Jane Austen - realism
Posted by Julieanne on April 19, 1998 at 06:58:30:
In response to Jane Austen, the Historian, written by Earlene on April 19, 1998 at 03:32:00
] The thing that I find so remarkable about Ms Austen is the way that anyone who reads her books can learn so much about her life and the times that she lived in. It's almost as if she was writing for us, 200 years later. I can not think of any modern writer who gives so much information. She is truly a one of a kind. And she entertains us as well.
] E:}
I think we learn so much rather because Jane Austen writes of the minutiae of daily life as a "given" - she does not try to glamorise or romanticise the details of daily life - so we are given a window to her world. Not all, not even most, of her characters are wealthy and removed from the problems of living - Fanny Price's mother bewails the circumstance of her ninth lying-in ; Miss Bates fears she does not have a salting-pan large enough for a loin of pork; Charlotte Lucas is wanted at home "about the mince pies". These details are why we can see this world so clearly. This detail is almost impossible to achieve with our modern media, and so we do not see characters living real lives.
- Julie! Myretta 07:14:57 4/19/98
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- Finding one's way Julieanne 16:42:35 4/19/98
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- Finding one's way Julieanne 16:42:35 4/19/98
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