Thursday 18 July 2019

COMMEMORATING JANE AUSTEN


Today is the 202nd anniversary of English novelist Jane Austen's death. She died in Winchester on 18 July 1817. She was only 41.

She was one of the first writers to pitch for women’s education and emancipation. With the publications of Sense and Sensibility (1811), Pride and Prejudice (1813), Mansfield Park (1814) and Emma (1816), she achieved success as a published writer. Her novels belong to the romantic genre, however, her heroines (Elizabeth Bennet, Emma) were shown to resist and reject patriarchy, ingrained in society. Oxford professor Helena Kelly said Jane Austen was not afraid to deal with touchy contemporary political and religious issues. That includes colonialism and the Church’s role in society, at a time (late 18th/early 19th century Britain) when they were not issues for public discussion, especially by a woman.
Read more here.

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