Complete Works of Jane Austen
Read Complete Works of Jane Austen Online
Authors: Jane Austen
The Complete Works of
JANE AUSTEN
(1775-1817)
Contents
JANE AUSTEN by Sir Walter Scott
ARCHBISHOP WHATELY ON JANE AUSTEN by Richard Whately
REALISM: JANE AUSTEN by Richard Burton
ON JANE AUSTEN IN THE GENERAL ELECTION by G. K. Chesterton
JANE AUSTEN’S JUVENILIA by G. K. Chesterton
JANE AUSTEN: NATURAL HISTORIAN by Robert Lynd
THREE ESSAYS ON JANE AUSTEN by Virginia Woolf
A MEMOIR OF JANE AUSTEN by James Edward Austen-Leigh
JANE AUSTEN, HER LIFE AND LETTERS by William Austen-Leigh and Richard Arthur Austen-Leigh
© Delphi Classics 2014
Version 5
The Complete Works of
JANE AUSTEN
By Delphi Classics, 2014
Interested in Early Nineteenth Century literature?
Other Novelists
by Delphi Classics
For the first time in publishing history, Delphi Classics is proud to present the complete novels of these important contemporary authors.
Jane Austen’s birthplace, Steventon Parsonage, Hampshire — sadly, no longer standing
George Austen, the author’s father
Steventon Church, where George Austen was rector for many years
Jane Austen as a child
Sense and Sensibility
was the author’s first novel to be published, although not her first to be written and completed. Thomas Egerton of the Military Library publishing house released the work in three volumes in 1811 and Austen used the pseudonym ‘A Lady’ for the novel. She had taken a substantial financial risk, paying for the publication, costing more than a third of her annual household income. Fortunately, the 750 copies of the first edition sold out and she was able to make a profit. The first draft of the work, titled
Elinor and Marianne
, was composed in the mid 1790’s when Austen was still in her teenage years. The early work was written in epistolary form and focused on the contrasting natures and attitudes of two sisters. Elinor is exceedingly restrained and reserved, while Marianne is excessively emotional and impetuous. In
Sense and Sensibility
the sisters’ dispositions remain as they were in the first draft of the novel, although Austen creates a far more complex and ambiguous portrait of the benefits and flaws of each nature.
