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Post by erin on Aug 25, 2008 0:28:40 GMT -5
Jane Austen was born on December 16 1775 and she died on July 18 1817 of addison's disease. She was 41 years old. She was 17 of 18 children. I just thought you guys might find this interesting.
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Post by Lucky on Aug 25, 2008 5:01:43 GMT -5
Not in 1803, but in 1817 . And I think her family had only 8 children.. And I've found something about the novel Northanger Abbey . It is a parody of gothic novels by Ann Radcliff. Do you know her?
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Isa
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Post by Isa on Aug 25, 2008 7:44:09 GMT -5
Yes, she had one sister (Cassandra) and 6 brothers. I've never read a novel by Ann Radcliffe but her most famous one was "The Mysteries of Udolpho" and that's the one Jane Austen is poking fun at in "Northanger Abbey".
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Kristie
Novel turned into BBC miniseries
"If a book is well written, I always find it too short."
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Post by Kristie on Aug 25, 2008 14:22:24 GMT -5
Some random stuff I remember about JA is that her father was a clergyman in Hampshire. Her parents were lower in the heirarchy, but still considered gentry. She wrote some very humorous stuff called her juvenilia and are in collections called Love and Friendship, Lesley Castle, and/or Catharine, or Other Writings. She wrote a very consistent correspondence with her sister Cassandra. She fell in love with a man named Tom Lefroy, but because neither had any wealth to marry upon, they were separated.
Just a little FYI, Addison's disease is a rare disorder where the adrenal gland produces insufficient amounts of steroid hormones.
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Post by erin on Aug 25, 2008 14:50:35 GMT -5
I'm sorry you guy's are right about Jane Austen's family. She was the second daughter and the seventh child in a family of 8.
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Isa
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Post by Isa on Aug 26, 2008 7:43:22 GMT -5
No problem! It's nice that you brought up this topic, I don't think we've ever discussed Jane Austen's life very much and it had such a tremendous influence on her writing.
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Ansku
First novel published
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Post by Ansku on Aug 27, 2008 14:20:21 GMT -5
I wrote 34 pages about her last spring. So I know a lot about her.
Her brothers were James, George (didn't live with rest of the family), Edward, Henry Thomas, Francis William, Charles John and sister Cassandra Elizabeth.
She got a marriage offer from six years younger family friend. They were engaged one day, but then JA called it off.
She used fake name Mrs. Ashton Dennis with her first books.
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Isa
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Post by Isa on Aug 28, 2008 7:12:37 GMT -5
She used fake name Mrs. Ashton Dennis with her first books. lol, yes, and she would sign some of her letters "I am, sincerely yours, M.A.D." ;D
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Kristie
Novel turned into BBC miniseries
"If a book is well written, I always find it too short."
Posts: 7,214
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Post by Kristie on Aug 28, 2008 13:57:48 GMT -5
Her brothers were James, George (didn't live with rest of the family), Edward, Henry Thomas, Francis William, Charles John and sister Cassandra Elizabeth. That's right about George. Didn't he live with a wealthier relative or family friend and inherit something? I don't remember much about her brothers. Francis was in the navy though, right? And that's why JA wrote a lot about navy (and army) officers?
Has anyone read her letters to Cassandra? I've read the illustrated collection, but not the whole collection (which I recently bought).
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Isa
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Post by Isa on Aug 28, 2008 14:34:01 GMT -5
I have the same collection of letters, Kristie ("Dear Cassandra"). It's been a while since I've read it, I'd like to read it again.
And you're right, her brothers Francis and Charles were in the navy, and Jane Austen held that profession in high esteem as you can see in her novels: Captain Wentworth and Admiral Croft are in the navy, and obviously she is very fond of these characers. She would never have allowed Mr. Wickham to be in the navy - he was an army man!
Edward is the one who was adopted by the Knights, and he actually changed his name to Edward Knight. Thomas and Catherine Knight were a rich childless couple, and it was not uncommon back them for such people to take under their wing a child from a more modest (i.e. poor) family. He eventually moved to Chawton and he's the one who bought the cottage in which Jane would live with her mother and sister after her father passed away. She would live there until a few months before her death, revising Sense & Sensibility and Pride & Prejudice before their publication, and completing Mansfield Park, Emma and Persuasion.
We know very little about George, other than he might have been deaf or mentally challenged, and spent most of his life working on a farm. James became a clergyman, very intellectual, and shared some of his sister's literary aspirations. But Henry was by far her favorite brother - he was never very successful in life, but just like Jane, he was witty and shared her sense of humor and irony, and he encouraged her to get her novels published. So that's the Austen family in a nutshell!
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Isa
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Post by Isa on Aug 28, 2008 14:47:48 GMT -5
Ooh, forgot to talk about her parents: her father George was a clergyman, so even though he didn't have a large income he was still considered a gentleman (like Mr. Bennet in P&P), and he would allow Jane to pick any book she wanted to read from his library, which was very uncommon at the time. Most girls were not allowed to read novels as they were deemed to be too "impressionable", which is something Jane Austen obviously pokes fun at in Northanger Abbey.
As for her mother Cassandra, we know that she was a bit of a hypochondriac (Mrs. Bennet anyone? Or Mr. Woodhouse? Or Mary Musgrove? Or Lady Bertram?!!!). When Jane's health started declining, she was often forced to put two chairs together in order to lie down because her mother always imagined herself sick and needed the couch. Of course, she ended up outliving Jane and died at the venerable age of 87.
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Ansku
First novel published
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Post by Ansku on Aug 29, 2008 8:14:24 GMT -5
JA had a lot of nieces and nephews. I have to check them, but here are the numbers:
James: a daughter Jane Anna Elizabeth from his first marriage, a son Edward and a daughter Caroline. Edward: 11 children. Eldest was Fanny who was JA's favorite niece. Henry: no children. Francis: seven children Charles: a daughter Cassandra, two other children from first marriage and four from second.
I don't know, were there so low number of names, but almost every name of those are in her novels.
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Isa
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Post by Isa on Aug 29, 2008 16:03:27 GMT -5
lol, yes, I've noticed that before. I've also always wondered what made her give her own name to the characters of Jane Bennet and Jane Fairfax - they both are beautiful but rather subdued women that don't seem to have a lot in common with Jane Austen...
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Ansku
First novel published
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Post by Ansku on Aug 30, 2008 2:11:48 GMT -5
I didn't mention Cassandra. Her full name was Cassandra Elizabeth. If I remember correct Elizabeth Bennet was her favorite heroine?
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