Jane Austen Research Paper

Jane Austen: Sense of Pride

"But to read her as a cozy author is all wrong, and so is reading her as a bitter one. She was a strong, sensible woman with lucid, limited standards of social propriety" (Adams 368). Jane Austen was a woman who didn’t quite follow the rules of her time period. The Victorian Period focused mainly on financial She stayed with her family until the day she died, and her adulthood proved some trying times for her family and herself. Getting published was a feat her and her brother struggled with immensely, but the six books she published kept their family’s financial crisis at bay, and also left her popular in the world of literature.

Reverend George Austen, born 1731, and Cassandra Austen, born 1739, was prestigious

They moved to Bath, where the Austen’s would then stay for the remainder of their life. It wasn’t until after the move that Austen’s work started to be published. Her father took her first completed work to Thomas Cadell, a publisher, but he never even opened the package to read it. It is still unknown if Austen ever knew that her father attempted to get her published. In 1803, her brother Henry went to London to find a publisher under the name of Benjamin Crosby to help push Susan into publication. The copyright of Susan is sold to Crosby for ten pounds with the promise that the piece will be published. Crosby never upheld his side of the bargain and it was never published. After Jane realized Susan was a lost cause because of the lack of money the family had, she started writing the The Watsons. The Watsons is never completed though because on January 21 1805, her father shockingly, suddenly dies, throwing Jane away from her work, and into a downfall. She didn’t want to write for a while. This didn’t just affect Austen, but it sent the whole family into financial mayhem. Austen, Cassandra, and their mother Cassandra were scrambling to find a place to live now that George had died. The three women went from staying with family members to renting various flats until 1809 when Austen’s brother Edward settled them into his cottage in Chawton, a

Next, Egerton then took the manuscript of Pride and Prejudice and put more time and money into marketing Jane's work and the novel was an instant success with both the public and the critics. The second edition was called for by October of that year. Egerton goes for Mansfield Park, trying to bring the people more Austen before they got bored. Mansfield Park, which the critics were okay with, but the public couldn't get enough of Jane Austen. Mansfield Park became the best selling and most profitable of Austen's works at that time. At the height of her popularity with Egerton, she left him for a better-known publisher from London named John Murray. Murray was the last publisher to work with Austen before her death. The books: Emma, (a second edition of Mansfield Park), Persuasion, and Northanger Abbey were all books that Murray published. Though the first edition of Mansfield Park was a success, the second edition, Emma, was not as loved. Right as this happened, the banking venture failed and took down all the brothers. This left the Austen woman in a serious financial position. Austen continued writing and started working on the Elliot’s, which would eventually become Persuasion. In 1815, Austen was in London correcting proofs of Emma when her favorite brother, Henry, fell ill and almost died. She dropped her work and nursed her brother back to health. One year later, after the manuscript of Northanger Abbey had been