March Is Women's History Month

Jane Austen

What is your favorite Jane Austen novel?

What is your favorite movie?

Emma?

 Pride and Prejudice?

Sense and Sensibility?

I would have to say that I have

never read any of Jane Austen's novels!

I know, I know... I should  read the

whole collection someday

But...

I do have a favorite movie!

It's Pride and Predjudice! 

 I love Mr. Darcy! 

Who wouldn't!

I just loved the whole movie! 

Emma takes a close second  because

I love the storyline, it is so sweet, 

and  Gynweth Paltrow did a great

job playing Emma! I love to watch the movies

because I love looking at all of the beautiful dresses. 

These movies are so well produced and directed,

staying true to that time period in set and costume design. 

 You feel as if you are being taken back in time,

watching the characters as Jane must have

 imagined them when first writing her novels.

Here are some lovely pictures from the Jane Austen movies!

Emma 

Pride and Prejudice

I just had to get one in of Mr. Darcy!

Sense and Sensibility

to see more of the gowns go to this web site:

http://www.janeausten.info/

After watching the movie about fifty times,

I found the Emma dress patterns on the web and

ordered them for myself and my little girls! 

Of course, you know that I haven't made them

yet but the  material and patterns is in safe keeping..

and maybe one day soon...maybe for Easter!!

Jane Austen was an English novelist whose works of

romantic fiction earned her a place  as one

of the most widely read writers in English Literature.

Jane lived her entire life with her close-knit family

and they strongly supported her dream

to become a professional writer. 

She was educated by her father and two brothers

as well as through her own reading.

 She tried several  literary forms and then

wrote extensively, revising three major novels. 

 From 1811 until 1816,

she had written and pulished four novels 

and achieved success as a published writer.

 In 1818, she had two more novels published and a

third novel but she died before it was completely finished.

                    1811:    Sense and Sensibility

                1813:    Pride an Prejudice

            1814:    Mansfield Park

                 1818:   Northanger Abbey

      1818:    Persuasion

Title pages and illustrations

 from  these novels:

Sense and Sensibility

PRIDE  AND  PREJUDICE

No Illustrations

EMMA

NORTHANGER  ABBEY

PERSUASION

Illustration from Northanger Abbey

Illustration from Persuasion

 Jane Austen wrote about the dependence

 of women on marriage to secure a

social standing and economic security.

All of her writing was strongly

 influencedby moral issues of the day. 

During Austen's lifetime,

because she chose to publish anonymously,

her works brought her little personal fame

and only a few positive reviews.

Through the mid-nineteenth century,

her novels were admired mainly

by members of the literary elite.

The publication of her nephew's

A Memoir of Jane Austen in 1869,

 introduced her to a far wider public

which became more interested in her novels.

By the 1940s, Austen had become widely

accepted as a "great English writer".

 In popular culture, a Jane Austen fan culture

 has developed, centered on her life,

 her works, and the various film

and television adaptations of them.

Thomas LeFroy

When Austen was twenty,

she met and fell in-love with Tom Lefroy, 

who visited Steventon from

 December 1795 to January 1796.

He had just finished a university degree

 and was moving to London

to train as a barrister.

Lefroy and Austen were probably

 introduced at a neighbourhood

social gathering and  spent a

considerable amount of time together.

The Lefroy family intervened and

sent him away at the end of January.

 Lefroy and Austen must have known

 that marriage was impractical..

Neither had any money, and he was

dependent on a great-uncle in Ireland

to finance his education and

establish his legal career.

 If Tom Lefroy later visited Hampshire,

 he was carefully kept away from the Austens,

and Jane Austen never saw him again.

This dramatic event in her life inspired 

Jane to write  the novel "Pride and Prejudice".

A watercoler of Jane with her sister, Cassandra

In December 1802,

Austen received her only proposal of marriage.

 She and her sister, Cassandra, visited Alethea and
Catherine Bigg, old friends who lived near Basingstoke.

Their younger brother, Harris Bigg-Wither,

had recently finished his education at

 Oxford and was also at home.  He was the

 heir to extensive family estates located in the area

where the sisters had grown up. With these resources,

Austen could provide her parents a comfortable

old age and assist her brothers in their careers.

By the next morning, Austen realised

she had made a mistake and withdrew her acceptance,

stating that she could  not marry without affection.

Stevenston Rectory

where Jane Austen was born

Early in 1816, Jane Austen began to feel unwell.

She ignored her illness at first and

continued to work and to participate

in the usual round of family activities.

By the middle of that year, her decline was

 unmistakable to Jane and to her family,

and Austen's physical condition began a

long, slow, and irregular deterioration

 culminating in her death the following year.

Jane's home in Chawton where she spent her adult years writing

                                             

Jane  continued to work in spite of her illness.

She  made light of her condition to others,

describing it as "Bile" and rheumatism,

but as her disease progressed

she experienced increasing difficulty walking

or finding the energy for other activities.

By mid-April, Austen was confined to her bed.

In May, their brother Henry took Jane to 

 Winchester for medical treatment.

Jane's Brother

Henry Austen

She died in Winchester on

 July 18, 1817, at the age of 41.

 Henry arranged for his sister to be

 buried in the north aisle of the

 nave of Winchester Cathedral.

The epitaph composed by her

 brother James praises Austen's personal

qualities, expresses hope for

 her salvation,and mentions the

"extraordinary endowments of her mind".

Jane's Brother

James Austen

Black silhouette of Jane Austen

A black silhouette of Cassandra Elizabeth Austen

Jane Austen's Sister

 

A black silhouette of  Cassandra Leigh Austen

Jane Austen's Mother

***Quotes***

A lady's imagination is very rapid;

 it jumps from admiration to love,

from love to matrimony in a moment.

Friendship is certainly the finest balm

for the pangs of disappointed love.

If things are going untowardly one month,

they are sure to mend the next.

It sometimes happens that a woman is handsomer
at twenty-nine than she was ten years before.


Let other pens dwell on guilt and misery.





Selfishness must always be forgiven you know,
 because there is no hope of a cure.


There is no charm equal to tenderness of heart.


 There is nothing like staying at home for real comfort.


Those who do not complain are never pitied.
 
 
To be fond of dancing was a certain step towards falling in love.
 
 
 What is right to be done cannot be done too soon.





Vanity and pride are different things,
though the words are often used synonymously.
 A person may be proud without being vain.
Pride relates more to our opinion of ourselves;
 vanity, to what we would have others think of us.



***credits****

The 30 free images are in
public domain and offered
at these links:

http://commons.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Emma

http://commons.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Pride_and_Prejudice

http://commons.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catergory:Sense_and_Sensibility

http://commons.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:NACatherinereading.jpg

http://commons.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:PersuationIlliustrationChapter1.jpg