Jane Austen Literary Analysis

“It is a truth universally acknowledged that a single man in possession of good fortune must be in want of a wife.” Reading this quote any literary enthusiast can guess who the author is, as this has been one of the most talked about quotations in English literature. This is the first line of Pride and Prejudice, the single line that encompasses the theme of the entire novel. And who can be more efficient in bringing out all the pages of a huge novel into one single line than the most successful 19th century Romantic fiction author- Jane Austen. She is placed among the greatest authors in the world of literature. She wrote six novels in all- Sense and Sensibility, Pride and Prejudice, Mansfield Park, Emma, Northanger Abbey and Persuasion,

Though her fictional world--seen as an idyllic bygone time and place, still in the present time it has entered into popular literary culture. Jane Austen is generally acknowledged to be one of the great English novelists, so it is no surprise that her novels have remained continuously in print from her day to the present.

‘Emma’ tells us of a delightful girl who is as essentially true to life today as she was in the years when the Napoleon was the emperor. The ordinary commonplace incidents and the day to day experiences formed the warp and woof of her novels.

Sir Walter Scott wrote in his diary that the talent of Jane Austen as a realist was the most wonderful he had ever met with. That young lady had a talent for describing the involvements, feelings and characters of ordinary life .It is this quality of Realist that makes her appeal fresh forever .Literary enthusiast in all the ages and from everywhere in the world are able to associate themselves with her work

The realism of Jane Austen is more truly psychological than that of Richardson, for it is free from the tragic obsessions of moral conscience. With its greater freedom, it acquires greater purity.[Legouis

Jane Austen’s first published work, Sense and Sensibility, a romantic novel, appeared in the year 1811. The world was first introduced to her portrayal of realism in English literature. Wisdom, self- control, emotion, enthusiasm, love, romance and heartbreak- all the basic realities of life are portrayed through Austen’s characters the Dashwood sisters- Elinore, Marianne and Margaret. At the end of the novel, the reader is given full freedom to decide whether sense and sensibility has emerged or not. This book is a beautiful and powerful introduction to Austen’s classics, a sensible, sensitive and delightful read about the extraordinary power of women ‘Pride and Prejudice’ is considered to be the finest novel of Jane Austen, and is a work of art in the history of English fiction. It has an incomparable freshness and sharpness of outline .It is modelled on Shakespeare’s ‘Much Ado About Nothing’. In Shakespeare’s scintillating comedy Benedick and Beatrice who hate each other in the beginning of the play ultimately married in the end. Similarly in Jane Austen’s novel we have the exhibition of pride and prejudice, and their ultimate union in the end. Pride is represented by Darcy and prejudice by Elizabeth. They are ultimately united in a hilarious