Part Of Jane Austen's Published Novels example essay topic

... r novels, though she was aware of contemporary debates on the subject. Mansfield Park was one of only two of Jane Austen's novels to be revised by her after its first publication, when a second edition came out in 1816 (this second edition was a failure in terms of sales). Emma Emma, published in 1815, has been described as a 'mystery story without a murder'. The eponymous heroine is the charming (but perhaps too clever for her own good) Emma Woodhouse, who manages to deceive herself in a number of ways (including as to who is really the object of her own affections), even though she (and the reader) are often in possession of evidence pointing toward the truth. Like Catherine Morland in Northanger Abbey, Marianne Dashwood in Sense and Sensibility, and Elizabeth Bennet in Pride and Prejudice, she overcomes self-delusion during the course of her novel. The book describes a year in the life of the village of Highbury and its vicinity, portraying many of the various inhabitants.

Emma was dedicated to the dissolute Prince Regent (George Augustus Frederick), at his request; he was the uncle of Victoria, and was Prince Regent from 1811-1820 and later king George IV (1820-1830). Jane Austen was apparently not especially pleased by this honour (see her letter on the infidelities of the Prince and his wife). This episode was productive of her amusing correspondence with Mr. Clarke. Persuasion This relatively short novel, her last, was written in the last few years of Jane Austen's life, and published only after her death in 1817 (though she described it, in a letter of March 13 1816, as 'a something ready for publication', she probably would have revised it further, if she had not already been ill with her eventually fatal disease by the time she stopped working on it). It involves an older heroine than any of her other novels do (Anne Elliot is 27), and is also the only novel whose events are explicitly dated to a specific year (1814-1815). Eight years before the novel begins, Anne Elliot (whom Jane Austen described in one of her letters as a 'heroine [who] is almost too good for me') had been persuaded by an older friend of the family, whom she respects, to give up her engagement to the then-poor Captain Wentworth.

Like Mansfield Park, this novel has a number of characters who are in the navy (two of Jane Austen's brothers were sailors), and several warm-hearted naval families are attractively depicted; these contrast favorably with Anne's own family, in which she is overlooked by her vain and rank-proud Baronet father and her cold and selfish elder sister. In its autumnal mood, this novel is more serious in tone than most of Jane Austen's other works, and perhaps is the most conventionally 'romantic' of them (and thus the one which has given rise to the most speculation about her own affairs of the heart-for example, by Kipling); however, there is still plenty of Jane Austen irony. Persuasion also contains more description of background and natural beauty than the previous novels. In her admiration for the seaside town of Lyme and dislike of Bath, Anne Elliot reflects her creator's preferences. After she had finished the first version of Persuasion, Jane Austen was dissatisfied with the chapter in which Anne Elliot and the 'unconsciously constant' Captain Wentworth are reconciled; she then wrote two replacement chapters which are universally considered much better than the first attempt. The manuscript of the cancelled chapter is the only original manuscript of any part of Jane Austen's published novels which has survived.

Minor Writings Jane Austen's minor writings (besides her letters) include the Juvenilia (early short pieces written for the amusement of her family, before she had started on any of her novels), several incomplete beginnings of novels, Lady Susan, the Plan of a Novel, some light verse, some prayers, and a few other miscellaneous fragments. Sense and Sensibility This novel contrasts two sisters: Marianne, who, with her doctrines of love at first sight, fervent emotions overtly expressed, and admiration of the grotesque 'picturesque', represents the cult of 'sensibility'; and Elinor, who has much more 'sense', but is still not immune from disappointments. Despite some amusing characters and true Jane Austen touches, it is not generally considered to be her best novel. According to Cassandra, it was probably the first of the novels to be started (sometime before 1797, under the early name Elinor and Marianne); it was worked on in 1797, and probably again heavily revised before publication in 1811. It was the first of Jane Austen's novels to be published, and appeared without her name on the title page (only 'By a Lady'). It was advertised as an 'Interesting Novel', which meant (in the jargon of the day) that it was a love story.

Jane Austen pledged herself to cover her publisher's losses, if necessary, but actually realized lb 140 in profit. It was one of only two novels that Jane Austen revised after publication, when a second edition came out in 1813. The first and second editions were probably not more than a thousand copies each, but the readership would have been very much larger, due to the institution of 'circulating libraries' (book rental shops), and also the fact that the novel was published in three separately-bound volumes (as was the usual practice). Northanger Abbey This playful short novel is the one which most resembles Jane Austen's Juvenilia. It is the story of the unsophisticated and sincere Catherine Morland on her first trip away from home, for a stay in Bath.

There she meets the entertaining Henry Tilney; later, on a visit to his family's house (the 'Northanger Abbey' of the title) she learns to distinguish between the highly charged calamities of Gothic fiction and the realities of ordinary life (which can also be distressing in their way). Like Jane Austen's Love and Freind ship, this book makes fun of the conventions of many late 18th century literary works, with their highly wrought and unnatural emotions; some of this humor derives from the contrast between Catherine Morland and the conventional heroines of novels of the day (for an idea of the latter, see the Plan of a Novel). An early version of the book was written under the title Susan (in 1798-99 according to Cassandra). It was actually the first of Jane Austen's novels sold to a publisher (a publisher named Crosby bought it in 1803 for lb 10). He advertised it as forthcoming, but never issued it. Jane Austen had the manuscript bought back more than ten years later, after several of her other novels had been published, and apparently made some revisions, but finally 'put it on the she [f]' (letter of March 13, 1816).

It was only after her death in 1817 that her brother Henry finally had it published (together with Persuasion). The title 'Northanger Abbey' was not chosen by Jane Austen (she referred to the book in her letter as 'Miss Catherine'). The most famous quote from Northanger Abbey is probably Henry Tilney's pseudo-gothic satire (see also Henry Tilney and Catherine Morland on marriage vs. dancing, the 'Defense of the Novel', the walk to Beechen Cliff (Henry and Eleanor Tilney with Catherine Morland), and quotes on the opposition between the 'heroic' and the 'natural'). (By the way, in this novel Jane Austen uses the word 'baseball'-the first person, as far as is known, to use this word in writing by over fifty years. ).