and whose father and mother are both dead), can a young never-married female set herself up as the head of a household (and even here she must hire a respectable older lady to be a "companion").
When a young woman leaves her family without their approval (or leaves the relatives or family-approved friends or school where she has been staying), this is always very serious -- a symptom of a radical break, such as running away to marry a disapproved husband, or entering into an illicit relationship (as when Lydia leaves the Forsters to run away with Wickham); when Frederica Susanna Vernon runs away from her boarding school in Lady Susan, it is to try to escape from her overbearing mother's authority completely.
Therefore, a woman who did not marry could generally only look forward to living with her relatives as a `dependant' (more or less Jane Austen's situation), so that marriage is pretty much the only way of ever getting out from under the parental roof -- unless, of course, her family could not support her, in which case she could face the unpleasant necessity of going to live with employers as a `dependant' governess or teacher, or hired "lady's companion". A woman with no relations or employer was in danger of slipping off the scale of gentility altogether (thus Mrs. and Miss Bates in Emma are kept at some minimal level of "respectability" only through the informal charity of neighbours). And in general, becoming an "old maid" was not considered a desirable fate (so when Charlotte Lucas, at age 27, marries Mr. Collins, her brothers are "relieved from their apprehension of Charlotte's dying an old maid", and Lydia says "Jane will be quite an old maid soon, I declare. She is almost three and twenty!"). ( See also the reflections on the recompenses of old-maidhood from Jane Austen's Emma, published in 1815 when she was herself 39 years old and never-married.)
Given all this, some women were willing to marry just because marriage was the only allowed route to financial security, or to escape an uncongenial family situation. This is the dilemma discussed in following exchange between the relatively impoverished sisters Emma and Elizabeth Watson in Jane Austen's The Watsons:
Emma:
"To be so bent on marriage -- to pursue a man merely for the sake of a situation -- is a sort of thing that shocks me; I cannot understand it. Poverty is a great evil, but to a woman of education and feeling it ought not, it cannot be the greatest. -- I would rather be a teacher in a school (and I can think of nothing worse) than marry a man I did not like."
Elizabeth:
"I have been at school, Emma, and know what a life they lead; you never have. -- I should not like marrying a disagreeable man any more than yourself, -- but I do not think there are many disagreeable men; -- I think I could like any good-humoured man with a comfortable income. -- [you are] rather refined."
In Pride and Prejudice, the dilemma is expressed most clearly by the character Charlotte Lucas, whose pragmatic views on marrying are voiced several times in the novel: "Without thinking highly either of men or of matrimony, marriage had always been her object; it was the only honourable provision for well-educated young women of small fortune, and however uncertain of giving happiness, must be their pleasantest preservative from want." She is 27, not especially beautiful (according to both she herself and Mrs. Bennet), and without an especially large "portion", and so decides to marry Mr. Collins "from the pure and disinterested desire of an establishment".
All this has more point because Jane Austen herself was relatively "portionless" (which apparently prevented one early mutual attraction from becoming anything serious), and once turned down a proposal of marriage from a fairly prosperous man.
In addition to all these reasons why the woman herself might wish to be married, there could also be family pressure on her to be married. In Pride and Prejudice this issue is treated comically, since Mrs. Bennet is so silly, and so conspicuously unsupported by her husband, but that such family pressure could be a serious matter is seen from Sir Thomas's rantings to Fanny Price to persuade her to marry Henry Crawford in Mansfield Park.
There are also the more trivial attractions of the married state: Isabella Thorpe of Northanger Abbey "knew enough [about what her father-in-law-to-be would contribute] to feel secure of an honourable and speedy establishment, and her imagination took a rapid flight over its attendant felicities. She saw herself at the end of a few weeks, the gaze and admiration of every new acquaintance at Fullerton, the envy of every valued old friend in Putney, with a carriage at her command, a new name on her tickets [visiting cards], and a brilliant exhibition of hoop rings on her finger."
Similarly, according to Mr. Collins: "This young gentleman [Darcy] is blessed with every thing the heart of mortal can most desire, -- splendid property, noble kindred, and extensive patronage". And when Lydia is to be married, Mrs. Bennet's "thoughts and her words ran wholly on those attendants of elegant nuptials, fine muslins, new carriages, and servants". And on Elizabeth's marriage she exclaims: "What pin-money, what jewels, what carriages you will have! ... A house in town! ... Ten thousand a year! ... I shall go distracted!" (See also The Three Sisters.)
Jane Austen expresses her opinion on all this clearly enough by the fact that only her silliest characters have such sentiments (while Mr. Bennet says "He is rich, to be sure, and you may have more fine clothes and fine carriages than Jane. But will they make you happy?"). However, Jane Austen does not intend to simply condemn Charlotte Lucas (who finds consolation in "her home and her housekeeping, her parish and her poultry, and all their dependent concerns") for marrying Mr. Collins -- Charlotte's dilemma is a real one.
The Life of Jane Austen
Jane Austen was born in Steventon, Hampshire, where her father, Rev. George Austen, was a rector. She was the second daughter and seventh child in a family of eight. The Austens did not lose a single one of their children. Cassandra Leigh, Jane's mother, fed her infants at the breast a few months, and then sent them to a wet nurse in a nearby village to be looked after for another year or longer.
The first 25 years of her life Jane spent in Hampshire. On her father's unexpected retirement, the family sold off everything, including Jane's piano, and moved to Bath. Jane, aged twenty-five, and Cassandra, her elder sister, aged twenty-eight, were considered by contemporary standards confirmed old maid, and followed their parents.
Jane Austen was mostly tutored at home, and irregularly at school, but she received a broader education than many women of her time. She started to write for family amusement as a child. Her parents were avid readers; Austen's own favorite poet was Cowper. Her earliest-known writings date from about 1787. Very shy about her writing, she wrote on small pieces of paper that she slipped under the desk plotter if anyone came into the room. In her letters she observed the daily life of her family and friends in an intimate and gossipy manner: "James danced with Alethea, and cut up the turkey last night with great perseverance. You say nothing of the silk stockings; I flatter myself, therefore, that Charles has not purchased any, as I cannot very well afford to pay for them; all my money is spent in buying white gloves and pink persian." (Austen in a letter to her sister Cassandra in 1796) Austen's father supported his daughter's writing aspirations and tried to help her get a publisher. After his death in 1805, she lived with her sister and hypochondriac mother in Southampton and moved in 1809 to a large cottage in the village of Chawton. Austen never married, but her social life was active and she had suitors and romantic dreams. James Edward Austen-Leigh, her nephew, wanted to create another kind of legend around her and claimed that "of events her life was singularly barren: few changes and no great crises ever broke the smooth current of its course... There was in her nothing eccentric or angular; no ruggedness of temper; no singularity of manner..." Austen's sister Cassandra also never married. One of her brothers became a clergyman, two served in the navy, one was mentally retarded. He was taken care of a local family.
At her death on July 18, 1817 in Winchester, at the age of forty-one, Austen was writing the unfinished SANDITON. She managed to write twelve chapters before stopping in March 18, due to her poor health.
Austen was buried in Winchester Cathedral, near the centre of the north aisle. "It is a satisfaction to me to think that [she is] to lie in a Building she admired so much," Austen's sister Cassandra wrote later. Cassandra destroyed many of her sister's letters; one hundred sixty survived but none written earlier than her tentieth birthday. Austen's brother Henry made her authorship public after her death. Emma had been reviewed favorably by Sir Walter Scott, who wrote in his journal of March 14, 1826: "[Miss Austen] had a talent for describing the involvements and feelings and characters of ordinary life which is to me the most wonderful I have ever met with. The Big Bow-Wow strain I can do myself like any now going; but the exquisite touch, which renders ordinary commonplace things and characters interesting, from the truth of the description and the sentiment, is denied to me." Charlotte Bront?and E.B. Browning found her limited, and Elizabeth Hardwick said: "I don't think her superb intelligence brought her happiness." It was not until the publication of J.E. Austen-Leigh's Memoir in 1870 that a Jane Austen cult began to develop. Austen's
unfinished Sanditon was published in 1925.
简·奥斯汀（1775年12月6日～1817年7月18日），（Austen，Jane）英国作家。她的作品主要关注乡绅家庭的女性的婚姻和生活，以细致入微的观察和活泼风趣的文字著称。
生平
简.奥斯汀(1775-1817) 出生在英国汉普郡斯蒂文顿镇的一个牧师家庭，过着祥和、小康的乡居生活。兄弟姐妹共八人，奥斯汀排行第六。她从未进过正规学校，只是九岁时，曾被送往姐姐的学校伴读。她的姐姐卡桑德拉是她毕生最好的朋友，然而奥斯汀的启蒙教育却更多得之于她的父亲。25岁时，父亲退休，不久逝世。奥斯汀酷爱读书写作，还在十一、二岁的时候，便已开始以写作为乐事了。成年后奥斯丁随全家迁居多次。她随家人先后迁居巴斯、南安普顿、乔顿等地。1817 年，奥斯汀已抱病在身，为了求医方便，最后一次举家再迁。1817年，她赴温彻斯特疗养时去世。然而在到了曼彻斯特后不过两个多月，她便去世了。死后安葬在温彻斯特大教堂。逝世时仅为四十二岁。简·奥斯汀终身未嫁。她曾经与人订婚，后来又改变了主意。她在哥哥为其安排的住所度过了大部分时光，并完成了她的主要作品。奥斯汀从少女时代即开始文学习作，并表现出幽默嘲讽的才能。成年后在平庸的家居生活中从事小说创作，共有6部长篇小说。其中《理智与情感》(1811)、《傲慢与偏见》(1813) 、《诺桑觉修道院》写作于18世纪90年代，通常称为前期作品；《曼斯菲尔德庄园》(1814) 、《爱玛》(1816) 、《劝导》(1818)写作于19世纪，为后期作品。一般认为《傲慢与偏见》和《爱玛》是她的代表作。
《傲慢与偏见》属于以谈婚论嫁为主要内容的风俗小说，反映了奥斯丁熟谙的生活圈子中的现实。作品写一个无陪嫁的小乡绅之女伊丽莎白·本内特依靠自身的素质与豪门显贵喜结良缘。围绕她与达西的恋爱和结合，还描述了她的两个姐妹和一个挚友的婚配。奥斯丁写爱情婚姻故事，比一般爱情小说的社会背景稍显宽阔。小说中男女主人公的感情纠葛也较功利和现实，少有浪漫情怀。通过这些故事，不仅可以透视人物真实细致的心理活动，而且也能了解当时一定范围内现实社会生活的内涵，特别是阶级关系，社会道德、观念、习俗等等。她的小说是英国小说史上写实世态小说的开先河之作。
根据《简明不列颠百科全书》的说法，简.奥斯汀是“第一个现实地描绘日常平凡生活中平凡人物的小说家。她的作品反映了当时英国中产阶级生活的喜剧，显示了家庭文学的可能性。她多次探索青年女主角从恋爱到结婚中自我发现的过程。这种着力分析人物性格以及女主角和社会之间紧张关系的做法，使她的小说摆脱十八世纪的传统而接近于现代的生活。正是这种现代性，加上她的机智和风趣，她的现实主义和同情心，她的优雅的散文和巧妙的故事结构，使她的小说能长期吸引读者。当时(十九世纪初) 流行夸张戏剧性的浪漫小说，已使人们所厌倦，奥斯丁的朴素的现实主义启清新之风，受到读者的欢迎。到二十世纪，人们
才认识到她是英国摄政王时期(1810-1820) 最敏锐的观察者，她严肃地分析了当时社会的性质和文化的质量，记录了旧社会向现代社会的转变。现代评论家也赞佩奥斯丁小说的高超的组织结构，以及她能于平凡而狭窄有限的情节中揭示生活的悲喜剧的精湛技巧。”
奥斯汀的作品具有细腻真切的心理刻画，紧凑流畅的情节以及幽默嘲讽的喜剧风格，她所创造的一系列栩栩如生的艺术形象，有强大的艺术魅力。在英国小说史上起到了承上启下的作用。
代表作品
《理智与情感》(Sense and Sensibility, 1811)
《傲慢与偏见》(Pride and Prejudice, 1813)
《曼斯菲尔德庄园》(Mansfield Park, 1814)
《爱玛》(Emma, 1815)
《诺桑觉修道院》(Northanger Abbey, 1818, 死后出版)
《劝导》(Persuasion, 1818, 死后出版)
Lady Susan
The Watsons
Sanditon
Henry and Eliza
The Three Sisters
Love and Friendship
The History of England
Catharine, or the Bower
百度，输入诺觉桑寺，找到读书的网络 作家简介： 简·奥斯丁，（1775—1817）英国女作家，18世纪末19世纪初英国杰出的现实主义大师，被誉为“道德教育家”。出生于英格兰汉普郡的斯蒂文顿村，父亲是教区的主管牧师。在父兄的熏陶下，奥斯丁从小就阅读了大量的文学作品。她16岁时开始写作，是第一个通过描绘日常生活中的普通人，使小说具有鲜明现代性质的小说家。奥斯丁一生中共创作了6部长篇小说《理智与情感为（1811）、《傲慢与偏见》（1813）、《曼斯菲尔德庄园》（1814）、《爱玛》（1815）、（诺桑觉修道院》和《劝服》（后两部出版于她去世后的1818年）小说内容多是刻画当时英国乡村的风俗民情、社交和男女恋情等。她的创作开启了19世纪30年代的现实主义小说高潮，在英国小说的发展史上具有承上启下的意义。 作品目录 ·《傲慢与偏见》 《傲慢与偏见》是奥斯丁的代表作。这部作品以日常生活为素材，一反当时社会上流行的感伤小说的内 容和矫揉造作的写作方法，生动地反映了18世纪末到19世纪初处于保守和闭塞状态下的英国乡镇生活和世 态人情。这部社会风情画式的小说不仅在当时吸引着广大的读者，时至今日，仍给读者以独特的艺术享受。 ·《理智与情感》 简·奥斯丁在她诞生地汉普郡的斯蒂文顿繁荣而稳定的乡间长大，十二三岁就开始写作。她早期的习作 都是中短篇，光是十五六岁时写的，后人就编成了两部集子。一七九七年，简二十二岁，完成第一部长篇小 说《第一面印象》。接着开始写《埃莉诺与玛丽安》。这两本都是书信体小说，十多年后，分别改写成用第 三人称叙述的长篇小说《傲慢与偏见》和《理智与情感》。后者于1811年出版，等到前者于两年后问世时，后者于同年再版。所以，尽管《傲慢与偏见》的原始本子写作在前，她第一部出版的作品却是《理智与情感》。 ·《爱玛》 发表于1818年，英国女作家，奥斯丁小说。女主人公爱玛是一个“从来不在外面住宿的天下少有的女人”，孤零零的，但是充满了感情与思想，她经过一系列误会后，与男主人公先生终成佳偶。小说情节紧奏，细节描写生动、鲜明，语言就像作者歌颂... ·《曼斯菲尔德庄园》 范妮是个出身贫寒的少女，10岁时被姨父母伯特伦爵士夫妇收养。在姨父母家，除了二表哥埃德蒙处处 呵护她外，受到众人的冷落，过着寄人篱下的日子。但她始终有颗温柔善良的心肠，辨是非，明大理。她坚 决抵制大表哥等人要在家里排演有伤大雅的情节剧，毫不动摇地顶住了纨绔子弟克劳福德的无理纠缠，始终 不渝地暗恋着埃德蒙，特别是在克劳福德小姐对埃德蒙“旧情复发”时，她告诫表哥不要被她的假象所迷惑，
Jane Austen, she is one of the greatest authors in Britain history. I really admire and appreciate her works, Pride and Prejudice, Persuasion, Emma, and Sense and Sensibility. In my eyes, every heroine has her own uniqueness, different from other girls in those novels. They are so brave to pursue their love, no care about the prejudice, the gossip from their parents, their neighbors , their relatives, even the society. In addition, all of them succeed in loving their true love; all the endings are so good and so beautiful. Every time, when I saw the couple got together after suffering so many misfortunes in the very end of the novel, I cried for happiness, not for sadness. From those heroines’ character, I really can find a genuine image of Jane herself. Although I do not know clearly about her love, her lover, I can easily get the information that she missed her true love from her whole single life. Therefore, she sets the hopes into her novels, encourages everyone who love somebody by heart has courage to pursue their true love.
简·奥斯汀睿智名句 A lady's imagination is very rapid; it jumps from admiration to love, from love to matrimony in a moment. 女人的思维很有跳跃性：从仰慕到爱慕，从爱慕到结 婚都是一眨眼间的事。 A large income is the best recipe for happiness I ever heard of. 我所知道最有效的幸福秘方就是“赚大钱”。 A woman, especially, if she have the misfortune of knowing anything, should conceal it as well as she can. 一个女人要是不幸聪明得什么都懂，那就必须同时懂 得怎么伪装成什么都不懂。 An engaged woman is always more agreeable than a disengaged. She is satisfied with herself. Her cares are over, and she feels that she may exert all her powers of pleasing without suspicion. 订了婚的女人最可爱了。她什么都满足了，什么忧虑都消散了，她可以大大方方去讨好自己未来老公，而无需担心人家以为她在玩暧昧。 Friendship is certainly the finest balm for the pangs of disappointed love. 治愈情伤最好的药就是友谊带来的安慰。 Happiness in marriage is entirely a matter of chance. 幸福的婚姻都是靠碰运气赚来的。 How quick come the reasons for approving what we like! 想给我们的喜好找个理由时，脑袋转 的是最快的。 I do not want people to be very agreeable, as it saves me the trouble of liking them a great deal.
生平和作品 THE IMPRESSION of the condition of the Church of England in the eighteenth century which is conveyed by the character and writings of Laurence Sterne receives some necessary modification from a study of the life and works of Jane Austen. Her father, the Reverend George Austen, held the two rectories of Deane and Steventon in Hampshire, having been appointed to them by the favor of a cousin and an uncle. He thus belonged to the gentry, and it seems likely that he entered the church more as a profession than a vocation. He considered that he fulfilled his functions by preaching once a week and administering the sacraments; and though he does not seem to have been a man of spiritual gifts, the decent and dignified performance of these formal duties earned him the reputation of a model pastor. His abundant leisure he occupied in farming the rectory acres, educating his children, and sharing the social life of his class. The environment of refined worldliness and good breeding thus indicated was that in which his daughter lived, and which she pictured in her books. Jane Austen was born at Steventon on December 16, 1775, the youngest of seven children. She received her education—scanty enough, by modern standards—at home. Besides the usual elementary subjects, she learned French and some Italian, sang a little, and became an expert needle-woman. Her reading extended little beyond the literature of the eighteenth century, and within that period she seems to have cared most for the novels of Richardson and Miss Burney, and the poems of Cowper and Crabbe. Dr. Johnson, too, she admired, and later was delighted with both the poetry and prose of Scott. The first twenty-five years of her life she spent at Steventon; in 1801 she moved with her family to Bath, then a great center of fashion; after the death of her father in 1805, she lived with her mother and sister, first at Southampton and then at Chawton; finally she took lodgings at Winchester to be near a doctor, and there she died on July 18, 1817, and was buried in the cathedral. Apart from a few visits to friends in London and elsewhere, and the vague report of a love affair with a gentleman who died suddenly, there is little else to chronicle in this quiet and uneventful life. But quiet and uneventful though her life was, it yet supplied her with material for half a dozen novels as perfect of their kind as any in the language. While still a young girl she had experimented with various styles of writing, and when she completed "Pride and Prejudice" at the age of twenty-two, it was clear that she had found her appropriate form. This novel, which in many respects she never surpassed, was followed a year later by "Northanger Abbey," a satire on the "Gothic" romances then in vogue; and in 1809 she finished "Sense and Sensibility," begun a dozen years before. So far she had not succeeded in having any of her works printed; but in 1811 "Sense and Sensibility" appeared in London and won enough recognition to make easy the publication of the others. Success gave stimulus, and between 1811 and 1816, she completed "Mansfield Park," "Emma," and "Persuasion." The last of these and "Northanger Abbey" were published posthumously. The most remarkable characteristic of Jane Austen as a novelist is her recognition of the limits of her knowledge of life and her determination never to go beyond these limits in her books. She describes her own class, in the part of the country with which she was acquainted; and both the types of character and the events are such as she knew from first-hand observation and experience. But to the portrayal of these she brought an extraordinary power of delicate and subtle delineation, a gift of lively dialogue, and a peculiar detachment. She abounds in humor, but it is always quiet and
Becoming a woman，becoming a legend "A woman especially if she has the misfortune of knowing anything, should conceal it as well as she can." ――Jane Austen The movie, Becoming Jane, fabricates a character, the hero Tom Lefroy, to show us audience Jane Austen’s romance. It ever or never happened in Jane’s life. Nevertheless undoubtedly, the movie is a successful one. We are all moved by Jane’s sense and sensibility. Jane completes a legend by her lifetime of becoming a great woman. There are many commentaries on the film―― Her own life is her greatest inspiration. Between Sense and Sensibility and Pride and Prejudice was a life worth writing about. No one can ignore Jane’s achievement. Six immortal works about romance leave us a deep impression on the importance of being together with our true love. Relatively, few people know Austen’s own romances. She never get married. I think many people would like to consider that Jane uses her life to memorize a love and explain her understanding about love. She insists. She believes a marriage without love will never be happy, and a love without money will never be real. According to the movie, the great novel, Pride and Prejudice, is based on Jane’s love story with Tom Lefroy. The arrogant and handsome hero in the fiction insinuates Tom who is just a practical lawyer. But Darcy is rich, independent, owning authority and position, while Tom relies on his uncle and has little money. At the same time, the beautiful, clever and a little extreme Elizabeth just insinuates Jane herself. Obviously, there is an insurmountable distance between the novel and the reality. In the Pride and Prejudice, Darcy and Elizabeth get together eventually. Yet Jane and Tom Lefroy can only be friends, not lovers. In my mind, Jane is trying to give herself and Tom a happy ending in her novel which will never come true in reality. What will we do when our dream is so different from the reality? To surrender or to surmount? Maybe there can be a few people protect their love to go through their life, like Jane Austen, and never betray their love. However, the courage is not owned by everyone. Too much affection and emotion need to be called to our mind and pondered over. A Jane will live our heart, bringing us an opportunity to share the legend.
一、【作者生平简介】 简·奥斯汀[1]（1775年12月16日～1817年7月18日）简·奥斯汀出生在英国南部汉普郡一个乡村牧师家里，未进过正规学校，在家里由父母指导学习，终身未婚，四十二岁时与世长辞。奥斯汀十二三岁时就开始创作故事、戏剧和小小说。一七九五年她开始写作《埃莉诺与马里纳》，这就是她后来发表的第一部小说《理智与感情》的雏形。一年以后，一七九六年她开始创作《初次印象》。一七九七年《初次印象》完成后，未能出版。这部小说后经作者修改更名为《傲慢与偏见》，于一八一三年一月在伦敦问世，这是她发表的第二部小说。此外，自一八一一年至一八一八年她先后发表了《理智与感情》、《曼斯菲尔德庄园》、《爱玛》、《诺桑觉寺》和《劝导》等五部小说。奥斯汀生长在十八世纪末十九世纪初封建保守势力相当强大的英国乡村。在这样的时代中，妇女只能在其所生长的阶层的圈子中生活。 社会习俗禁止她们在社会的任何其他领域里活动。奥斯汀出身英国乡村的中产阶级家庭，与之交往的都是乡间那些乡绅贵族的绅士淑女，生活圈子自然十分狭小。奥斯汀就在这样狭小的天地里观察、研究和创作。虽说：“在乡下一带地方，你是在一个非常狭小而又一成不变的社会里活动。”“乡下能为这样的研究提供的对象一般是很少的。”“可是人本身是经常不断变化的，在他们身上永远都可以观察到一些新的东西。”奥斯汀就以她特有的敏锐洞察力观察着她所处的社会和她身边的人与事，研究各种人的性格及其变化。在这样的观察研究中，奥斯汀最关注的是妇女的命运。在奥斯汀所处的当时社会里，一般妇女除了当老处女和家庭教师外，别的惟一出路就是嫁人。嫁一户有钱有地位的体面人家，就成了一个年轻小姐得到并保持可靠社会与经济地位的理想途径。尤其是那些“一般财产不多，教养有素的青年女子，都是把结婚当作惟一一条未雨绸缪的体面出路，不管如何心中无数，幸福难卜，结婚成家都是她们最可心合意的避风港，预防她们以后不致缺衣少食。”因此，要赢得一位理想的丈夫似乎就是奥斯汀小说中那些年轻小姐们的人生惟一目标，而她们为达到这一目标不断地进行着有形无形的激烈竞争。奥斯汀的小说都是围绕着乡绅贵族绅士淑女的恋爱求婚、男婚女嫁的错综复杂的情节来展开的。作者通过这些情节，用细腻的笔触深刻剖析作品中人物的心理，展示他们的道德品质，表现作者关于人生、特别是婚姻的道德观。她批判当时大多数联姻的方式，而且她小说中的大多数婚姻都是有缺陷的。但她同时通过她的故事告诉读者，理想的婚姻是可能的。这种理想婚姻的主要品质，除了女方花容月貌天生丽质、男方英俊潇洒一表人才之外，就是彼此了解，情投意合，心心相印，自由平等，互敬互惠，它将对彼此的炽烈爱情融合在稳定融洽、相互促进的家庭关系之中，所以她小说的所有女主人公都是为真正的爱情而结婚，而不是为终身有靠而草草苟合。她通过《傲慢与偏见》中贝内特小姐的口说：“没有爱情千万不要结婚。”她批判那种惟利是图的金钱婚姻，但她并不把金钱与爱情绝对分开，而且显示金钱在确立稳固的理想婚姻中起着决定性的作用。正如《傲慢与偏见》开宗明义的第一句话所幽默指出的：“一个家财万贯的单身汉，必定需要一位太太，这是一条举世公认的真理。”奥斯汀在《傲慢与偏见》这部小说里最仔细审慎地剖析描述了绅士淑女恋爱求婚的全过程，并全面透彻地说明了她所谓的理想婚姻的各种基础。 从18世纪末到19世纪初，“感伤小说”和“哥特小说”充斥英国文坛，而奥斯汀的小说破旧立新，一反常规地展现了当时尚未受到资本主义工业革命冲击的英国乡村中产阶级的日常生活和田园风光。她的作品往往通过喜剧性的场面嘲讽人们的愚蠢、自私、势利和盲目自信等可鄙可笑的弱点。奥斯丁的小说出现在19世纪初叶，一扫风行一时的假浪漫主义潮流，继承和发展了英国18世纪优秀的现实主义传统，为19世纪现实主义小说的高潮做了准备。虽然其作品反映的广度和深度有限，但她的作品如“两寸牙雕”，从一个小窗口中窥视到整个社会形态和人情世故，对改变当时小说创作中的风气起了好的作用，在英国小说的发展史上有承上启下的意义，被誉为地位“可与莎士比亚平起平坐”的作家。 简·奥斯汀是世界上为数极少的著名女性作家之一，介于新古典主义和浪漫运动的抒情主义
简奥斯丁以及勃朗特三姐妹代表作品中女性人物分析 提纲： 1.Acknowledgments（不变） 2.Abstract in English（不变） 3.Abstract in Chinese（不变） 4.I. Introduction 1.1简奥斯丁简介 不变，根据老师修改的改写。 1.2勃朗特三姐妹的简介 不变，根据老师的修改的改写。 1.3 The Structure of the Paper 原文基础上修改。 II．简奥斯丁以及勃朗特三姐妹代表作品中女性人物性格分析。 2.1简奥斯丁代表作品《傲慢与偏见》中女性人物性格分析。 《傲慢与偏见》是英国著名女作家简·奥斯丁的代表作，这部作品以日常生活为素材，一反当时社会上流行的感伤小说的内容和矫揉造作的写作方法，作品描写傲慢的单身青年达西与偏见的二小姐伊丽莎白、富裕的单身贵族，彬格莱与贤淑的大小姐吉英之间的感情纠葛。 这部小说中通过班耐特五个女儿对待终身大事的不同处理，表现出乡镇中产阶级家庭出身的少女对婚姻爱情问题的不同态度，从而反映了作者本人的婚姻观:为了财产、金钱和地位而结婚是错误的；而结婚不考虑上述因素也是愚蠢的。因此，她既反对为金钱而结婚，也反对把婚姻当儿戏。她强调理想婚姻的重要性，并把男女双方感情作为缔结理想婚姻的基石。书中的女主人公伊丽莎白出身于小地主家庭，为富豪子弟达西所热爱。达西不顾门第和财富的差距，向她求婚，却遭到拒绝。伊丽莎白对他的误会和偏见是一个原因，但主要的是她讨厌他的傲慢。因为达西的这种傲慢实际上是地位差异的反映，只要存在这种傲慢，他与伊丽莎白之间就不可能有共同的思想感情，也不可能有理想的婚姻。以后伊丽莎白亲眼观察了达西的为人处世和一系列所作所为，特别是看到他改变了过去那种骄傲自负的神态，消除了对他的误会和偏见，从而与他缔结了美满姻缘。伊丽莎白对达西先后几次求婚的不同态度，实际上反映了女性对人格独立和平等权利的追求。这是伊丽莎白这一人物形象的进步意义。 作品生动的反映了18世纪末到19世纪初处于保守和闭塞状态下的英国乡镇生活和世态人情。其社会风情画似的小说不仅在当时吸引着广大的读者，实至今日，仍给读者以独特的艺术享受。奥斯丁的小说尽管故事相当平淡，但是她善于在日常平凡事物中塑造鲜明的人物形象，不论是伊丽莎白、达西那种作者认为值得肯定的人物，还是魏克翰、柯林斯这类遭到讽刺挖苦的对象，都写得真实动人。同时，奥斯丁的语言常以风趣诙谐的语言烘托人物的性格。 2.2勃朗特三姐妹代表作品《简爱》，《呼啸山庄》，《艾格尼丝·格雷》中女性人物性格分析。 《简爱》是夏洛蒂．勃朗特的作品，主要通过简.爱与罗切斯特之间一波三折的爱情故事，塑造了一个出生低微、生活道路曲折，却始终坚持维护独立人格、追求个性自由、主张人生平等、不向人生低头的坚强女性。简.爱生存在一个父母双亡，寄人篱下的环境，从小就承受着与同龄人不一样的待遇，姨妈的嫌弃，表姐的蔑视，表哥的侮辱和毒打......这是对一个孩子的尊严的无情践踏,但也许正是因为这一切,换回了简.爱无限的信心和坚强不屈的精神,一种可战胜的内在人格力量.在罗切斯特的面前,她从不因为自己是一个地位低贱的家庭教师而感到自卑,反而认为他们是平等的.也正因为她的正直,高尚，纯洁，使得罗切斯特为之震撼,并把她看做了一个可以和自己在精神上平等交谈的人，并且慢慢地深深爱上了她。
Memorable Quotes and quotations from Jane Austen Jane Austen English novelist (1775 - 1817) Jane Austen - Northanger Abbey - But when a young lady is to be a heroine, the perverseness of forty surrounding families cannot prevent her. Something must and will happen to throw a hero in her way. Jane Austen - Northanger Abbey - Friendship is certainly the finest balm for the pangs of disappointed love. Jane Austen - Mansfield Park - Where any one body of educated men, of whatever denomination, are condemned indiscriminately, there must be a deficiency of information, or...of something else. Jane Austen - Emma - Oh! dear; I was so miserable! I am sure I must have been as white as my gown. Jane Austen - - Where so many hours have been spent in convincing myself that I am right, is there not some reason to fear I may be wrong? Jane Austen - from a letter to her niece, November 18, 1814 - Wisdom is better than wit, and in the long run will certainly have the laugh on her side. Jane Austen - - What dreadful hot weather we have! It keeps me in a continual state of inelegance. Jane Austen - - One half of the world can not understand the pleasures of the other. Jane Austen - Mansfield Park - Everybody likes to go their own way--to choose their own time and manner of devotion.
走进简·奥斯汀的世界 ――从《傲慢与偏见》《爱玛》《理智与情感》中认识简·奥斯汀 论文概要：本文分为初识简·奥斯汀，认识简·奥斯汀，爱上简·奥斯汀，简·奥斯汀与我们四部分，从简·奥斯汀的三部作品来介绍，逐渐深入，层层剖开简·奥斯汀的世界，着重于在特定的社会背景下分析作品中的重要人物和事件，并联系简·奥斯汀的人生经历解析作品的内涵，探索简·奥斯汀的文学世界。 初识简·奥斯汀 既无曲折离奇的情节，也无波澜壮阔的场面，小小的天地，普通的男女，但就是这样的内容的作品却把它们的作者推进世界文学史上一流作家的行列，而这位作者只活了四十二岁，一生只写了六部小说，生前出的作品都用笔名，死后才公布了她的真名和身份，她，简·奥斯汀，一个响亮的名字。 简·奥斯汀于1775年出生在英国汉普郡一个名叫斯蒂文森的村子里，父亲是一位乡村牧师。她没有受过多少正规的教育，却在父亲的影响下大量涉猎各种书籍，获益良多。十四五岁就开始写短剧，小品，娱乐家人，简在二十二岁前就已经完成了两部小说，即《理智与情感》《傲慢与偏见》，后来相继写出《诺桑觉寺》《曼斯菲尔德花园》《爱玛》《劝导》等不朽的杰作。简·奥斯汀所写的都是英格兰乡村和邻近地区中产阶级的生活，完全限于自己所熟悉的那个很小的生活圈子，但她的观察细致入微，构思巧妙合理，人物刻画细腻生动，写作风格朴实无华，清秀隽永，表面上琐碎的叙述读起来颇耐人寻味。她的作品被评论家誉为“简约的艺术”。她的作品里没有声势浩大的东西，但充满理性的光芒。故事情节说不上跌宕起伏，却丝丝入扣，不断荡漾着“茶杯里的风波”。 从18世纪末到19世纪初，庸俗无聊的“感伤小说”和“哥特小说”充斥着英国文坛，而奥斯汀创作的小说则是一反常规地展现当时尚未受到资本主义冲击的英国乡村中产阶级的日常生活和田园风光。简·奥斯汀之所以能成为十九世纪最杰出的小说家之一，不仅是因为她小说天衣无缝的结构和精湛精确的刻画技巧，而且也是因为她的小说有着深刻丰富的思想内容和在英国文学史上的开创性意义。她是第一个现实地描绘日常平凡生活中平凡人物的小说家。她的作品反映了当时英国中产阶级生活的喜剧，显示了家庭文学的可能性。她以女性特有的细致入微的观察力和对细腻情感的把握，生动真实地描绘了自己周围世界的小天地，她多次探索青年女主角从恋爱到结婚中的自我发现过程，这种着力分析人物性格以及女主角和社会之间紧张关系的做法，使她的小说摆脱十八世纪的传统而接近于现代的生活。正是这种现代性，加上她的机智和风趣，她的小说能长期吸引读者。 认识简·奥斯汀 简·奥斯汀的形象在从简生活的年代到现在的200年中有各种各样的解释。有亨利·詹姆士的观点----简有无师自通的天才，几乎没有特别意识就在做针线活和探亲访友的过程中创造了完美精湛的艺术微缩品。D.H.劳伦斯和夏洛蒂·勃朗特都写到，她是一个用理智而不只用情感写作的，精明博学的单身女子。也有和蔼可亲的“简姑妈”形象，这是她家人的体会，是一位终身专于家庭，不为任何烦恼忧愁，避免谈到男人和金钱，战争话题的女性，简也被许多人认为是最初的女权主义者。简·奥斯汀笔下的女主人公都很有个性，或多或少渗透出作者本人的性格特征和看问题的方法。 伊丽莎白·贝纳特：“想要满足是她自己的事----当然快乐是她的气质”。机智活泼的伊丽莎白·贝纳特比起其他女主人公来说更像年轻时代的简·奥斯汀。“书中只要出现她这个人物，她就是快乐的”----作者给她的定语。爱玛·伍德豪斯：“思想活跃轻松，看不到事情的发生也无所谓，没有回应的事情看不到也行。”简赋予这个该受人指责的女主人公活跃
Most of us are familiar with Jane’s works such as sense and sensibility, pride and prejudice. But little do we know about Jane. Now I will give a brief introduction to Jane. Jane Austen, born on 16 December,1775,at the rectory in the village of Steventon , in Hampshire , is one of the best-known novelists in English literature. She was tutored mainly at home by her father and brothers . Due to her poor health,she died on July,18,1817. The language in her works is simple, witty and with quiet irony, which can strike a sympathetic chord in the hearts of its audiences .Her works are mostly about love and marriage in the view of woman . But during her 42 years’ life, she didn’t get married, which shows her belief that a marriage without love will never be happy. As is reflected in the film , she was an independent woman who endeavored to live by her pen instead of marrying a rich man . What makes me desire most is her reble spirit. People valued the propriety highly in that time. But Jane played cricket ball with the male, strolled around the fair and even eloped with her lover. She broke the boundary of propriety. In 18th century, people looked down upon female writing, it was said that to have a wife who has a mind is considered not quite proper . In spite of that , she insisted on writing ,and finally succeeded.
论简奥斯汀的婚姻观 摘要 每个人都渴望拥有幸福的婚姻，简奥斯汀小说中的爱情与婚姻一直以来被奉为经典。简奥斯汀认为她那个时代的婚姻是一种经济契约，爱情只是一种机遇。这种观点在她的小说中体现得非常清楚，“凡是有钱的单身汉必定想娶亲，这是人们普遍认同的事实。” 她的小说描述了一些年轻女性的不同婚姻，表明了爱情是幸福婚姻的基础，但也应以金钱财富为前提。如果婚姻中既有爱情又有经济保障，那么就能进入完美的婚姻状态。在简奥斯汀看来，幸福婚姻意味着爱情与财富的统一。她强烈反对仅仅建立于物质基础上的婚姻，充分强调情感因素对于婚姻的重要性。 [关键词] 简奥斯汀爱情金钱幸福婚姻
Jane Austen’s View of Marriage Abstract Everyone wants to have a happy marriage. Jane Austen‘s novels about love and marriage is always regarded as a classic. Jane Austen thinks that marriage in her time is a financial contract, where love is strictly a matter of chance. It is clear from her novels: ―It is a truth universally acknowledged that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife.‖ Her novels described some different marriages of the young women, which reveals that love is the base for a happy marriage, and also should be based on the money. It is perfect for young women to get love and money at the same time. From Jane Austen‘s perspective, a perfect marriage meant having both love and money.She strongly opposes that marriage only based on wealth and places much emphasis on the importance of emotion in a marriage. Key words:Jane Austen Love Money Happy Marriage
简·奥斯汀（英语：Jane Austen，1775年12月16日－1817年7月18日），19世纪英国小说家，世界文学史上最具影响力的女性文学家之一，其最著名的作品是《傲慢与偏见》和《理智与情感》，以细致入微的观察和活泼风趣的文字著称。 Jane Austen (16 December 1775 – 18 July 1817) was an English novelist whose works of romantic fiction, set among the landed gentry, earned her a place as one of the most widely read writers in English literature. Her realism, biting irony and social commentary have gained her historical importance among scholars and critics.[1] Austen lived her entire life as part of a close-knit family located on the lower fringes of the English landed gentry.[2]She was educated primarily by her father and older brothers as well as through her own reading. The steadfast support of her family was critical to her development as a professional writer.[3]Her artistic apprenticeship lasted from her teenage years into her thirties. During this period, she experimented with various literary forms, including the epistolary novel which she then abandoned, and wrote and extensively revised three major novels and began a fourth.[B] From 1811 until 1816, with the release of Sense and Sensibility(1811), Pride and Prejudice(1813), Mansfield Park (1814) and Emma (1816), she achieved success as a published writer. She wrote two additional novels, Northanger Abbey and Persuasion, both published posthumously in 1818, and began a third, which was eventually titled Sanditon, but died before completing it. Austen's works critique the novels of sensibility of the second half of the 18th century and are part of the transition to 19th-century realism.[4][C] Her plots, though fundamentally comic,[5]highlight the dependence of women on marriage to secure social standing and economic security.[6] Her work brought her little personal fame and only a few positive reviews during her lifetime, but the publication in 1869 of her nephew's A Memoir of Jane Austen introduced her to a wider public, and by the 1940s she had become widely accepted in academia as a great English writer. The second half of the 20th century saw a proliferation of Austen scholarship and the emergence of a Janeite fan culture. 简1775年生于英国汉普郡，双亲是George和Cassandra，她有六个哥哥和一个姐姐Cassandra，家境尚可，父亲是一名牧师。Further information: Timeline of Jane Austen Biographical information concerning Jane Austen is "famously scarce", according to one biographer.[7] Only some personal and family letters remain (by one estimate only 160 out of Austen's 3,000 letters are extant),[8] and her sister Cassandra (to whom most of the letters were originally addressed) burned "the greater part" of the ones she kept and