The Wicked Wit of Jane Austen

Fülszöveg

Jane Austen had little contact with society outside her extended family, and none whatsoever with London literary life. Yet her novels earned the acclaim of such literary figures as Sir Walter Scott, who praised her 'talent for describing the involvements and feelings and characters of ordinary life'. Admired for their sharp -- indeed, often wicked -- social observation, their satirical wit, the brilliance of their author's comic realism and her sure grasp of human nature, Jane Austen's novels remain as fresh today as when they were first published, concentrating as they do on universal human social traits -- romantic innocence, self-delusion, gullibility, greed, snobbery, rudeness, arrogance, and obsequiousness. Above all, they centre on the antics of those seeking well-connected and well-appointed husbands and their efforts to elbow out their less 'suitable' rivals. The Wicked Wit of Jane Austen is an absorbing collection of her sharpest, most profound and amusing observations -- on human nature, money, marriage, life and society -- taken from her novels and also from her extremely entertaining letters. Easy to dip in to and highly quotable, this beautifully decorated volume will delight all Austen devotees, as well as readers less familiar with her life and work. The seventh child of a country parson, Jane Austen was born in Hampshire in December 1775, and although she was brought up in an academic household her formal education was limited. Her first publication was Sense and Sensibility which came out in 1811; this was followed by Pride and Prejudice in 1813, Mansfield Park in 1814, and Emma in 1816. Northanger Abbey and Persuasion were published posthumously in 1818. She was not widely known as their author in her lifetime -- indeed she was fiercely private and against self-promotion -- but her novels were well received and the Prince Regent kept a set in each of his residences. She died on 18 July 1817, and is buried in Winchester Cathedral. Although obituaries ran in several newspapers, her novels were soon out of print, but found their way back into circulation around 1870, since when they have remained an undisputed part of our literary heritage.