Critical Essay on Jane Austen
As an extremely well versed (OK, modest) critic of English Literature and a fairly decent judge of people and character, I have chosen to write my critique, or paper, on a particularly good (a brewing controversy in some circles) author of the times. This particular author was born in Steventon, Hampshire, England on December 16, 1775 to a loving, well-educated, mother and father (1, page 1). Her loving parents did welcome this seventh (of eight) children and last of two daughters into the world with loving arms. One of the first more obvious facts in her writing is that, although her father had a modest income (around £600 yearly) (4, page 2) she was a spoiled, little brat who was well, perhaps too well, taken care of. That is, at least, what shows in her writings. I bring up this point to demonstrate that her parents truly loved her and the other children and tried their best to do what every parent wants to do with their children. Give them a better life than they had. This can be argued because she was one of eight children in the family that turned out some fairly successful kids. That and, £600 a year was not a lot of money for the time. Her other siblings did extremely well in most of their endeavors. This fact could have very easily have caused some dissension or even jealously between her and her siblings. A fact that is at same time well proven by her writings. There is some indication of this in her surviving letters to her closest confidante, her only sister (4, page 4). All of the aforementioned material, in fact, her very life, is probably the main reason that I, and thousands of normal, law-abiding men from all over the world, dread any lesson plan that includes my chosen author. At the same time, if she hadn 't had this life, they we dread so much, then we might have been deprived of such great works as Emma, Sense and Sensibility, Pride and Prejudice, and Northanger Abbey. With all this information before you, it should be fairly easy to guess
Cited: 1 "About Jane Austen" (1 page). August 1999. http://www.smith.edu/english/fall/austen.html. Online. 990802
2 "Letters of Jane Austen – Brabourne Edition (Letters to her sister Cassandra Austen, 1796)" (pp 1-15). August 1999. http://www.pemberley.com/janeinfo/brablet1.html. Online. 990802
3 "Austen-Mania" (pp1-2). August 1999. http://www.salonmagazine.com/02dec1995/features/austen.html. Online. 990802.
4 "Biography: Life (1775-1817) and Family" (pp 1-10). August 1999. http://www.pemberley.com/janeinfo/janelife.html. Online. 990802.
5 "Jane Austen" (pp1-7). August 1999. http://users.deltanet.com/%7Elumiere/austen.htm. Online. 990802.