Jane lived a quiet life but the wicked ways of the world touched her and informed her writing. And when I refer to wicked ways I am not suggesting the 18th Century relaxed attitudes to sexuality, where one in three women were pregnant as they walked up the marriage aisle in the 18th century. 1. I mean the wickedness of inequality, hypocrisy and double standards. Women without dowries (or women’s shares), women in lowly social classes, women in loveless marriages and women who were courted for their fortune were in unhappy positions that Austen explored many times in her novels. Continue reading
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Prudishness
Filed under Feminism, Uncategorized
An aunt is a ‘person of consequence’
CassandraAusten-FannyKnight (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Jane was close to her siblings and her siblings’ children. Her first nieces, Fanny and Anna, held a special place. Fanny was “almost another sister”.
Jane Austen took being an aunt seriously. When writing to a younger niece Caroline, in her later life she says, Continue reading
Filed under Family, Uncategorized
Gender Toys
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How could a woman of the 21st Century possibly ask a woman of the 18th Century how to bring up girls? And expect an answer? But when you look into the crystal glass atmosphere of the Austen Six some answers can be assembled .
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What was Jane Austen’s everyday life like?
Mead & Light (Photo credit: Kyral210)
As I sit here thinking I want to imagine what Jane Austen’s everyday life was like. I imagine her writing in a letter, “I am so pleased the mead is brewed”. What was her day like as a teenager, as a young woman and as an author? How did her life change or did the nature of her daily life largely remain the same? Continue reading
Filed under Living the Simple Life, Uncategorized
Austen's Guide to Happiness 