Education

In 1783, Jane and her sister Cassandra were sent to the town of Oxford to be educated by their Aunt Ann Cawley, the widow of one of the college heads. After developing and recovering from Typhus, the girls were sent to The Abbey Boarding School in Reading.

Goldstein, Jack, and Isabella Reese. 101 Amazing Facts About Jane Austen. Andrews UK, 2014. EBSCOhost, search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=nlebk&AN=760372&site=ehost-live. Accessed November 10, 2020

http://pointloma.idm.oclc.org/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/logi...

Jane Austen Writes "Elinor and Marianne"

According to "Jane Austen and Her Time: A Brief Chronology" in Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice edited by Robert P. Irvine, "Jane Austen writes 'Elinor and Marianne' in 1795" (33).

Austen at Rowling in Kent

In August 1796 Jane went to visit her brother Edward and his wife, Elizabeth, at their first home, a large farmhouse at Rowling in Kent. Either while she was there or after she returned home that October, she began to write Pride and Prejudice under the title First Impressions, which was believed to be a response against Kent Hauteur.

Butler, Marilyn. Jane Austen, Oxford University Press USA - OSO, 2007. ProQuest Ebook Central, https://ebookcentral-proquest-come.pointloma.idm.oclc.org/lib/pointloma-....

Austen Begins Writing Sense & Sensibility

Austen began writing Sense and Sensibility in November of 1797 based on her earlier draft of "Elinor and Marianne." She would not publish it for another 10 years due to family troubles, including the death of her father.

Moody, Ellen. "A Calendar for Sense and Sensibility." Philological Quarterly, vol. 78, no. 3, 1999, p. 301. Gale Literature Resource Center, https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/A67710127/LitRC?u=sand82993&sid=LitRC&xid.... Accessed 17 Nov. 2020.

https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/A67710127/LitRC?u=sand82993&sid=LitRC&xid...

Failed Engagement

Jane Austen reportedly wound up romantically interested in a "young clergyman of highly congenial temperament" during the summer of 1801, when she was living in Bath. The unidentified man was meant to become engaged to Jane Austen, but she received word from his family that while the clergyman was away, he had passed away.

Harman, Claire. "Austen, Jane (1775-1817)." British Writers, Retrospective Supplement 2, edited by Jay Parini, Charles Scribner's Sons, 2002, pp. 1-16. Gale Literature Resource Center, https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/CX1383100011/LitRC?u=sand82993&sid=LitRC&.... Accessed 6 Nov. 2020.

Austen's Father Dies

George Austen, Jane Austen's father, passed away in Bath in 1805. The Austen family then moved to Southampton.

Harman, Claire. "Austen, Jane (1775-1817)." British Writers, Retrospective Supplement 2, edited by Jay Parini, Charles Scribner's Sons, 2002, pp. 1-16. Gale Literature Resource Center, https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/CX1383100011/LitRC?u=sand82993&sid=LitRC&.... Accessed 6 Nov. 2020.

Abolition of Slave-Trade

According to the British Library Organization, "In 1807, the British government passed an Act of Parliament abolishing the slave trade throughout the British Empire. Slavery itself would persist in the British colonies until its final abolition in 1838" (par. 1).

Citation?

Chawton

Chawton Cottage 

Image from https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-hampshire-48692299

Edward Austen provides a home for his mother and sister in Chawton in 1809, where Jane Austen spends the next eight years productively working on her literary pursuits. The source cited notes the specific texts including Pride and Prejudice, Mansfield Park, and Persuasion. According to the source's author, Claire Harman, "[Austen] began Mansfield Park and revised 'First Impressions' into Pride and Prejudice (the books were published in 1814 and 1813 respectively). Emma was written in 1814-1815 and published late in 1816; overlapping this was Persuasion, begun in 1815 and finished in 1816" (Harman 4). Her streak of productivity ends by 1816 where she begins indications begins showing signs of feeling ill.

Harman, Claire. "Austen, Jane (1775-1817)." British Writers, Retrospective Supplement 2, edited by Jay Parini, Charles Scribner's Sons, 2002, pp. 1-16. Gale Literature Resource Center, https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/CX1383100011/LitRC?u=sand82993&sid=LitRC&.... Accessed 5 Nov. 2020.

The Reception of "Sense and Sensibility"

Sense and Sensibility was widley popular, and Austen was represented in a positive light by both liberal and conservative journals, showing that even if her novel depicted poilitical claims, she did so in a way that was so subtle, that her points and her style and competence were held at an equal standing in the eyes of both sides. Robert P. Irvine writes about the novel's public reception in depth in the following quote: "In fact the first edition sold out, and received an immediate, warm and extended review in the Critical Review of November 1811, as well as an equally positive if shorter notice in the British Critic in May the following year: the Critical Review was a liberal journal and the British Critic a conservative one, so this represented recognition from both sides of the political spectrum" (Irvine 48).

Irvine, Robert P.. Jane Austen, Taylor & Francis Group, 2005. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/pointloma-ebooks/detail.action?docI....
Created from pointloma-ebooks on 2020-11-18 17:25:59.

Publication of Sense and Sensibility

Add description later. 

Pride & Prejudice Is Sold to a Publisher

In 1812, the copyright of Pride & Prejudice was sold to a publisher, Thomas Egerton for 110 pounds. The book would go on to be published the following year.

Harman, Claire. "Austen, Jane (1775-1817)." British Writers, Retrospective Supplement 2, edited by Jay Parini, Charles Scribner's Sons, 2002, pp. 1-16. Gale Literature Resource Center, https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/CX1383100011/LitRC?u=sand82993&sid=LitRC&.... Accessed 17 Nov. 2020.

https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/CX1383100011/LitRC?u=sand82993&sid=LitRC&...

Publication of Pride and Prejudice

Pride & Prejudice (originally named First Impressions) was introduced as a second edition of Sense and Sensibility published by Egerton. Thomas Egerton gave Austen £110 for the rights of her book when she asked for £150. When she published Sense & Sensibility, she published it on a commission basis. She sold out of her first edition, which earned her £140, but she then sold Egerton the copyright in a one-payment, meaning he received all of the repercussions and the profit. Later, it was calculated that Egerton made around £450 from the first two editions of the novel.This novel was also not tagged with the author as "A Lady" but instead with "the Author of Sense and Sensibility." The novel was published around the same time as the Battle at Victoria, which closed up the Peninsular War in which Wellington was victorious in Spain and France was driven from Holland, Italy, and Switzerland (37).

Austen, Jane. Mansfield Park, edited by June Sturrock, Broadview Press, 2003.

“Pride and Prejudice.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 18 Nov. 2020, 

             en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pride_and_Prejudice.

Austen Writes Emma

Austen began writing Emma in January of 1814 and completed the book in March of 1815, about 14 months later. The book was eventually released in December of that year.

Kelly, Gary. "Jane Austen." British Romantic Novelists, 1789-1832, edited by Bradford Keyes Mudge, Gale, 1992. Dictionary of Literary Biography Vol. 116. Gale Literature Resource Center, https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/H1200002367/LitRC?u=sand82993&sid=LitRC&x.... Accessed 17 Nov. 2020.

https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/H1200002367/LitRC?u=sand82993&sid=LitRC&x...

"Mansfield Park" First Edition Sells Out in 1814

In 1814, Jane Austen published Mansfield Park and received substantial commercial success in the sales of the first edition. Robert P. Irvine suggests that the reputation of the anonymous author was the reason for the robust sales:

"Mansfield Park was written in 1811–13, and published by Egerton in May 1814. It was not reviewed in any of the periodicals, and yet the first edition had sold out by November, presumably on the strength of being 'By the Author of Sense and Sensibility and Pride and Prejudice' alone" (62)."

Irvine, Robert P.. Jane Austen, Taylor & Francis Group, 2005. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/pointloma-ebooks/detail.action?docI....
Created from pointloma-ebooks on 2020-11-18 20:54:12.

Austen Offers Fourth Novel to John Murray & Mansfield Park, and It Gets Published on Standard Commission

This source elaborates on the process of getting her fourth novel Emma published. Upset by Egerton's lack of attention, she offered her novel Emma to John Murray in August or September of 1815. "Henry Austen protested at the poor terms in November: it was agreed that second editions of Mansfield Park and Emma would both be published on standard commission" (60). 

Butler, Marilyn. Jane Austen, Oxford University Press USA - OSO, 2007. ProQuest Ebook Central, https://ebookcentral-proquest-com.pointloma.idm.oclc.org/lib/pointloma-e....

Jane Falls Ill

Austen began to develop symptoms of what may have been Addison's disease.

Klackle, Natalie. "Jane Austen." Orientalist Writers, edited by Coeli Fitzpatrick and Dwayne A. Tunstall, Gale, 2012. Dictionary of Literary Biography Vol. 366. Gale Literature Resource Center, https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/H1200014301/LitRC?u=sand82993&sid=LitRC&x.... Accessed 16 Nov. 2020.

Debate Surrounding Jane Austen's Illness at 40/41

According to A. Upfal's "Jane Austen’s Lifelong Health Problems and Final Illness: New Evidence Points to a Fatal Hodgkin’s Disease and Excludes the Widely Accepted Addison’s," Austen most likely suffered from Hodgkin's disease along with an autoimmune disease (page?). This stands in direct contrast with what other Austen scholars like Deirdre Le Faye conclude, “[that] up to the end of 1815, Jane had been remarkably free from ailments” (page?). Upfal goes on to further state that "[b]iographers have also tended to follow this line and ignore or trivialise previous episodes of illness that are documented in Jane’s letters" (page?). In fact, Upfal asserts that "...a medical history is threaded through the surviving Austen letters, which reveals that she suffered other, and unusually severe and debilitating illnesses, and was particularly susceptible to infection" (Upfal, par. 2). It is worth noting that the nature of Jane Austen's illness is far from settled, but what is certain is that she suffered from an illness that ultimately took her life at around age 40.

1817 Jane Austen Dies July 18

A year earlier, Austen began developing symptoms attributed to Addison's disease. She died in Winchester on July 18, 1817 with her sister in attendance.

Klackle, Natalie. "Jane Austen." Orientalist Writers, edited by Coeli Fitzpatrick and Dwayne A. Tunstall, Gale, 2012. Dictionary of Literary Biography Vol. 366. Gale Literature Resource Center, https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/H1200014301/LitRC?u=sand82993&sid=LitRC&x.... Accessed 19 Oct. 2020.

Gale Literary Resource Center, accessed October 19 

Persuasion's Unique Style

Persuasion Cover

Persuasion was published post-humously, but proves itself to be distinct from the other Austen works we have read thus far. Robert P. Irvine explains this as such:

"Persuasion can appear as a move in new directions: darker, more pessimistic, readier to admit the value of passion and romance cut loose from the demands of society, it is often seen as anticipating the approach of later women novelists and in particular the Brontë sisters. In fact the inwardness of Persuasion, its greater concern with the thoughts and feelings of its heroine compared with the social situations in which she moves, is made possible by a mastery of narrative technique that Austen had been developing throughout her career, in particular the use of free indirect discourse..." (Irvine 39). 

Irvine, Robert P.. Jane Austen, Taylor & Francis Group, 2005. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/pointloma-ebooks/detail.action?docI....
Created from pointloma-ebooks on 2020-11-18 11:42:59.