According to the scholar Janet Todd, the stories found in The Juvenilia "are full of anarchic fantasies of female power, license, illicit behavior, and general high spirits."īetween the ages of eighteen and twenty, Austen wrote what many critics consider her first major work, a short book titled Lady Susan. These early works exhibit the same biting, satirical tone Austen would perfect in her later novels. Twenty-nine of the works she composed between the ages of twelve and sixteen were later published in a three-volume set referred to by modern scholars as The Juvenilia. Almost immediately after this period of self-education began, Austen started to write poems and short stories, primarily to amuse her parents. That some of the greatest works of literature in the English language came from the mind of a woman who was almost entirely self-taught is a monumental achievement. She also relied extensively on the library of a family friend, the statesman Warren Hastings.
From the age of eleven, Austen educated herself at home, relying on books she borrowed from boys that her father tutored. In fact, while Jane attended reasonably high-quality boarding schools in her youth, the high tuition cost was too much for the Austens to afford. Rather, the family subsisted on George's modest income and occasional patronage from Cassandra's side of the family. By all indications, Austen was not raised in an atmosphere of extravagance or opulence.
While George was a man of relatively humble means who worked as rector at a number of parishes in the region, Cassandra belonged to a prominent and wealthy family, the Leighs.
In addition to summarizing the major biographical elements of the groundbreaking and beloved English author, Shields also seeks to connect the dots between Austen's life and her work, which "rode on different rails." Born in Steventon, Hampshire in 1775, Austen was raised by her father, George, and her mother, Cassandra, along with seven brothers and sisters. Jane Austen: A Life (2001) is a biography by the Canadian-American author Carol Shields.
0 kommentar(er)
