1. Jane Austen (1775-1817) Jane Austen (1775-1817)

2. Evaluation of her art Seldom has the novel been conceived with such deliberate and successful art as in the novels of Jane Austen

3. Her art 1. a classical precision of structure, (which is manipulated through incidents exactly defined) in realism. 2. the gift of phrase humorous, illuminating, economical, through which all is related, so that each incident can be enjoyed like that in a drama. 3. a gift of dialogue

4. Her art She deals with her characters with intensity yet with detachment, without sentimentalism. Her knowledge of men’s behaviour was limited. There are no extremely noble heroes and heroines, nor hateful villains; egoism is the dominant vice of human beings; no passion in her novels.

5. Plot of her novels The central plot of her six novels: an eligible young man comes into a village and eventually secures the most suitable wife

6. Her fictional world Her fictional world: She called her work “small square two inches of vory country gentlemen and ladies together with snobs, bores and social “climbers”, “three or four families in a village”.

7. Her fictional world She wrote about parish life with calls, walks, picnics, conversations, parties, balls, marriages.Snobbery, smugness, condescension, and lack of consideration are all held to our scorn

8. Pride and Prejudice (1813) Characters: Mrs. Bennet, Collins (the sycophantic clergyman), the imperious ‘great lady’ Catherine de Bourgh, Elizabeth, the clever, gay young woman whose prejudice is matched with the pride of Darcy, the aristocrat who conceals a goodness of heart beneath a haughty manner.

9. Questions concerning the excerpts comment on 1.the beginning sentence: “it is a truth universally acknowledged…..” irony, humor,periodic sentence etc. 2. Mrs Bennet’s Character;Mr Bennet’s character 3.English society (e.g. Women’s position as reflected by the excerpts) –Style of Jane Austen