By Devoney Looser, Arizona State University
Jane Austen is one of the world’s most widely recognized authors. Her works are extensively available in print, translated into countless languages, and frequently adapted for screen and stage. She is one of just a handful of classic authors who have managed to combine a wide readership, pop-culture cool, and endure critical acclaim.
A Literary Romantic
Jane Austen was born in 1775, just one year before the start of the American Revolution. She died in 1817, at age 41. She was a writer for at least three decades of her life, having seriously begun in her teens, in the 1790s. She began to publish her novels in the 1810s.
It was an era of revolutions—not only the American Revolution, but the French Revolution, the Industrial Revolution, and what some have called ‘the Longest Revolution’, the revolution for women’s rights.
Chronologically, Austen belongs in a category with the literary Romantics. Yet for many years, she was seen as out of place in English Romanticism. That’s because, half a century ago, the Romantics were said to be made up of male poets. Austen’s female-centered prose didn’t fit the rubric.
But today, the term Romantic is used far more capaciously. Most critics now see Austen’s writings as sharing many of Romanticism’s thematic and literary concerns, including a focus on the emotions and on the individual and the natural world. She also shares elements of the Romantic period’s political shifts, characterized by a move toward greater liberty, equality, and fraternity.
Both the 18th century and the Romantic period now claim Austen for their own. Other historical terms come into play as well. In fact, sometimes, she is also described as a Regency author.
This article comes directly from content in the video series The Life and Works of Jane Austen. Watch it now, on Wondrium.
Establishing the New Genre, Novels
It is important to agree and acknowledge that Jane Austen lived at a momentous time for book publishing. She wrote in a period described as experiencing the ‘rise of print culture’ and the ‘rise of the novel’. The number of printed works of all kinds was growing quickly. The number and cultural power of novels grew then as well.
However, when Austen was born, the novel’s position as a genre remained unsettled. Fiction in general had a reputation as literature’s junk food. The older romance genre was competing for readers with the newer novel. Entire books were published describing the differences between romances and novels.
Austen threw her lot in with earlier mid-18th-century writers who built up this new kind of fiction, the novel. It used present-day settings and more probable characters and actions. The novel was even declared to be a new species of writing.
Importance of Heroines in Austen’s Stories
One of the significant aspects of Austen’s writing is that she changed the heroine. She showed her in a quest for growth and gave her psychological depth. She made her admirable but flawed. She let readers see how the heroine thought differently from those around her, especially the previous generation. Austen’s heroines all eventually rebel or refuse to conform to social expectations.
It is significant to note that Austen’s stories were both like and unlike the other novels of her day. Most focused on young heroes and heroines and the obstacles they faced in their families and in the wider world. But Austen was doing some things that were different, too.
A recent critic, Ben Blatt, performed quantitative studies of Austen alongside other classic authors. He discovered that she’s the ‘one writer’ among notable greats who ‘never wrote a book’ that used the pronoun he more often than she. Blatt’s study gives numerical weight to the long-held feeling that her books, taken together, are up to something different in terms of how stories are told and whose stories are told. But that’s different from saying who these stories are for.
Austen: Beyond Marriage and Love
It’s well known to those who read them that Austen’s novels range well beyond romantic love. They all may end in marriage, but they grapple with family conflict, economics, ethics, morality—with the ways that people are connected to each other and treat each other. Each novel combines these themes with irony, humor, and social criticism.
In addition, Austen’s books are sometimes called novels of manners. A novel of manners doesn’t necessarily mean a work that teaches you good manners. It’s a subgenre of novels that investigates how people behave toward each other; they focus on customs, values, and traditions in social settings. Sometimes these types of novels are described as small novels, although that seems literally and figuratively belittling. Despite that fact that her novels are painted on a fictional canvas she once described as ‘3 or 4 families in a country village’, they’ve reached millions of readers over two centuries. That’s the opposite of small!
Her one-time literary rival, Sir Walter Scott, declared that Austen “had a talent for describing the involvements and feelings and characters of ordinary life”. He said Austen had an “exquisite touch, which renders ordinary commonplace things and characters interesting”.
Common Questions about the Rise of Jane Austen
‘Novels of manners‘ is a subgenre of novels that investigates how people behave toward each other. They focus on customs, values, and traditions in social settings. Jane Austen’s books are sometimes called novels of manners.
For many years, Jane Austen was seen as out of place in English Romanticism because, half a century ago, the Romantics were said to be made up of male poets. Austen’s female-centered prose didn’t fit the rubric. However, today, the term Romantic is used far more capaciously. Most critics now see Austen’s writings as sharing many of Romanticism’s thematic and literary concerns, including a focus on the emotions and on the individual and the natural world.
One of the significant aspects of Jane Austen‘s writing is that she changed the heroine. She showed her in a quest for growth and gave her psychological depth. She made her admirable but flawed. She let readers see how the heroine thought differently from those around her, especially the previous generation. Austen’s heroines all eventually rebel or refuse to conform to social expectations.
