Jane Austen Novels: Success After Death

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Jane Austen Novels: Success after Death

Chuck Leddy, a notable critic, stated "Upon her death in 1817, English novelist Jane Austen was completely unknown in the literary world". Why would someone as brilliant as Jane Austen not be world known? By 1817, Austen had already published one of her masterpieces Sense and Sensibility, and it seemed to not bring in as much success as it would later on in life. But the dry spell would eventually end. Two hundred years after Jane Austen's death, her books gained a lot of attention (Leddy). Although Sense and Sensibility, Pride and Prejudice, Mansfield Park, and Emma were not well known in the early eighteen hundreds, Jane Austen novels grew a substantial amount of popularity after Jane Austen's death.

Jane Austen started the novel Sense and Sensibility in seventeen ninety seven. The original title was Elinor and Marianne after the two main characters. The title changed to Sense and Sensibility and it was finished in eighteen eleven. "The novel contrasts the temperaments of two sisters" (Byer 378). Elinor represents sense, and Marianne represents sensibility. The novel is about two sisters who have to choose between the thin roads of sense, defined as meaning, of meaningful, and sensibility, defined as delicacy of feeling (Webster 314). Elinor fulfills her life by meaning, to an extent, and less by feeling like her sister (Byer 378). The man Elinor falls for has other relations with another woman (Byer 378). Elinor stays smart though out the cheating her lover is committing (Byer 378). Things happen between Elinor's guy and his mistress, and the other woman packs up and leave (Byers 378). Although Elinor represents sense, she leans towards the sensibility and takes the cheater back (Byer ...

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...ips (Leddy). Her novels were not appreciated in her day, because she was to advanced for the mediocre readers. Jane Austen has great novels and they influence everything from books, movies, television, etc. Her books do and will keep on inspiring.

Works Cited

Bloom, Harold, ed. Jane Austen. Chelsea House Publishers: n.p., 1986. Print.

Kroeber, Karl. “Jane Austen Critisim.” Literary Reference Center. EBSCO, 2004. Web. 19 Jan. 2011.

Leddy, Chuck. “Cents and Sensibility.” Middle Search Plus. EBSCO, 2010. Web. 19 Jan. 2011.

“Prejudice.” Webster Dictionary. 2nd ed. Print.

“Pride.” Webster Dictionary. 2nd ed. Print.

“Sense.” Webster Dictionary. 2nd ed. Print.

“Sense and Sensibilty.” Commonsense.org. N.p., 2011. Web. 21 Feb. 2011.

“Sensibility.” Webster Dictionary. 2nd ed. Print.

Southham, B C, ed. Jane Austen the Critical Heritage. N.p.: n.p., 1968. Print.

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