I Used to Know That_ Stuff You Forgot From School - Caroline Taggart [5]
☞ JANE AUSTEN (1775-1817)
Jane Austen completed only six novels, which makes it easy to do a rundown of her complete works. In no particular order:
Emma: Emma Woodhouse is the most important young lady in her village, living alone with her aging father (the one who thinks that the sooner any party breaks up the better). Clever and pleased with herself, she amuses herself with matchmaking. Despite the disapproval of her friend and neighbor, Mr. Knightley, she persuades her protégée, Harriet Smith, not to marry a respectable farmer, Robert Martin, thinking that Harriet (despite being poor, ignorant, and illegitimate) should set her sights on the new vicar, Mr. Elton. Mr. Elton, however, has set his sights on Emma and is deeply offended when she rejects him. He promptly marries someone else entirely, and Harriet, recovering from her disappointment, falls in love with Mr. Knightley instead. Emma’s eyes are suddenly opened to the fact that no one should marry Mr. Knightley but herself. Fortunately, this turns out to be what he has always wanted.
Mansfield Park: Jane Austen’s least appealing heroine is the virtuous but dull Fanny Price, who is sent to live at Mansfield Park with her aunt, Lady Bertram, and promptly falls in love with her cousin Edmund, another deeply virtuous person. The arrival of the worldly Crawfords, brother and sister Henry and Mary, upsets the calm of the neighborhood, with Edmund becoming smitten with Mary despite his disapproval of her character, and Henry attracting the attention of both Bertram sisters, Maria and Julia, despite the fact that both have admirers of their own. Henry, however, falls in love with Fanny, who is almost persuaded that her good influence can redeem his character, but then he elopes with Maria, now Mrs. Rushworth. Amid all the scandal and disappointment, Edmund finally recognizes Fanny’s worth.
Northanger Abbey: Catherine Morland’s head is full of ghoulish Gothic novels, so when she is invited to Northanger Abbey by her friend Elinor Tilney (with whose brother, Henry, she is already in love), she thinks she has discovered a horrific mystery: Elinor’s father, the general, has murdered his wife. It turns out to be nonsense, of course, and she is deeply embarrassed that Henry should know of her silly suspicions. General Tilney now discovers that Catherine is not, as he has been led to believe, an heiress, and turns her out of the house. She is back at home thinking gloomy thoughts about her future when Henry appears and…
Persuasion: Eight years before the novel starts, Anne Elliot was persuaded by her proud father, Sir Walter, and her well-meaning friend Lady Russell to break off her engagement to Captain Frederick Wentworth. Nowtwenty-six, she hasnever met anyone else she can care for (and indeed has turned down a proposal from a neighbor, Charles Musgrove, who subsequently marries her sister, Mary). Chance brings Captain Wentworth, now wealthy, back into the neighborhood, but throws him together with Charles Musgrove’s sisters, Henrietta and Louisa. Anne is forced to watch in silence as he apparently becomes involved with Louisa, whose steadfastness of character seems to appeal to him more than the weakness he has not forgiven in Anne. An outing to Lyme Regis ends with Louisa insisting on jumping off the Cobb, falling and causing herself serious injury. Just as Captain Wentworth’s feelings toward Anne are reawakening, he finds that all his friends believe he is committed to Louisa, and he cannot honorably renege on this perceived promise. But Louisa, in the course of her convalescence, conveniently falls in love with Captain Wentworth’s friend Captain Benwick, and Wentworth is free again.
Pride and Prejudice: Spirited but poor Elizabeth Bennet (Lizzy) takes a stand against the proud but extremely wealthy Mr. Darcy, particularly when he destroys the chances of her sister Jane marrying his friend Mr. Bingley. Darcy falls in love with Lizzy much against his better judgment and is tactless enough to tell her so. Scandal hits the Bennet family