2006-10-14 17:31:14 · 7 answers · asked by Victoria V 2 in Arts & Humanities ➔ Books & Authors
I was surprised to discover when reading Jane Austin at university that she was a recluse. While her reflections of society and comments on the class system are accurate, she very rarely took part in either, drawing rather from the experiences of those around her.
I enjoy her characters especially as they are captivating and what I can only describe as real.
Austin has a knack of making you wish you lived in another time and another part of England. Mind you I'd require oodles of money if I were to be part of such class and society of course. This is key to your question. Jane Austin's reflections only apply to a small and particularly wealthy part of the England of her time.
She rarely wrote about the squalor and struggle of the poor, let alone the challenges of the middle classes. Her heroins, for example, would never be, indeed could never be, a maid or prostitute. Just as her heroes could never be out of work actors, street sweepers or clerks. The reason for this is because this was a world beyond her own and one which she knew very little about.
2006-10-14 18:39:40 · answer #1 · answered by Twinkles 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Jane Austen - Hopelessly unrealistic. Even more in her time. Yes, of course a poor girl marries the rich guy, who first disliked her completely and then fell in love with her, because she was so smart and beautyful. Oh, and her sister gets with his best friend. Sounds realistic, doesn't it? Even in our times, just a normal case of a lovestory.
Jane Austen - The books she wrote, they are the perfect books for some kind of women to daze off in this romantic world. Don't even find its good literature.
But taste differs.
2006-10-16 12:21:08 · answer #2 · answered by dorotti 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Jane Austen was pre-realistic novelist. Her novels are diverse in their themes. Sometimes she concentrate on the commedy of manners as in sense and sensibility. She also mock the high class pretendence.
she concentrate on the behaviors of the chacacters rather than the plot.
She is a great novelist of classess, love, romance and society. I love her novels: Emma, Pride & Prejudice, Mansfield Park, Northanger Abbey and Sense & Sensibility.
2006-10-15 16:35:54 · answer #3 · answered by aahamed24 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
It's funny how Jane Austen rarely makes any reference to the time's political turbulence (the French and American Revolutions and the Napoleonic Wars), considering that some of her brothers were naval officers and one relative had a husband who was guillotined! Yet many of her references to the army (such as in P&P) portray them as merely gallivanting with the local ladies and going to balls. It seems this kind of political history didn't interest her: that she was more concerned with life as it affected most women (who, from reading her novels, seemed majorly concerned with their economic survival). So in terms of what she chose to focus on, i.e. the economic concerns of women, i would say her novels have historical value.
2006-10-15 06:55:25 · answer #4 · answered by Nikita21 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Jane Austen's novels are realistic for HER time period (late 18th and early 19th centuries in England).
Perhaps the least realistic aspect of her works are the ways her female characters defy gender expectations by refusing the rich men who pursue them (Lizzie Bennet; Fanny Price; Marianne Dashwood).
2006-10-15 00:37:56 · answer #5 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 0⤋
sounds like reality to me-im a fan of jane austens books-are you?
2006-10-15 00:34:08 · answer #6 · answered by yankeegirl 3 · 0⤊ 1⤋
pride and prejudice is my favorite book (or one of them at least)
i didn't really like sense and sensibility
they were realistic in her time period, but fantasy in the present. i guess if you sort of modified the book to fit todays world...hmmm, that would be interesting
2006-10-15 01:07:56 · answer #7 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋