By Devoney Looser, Arizona State University
Hero Mr. Darcy and heroine Elizabeth Bennet from Pride and Prejudice may be the most beloved couple in the English literary tradition. Austen didn’t invent the phrase, “It is a truth universally acknowledged,” but she made it endlessly repeatable. What shaped her to write such ageless pieces of literature? Let’s investigate her place in the literary history.
Austen and Two Different Literary Periods
Jane Austen began writing in her teens, in the 1790s, and dedicated at least three decades of her life towards writing. However, she didn’t publish her novels until 1810s, and died quite young at the age of 41, in 1817.
It was an era of revolutions: The American Revolution, the French Revolution, the Industrial Revolution, and the revolution for women’s rights. In literary history, this period is often divided rather arbitrarily. Perhaps that is why Austen is said to fall in two different literary periods.
Augustan 18th Century Literature
Some say Austen belongs to the 18th century, which encompasses the years 1700–1799. Her fiction’s sensibilities have been called Augustan. That label linked 18th-century literary qualities with the Roman emperor Augustus. Calling 18th-century literature Augustan signaled its appreciation for the classical past. Austen’s fiction was said to belong in that group of authors, because she, too, exhibited a typically 18th-century classical appreciation for order, style, and satire.
However, the Augustan 18th century was said to have been supplanted in literary history by a new era, called the Romantic period.
The Romantic Era
That period is usually said to begin in 1789—with the storming of the Bastille prison and the French Revolution—and to last until 1832.
Although the Romantic era is a designated literary period, it’s bookmarked by its political events. As per the literary and historical timelines, 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.
Austen also shares elements of the Romantic period’s political shifts, characterized by a move toward greater liberty, equality, and fraternity.
This article comes directly from content in the video series The Life and Works of Jane Austen. Watch it now, on Wondrium.
Austen as Regency Author
Sometimes, Austen is described as a Regency author as well. That has a specific political meaning, as well as a temporal one. The word Regency refers to a short, specific period in the British monarchy, when King George III, suffering from mental illness, was deemed unfit to rule.
King George III’s son, also named George, was declared the Prince Regent, due to his father’s mental incapacity. From 1811 to 1820, the Prince Regent did the work of the monarch, while his father still lived. One of Austen’s novels, Emma, is dedicated to the Prince Regent, who was said to have been a fan of her works. It’s also likely that the Prince Regent was the very first person to purchase Austen’s first published novel, Sense and Sensibility.
When his father, King George III, died, the Prince Regent himself became King. At that time, he was crowned King George IV and reigned from 1820 to 1830. In Britain, four kings named George were on the throne in a row, which is why the 18th and early 19th centuries are also called the Georgian era.
The Regency was a brief period in the late-Georgian era. It was a short period of nine years when the future King George IV was ruling as Prince Regent, and it coincides almost perfectly with the publication of Austen’s novels.
Austen, then, was a Regency author, as well as an 18th century and a Romantic one.
Misunderstood association with Victorian era
There’s one more historical label left to explore. Some call Austen a Victorian novelist. There, however, we’re dealing with a chronologically inaccurate claim. Austen died in 1817. Queen Victoria was crowned in 1837 and reigned until 1901. We call that period—from 1837 to 1901—the Victorian era.
So when people say Austen was a Victorian novelist, they’re either confused or they’re broadening out Victorian to refer to the entirety of the 19th century, which it shouldn’t. Being generous, one could conclude that those who call Austen Victorian are signaling their belief that her novels anticipate typically Victorian literary themes. But strictly speaking, calling Austen a Victorian novelist is a mistake.
Common Questions about Jane Austen’s Place in the Literary History
This label linked 18th-century literary qualities with the Roman emperor Augustus. Calling 18th-century literature Augustan signaled its appreciation for the classical past. Jane Austen’s fiction was said to belong in that group of authors because she, too, exhibited a typically 18th-century classical appreciation for order, style, and satire.
In Britain, four kings named George were on the throne in a row, which is why the 18th and early 19th centuries are also called the Georgian era.
The word Regency refers to a short, specific period in the British monarchy, when King George III, suffering from mental illness, was deemed unfit to rule. King George III’s son, also named George, was declared the Prince Regent, due to his father’s mental incapacity. The short period of nine years when the future King George IV was ruling as Prince Regent, coincides almost perfectly with the publication of Austen’s novels. Thus, Austen is sometimes described as a Regency author.
