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 and biting social commentary has gained her historical importance among scholars and critics.
Austen lived her entire life as part of a close-knit family located on the lower fringes of the English landed gentry. 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. 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 tried then abandoned, and wrote and extensively revised three major novels and began a fourth. 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.
Fanny Austen-Knight: You like Mr. Haden!::Jane Austen: He has very good teeth.
Mme. Bigeon: [late at night, both in nightgowns; strong French accent] My friend in Paris has read a wonderful new book called 'Raison and Sensibilite'::Jane Austen: Sense and Sensibility?::Mme. Bigeon: My friend says, whoever the woman is who wrote this book, she knows more about love than anyone else in the world::Jane Austen: Like someone who can't cook writing a recipe book::Mme. Bigeon: Passion is for the young. It fades so quickly.::Jane Austen: [wistfully] Not in our dreams::Mme. Bigeon: Comfort remains, friendship remains, if you are lucky as I was.::Jane Austen: Happiness in marriage remains a matter of chance::Mme. Bigeon: But the fuss we make about who to choose. And love still dies and money still vanishes. And, spinster, lover, wife, every woman has regrets. So we read about your heroines and feel young again. And in love. And full of hope. As if we can make that choice again.::Jane Austen: And do it right this time::Mme. Bigeon: This is the gift which God has given you. [Jane Austen looks up sharply]::Mme. Bigeon: It is enough, I think.
Jane Austen: [reads to Cassandra from first draft of Persuasion] More than seven years were gone since this little history of sorrowful interest had reached its close;::Jane Austen: She had been forced into prudence in her youth, she learned romance as she grew older: the natural sequel of an unnatural beginning.She had used him ill, deserted and disappointed him; and worse, she had shewn a feebleness of character in doing so, which his own decided, confident temper could not endure. She had given him up to oblige others.::Jane Austen: She hoped to be wise and reasonable in time; but alas! alas! she must confess to herself that she was not wise yet.::Cassandra Austen: I don't know how you have say it without tears.::Jane Austen: I don't cry at anything that pays me money
Jane Austen: [Reads to Cassandra from first draft of Persuasion] More than seven years were gone since this little history of sorrowful interest had reached its close;::Jane Austen: She had been forced into prudence in her youth, she learned romance as she grew older: the natural sequel of an unnatural beginning.She had used him ill, deserted and disappointed him; and worse, she had shewn a feebleness of character in doing so, which his own decided, confident temper could not endure. She had given him up to oblige others.::Jane Austen: She hoped to be wise and reasonable in time; but alas! alas! she must confess to herself that she was not wise yet.::Harris Bigg: I don't know how you can say it without tears.::Jane Austen: I don't cry at anything that pays me money
Jane Austen: What if you do meet him [the right man] and he doesn't have any money?::Fanny Austen-Knight: But if I love him then nothing else matters!::Jane Austen: What in heavens name gave you that idea?::Fanny Austen-Knight: It says so in all your books.::Edward Austen Knight: [gravely] If that's what you think they say, my dear, perhaps, you should read them again.
Plot
The year is 1795 and young Jane Austen is a feisty 20-year-old and emerging writer who already sees a world beyond class and commerce, beyond pride and prejudice, and dreams of doing what was then nearly unthinkable - marrying for love. Naturally, her parents are searching for a wealthy, well-appointed husband to assure their daughter's future social standing. They are eyeing Mr. Wisley, nephew to the very formidable, not to mention very rich, local aristocrat Lady Gresham, as a prospective match. But when Jane meets the roguish and decidedly non-aristocratic Tom Lefroy, sparks soon fly along with the sharp repartee. His intellect and arrogance raise her ire - then knock her head over heels. Now, the couple, whose flirtation flies in the face of the sense and sensibility of the age, is faced with a terrible dilemma. If they attempt to marry, they will risk everything that matters - family, friends and fortune.
Keywords: 1790s, anger, artist, aunt-nephew-relationship, author, balcony, bare-butt, beach, betrayal, book
Becoming a woman. Becoming a legend.
Her own life is her greatest inspiration.
"A woman especially if she has the misfortune of knowing anything, should conceal it as well as she can." -Jane Austen
Between sense and sensibility and pride and prejudice was a life worth writing about.
Jane Austen's Greatest Love Story Was Her Own
Tom Lefroy: What rules of conduct apply in this rural situation? We have been introduced, have we not?::Jane Austen: What value is there in an introduction when you cannot even remember my name? Indeed, can barely stay awake in my presence.
Mrs. Austen: Affection is desirable. Money is absolutely indispensable!
Jane Austen: If I marry, I want it to be out of affection. Like my mother.::Mrs. Austen: And I have to dig my own damn potatoes!
Tom Lefroy: How can you, of all people, dispose of yourself without affection?::Jane Austen: How can I dispose of myself with it?
Mrs. Austen: JANE!::Lady Gresham: What is she doing?::Mr. Wisley: Writing.::Lady Gresham: Can anything be done about it?
Tom Lefroy: What value will there ever be in life, if we are not together?
Jane Austen: My characters shall have, after a little trouble, all that they desire.
Tom Lefroy: If you wish to practice the art of fiction, to be considered the equal of a masculine author, experience is vital.
Tom Lefroy: A metropolitan mind may be less susceptible to extended juvenile self-regard.
Cassandra Austen: [regarding 'First Impressions', which will later become 'Pride and Prejudice'] How does the story begin?::Jane Austen: Badly.::Cassandra Austen: And then?::Jane Austen: It gets worse.
Plot
When Catherine Morland is given the opportunity to stay with the childless Allen family in Bath, she is hoping for an adventure of the type she has been reading in novels. Soon introduced to society, she meets Isabella Thorpe and her brother John, a good friend of her own brother, James. She also meets Henry Tilney, a handsome young man from a good family and his sister, Eleanor. Invited to visit the Tilney estate, Northanger Abbey, she has thoughts of romance but soon learns that status, class and money are all equally important when it comes to matters of the heart.
Keywords: 19th-century, abbey, based-on-novel, britain, candle, captain, clergyman, comedy-of-manners, comic-relief, coming-of-age
Henry Tilney: Now I must give you one smirk, then we can be rational again.
Henry Tilney: Your imagination may be overactive, but your instinct was true. Our mother did suffer grievously and at the hands of our father. Do you remember I spoke of a kind of vampirism?::Catherine Morland: Yes.::Henry Tilney: Perhaps it was stupid to express it so, but we did watch him drain the life out of her with his coldness and his cruelty. He married her for her money, you see. She thought it was for love. It was a long time until she knew his heart was cold. No vampires, no blood. But worse crimes, crimes of the heart.::Catherine Morland: It was stupid and wicked of me to think such things as I did.
[last lines]::Catherine Morland: He thought I was rich?::Henry Tilney: It was Thorpe who misled him at first. Thorpe, who hoped to marry you himself. He thought you were Mr. Allen's heiress and he exaggerated Mr. Allen's birth to my father. You were only guilty of not being as rich as you were supposed to be. For that he turned you out of the house.::Catherine Morland: I thought you were so angry with me, you told him what you knew. Which would have justified any discourtesy.::Henry Tilney: No! The discourtesy was all his. I-I have broken with my father, Catherine, I may never speak to him again.::Catherine Morland: What did he say to you?::Henry Tilney: Let me instead tell you what I said to him. I told him that I felt myself bound to you, by honor, by affection, and by a love so strong that nothing he could do could deter me from...::Catherine Morland: From what?::Henry Tilney: Before I go on, I should tell you there's a pretty good chance he'll disinherit me. I fear I may never be a rich man, Catherine.::Catherine Morland: Please, go on with what you were going to say!::Henry Tilney: Will you marry me, Catherine?::Catherine Morland: Yes! Yes I will! Yes!::[They kiss, and she backs him into a wall in her passion]::[voiceover]::The Voice of Jane Austen: To begin perfect happiness at the respective ages of 26 and 18 is to do pretty well. Catherine and Henry were married, and in due course the joys of wedding gave way to the blessing of a christening. The bells rang and everyone smiled. No one more than so than Eleanor, whose beloved's sudden ascension to title and fortune finally allowed them to marry. I leave it to be settled whether the tendency of this story be to recommend parental tyranny or to reward filial disobedience.
Catherine Morland: When shall we go into society, Mrs Allen? I suppose it is too late this evening?::Mrs. Allen: Bless you, my child, we neither of us have a stitch to wear!::Catherine Morland: I did bring my best frock and my pink muslin is not too bad, I think.::Mrs. Allen: No, no, no, no! Would you have us laughed out of Bath?::Mr. Allen: Resign yourself, Catherine! Shops must be visited! Money must be spent! Do you think you could bear it?::Catherine Morland: Very easily, sir!
Mrs. Allen: There! Did you ever see anything prettier, Mr Allen?::Mr. Allen: Other than yourself, do you mean, my dear?::Mrs. Allen: Oh, fine, Mr Allen! But Catherine...::Mr. Allen: Ah, she looks just as she should! Now... might we make our way, do you think? I entertain high hopes of our arriving at the rooms by midnight.::Mrs. Allen: How he teases us, Catherine! Midnight, indeed!
Isabella Thorpe: My dear one, in this false world, people often make promises they have little intention of keeping. Remember, we are your *true* friends.
[Riding in the curricle, Henry and Catherine see the first view of Northanger Abbey]::Henry Tilney: There.::Catherine Morland: It's exactly as I imagined. It's just like what we read about.::Henry Tilney: Are you prepared to encounter all of its horrors?::Catherine Morland: Horrors? Is Northanger haunted, then?::Henry Tilney: That's just the least of it. Dungeons, and sliding panels; skeletons; strange, unearthly cries in the night that pierce your very soul!::Catherine Morland: [sardonically] Any vampires? Don't say vampires. I could bear anything, but not vampires.::Henry Tilney: [laughing] Miss Morland, I believe you are teasing me now. [seriously] I have to say, there is a kind of vampirism. No, let's just say that all houses have their secrets, and Northanger is no exception.