Writing about Jane Austen is not just a lesson in humility for readers, but also an inspiring factor. Probably one of the most cited, quoted, read and reread authors in the world, Austen’s books have been published with several editions and the popularity is, rightfully, never-ending.
Her books are known today as narratives on the social and geographical milieu of her time at the end of the 18th century. She started writing at a young age, and her juvenilia includes dramatic sketches, spoofs and poems.
Sense and Sensibility was published in 1811. It was followed by Pride and Prejudice in 1813, which she called ‘my own darling child’. In his journal, Sir Walter Scott contrasted her ‘exquisite touch’ with his own ‘Big Bow-Wow’ approach, praising the way she made ‘commonplace things and characters interesting from the truth of the description and the sentiment. ( source BL UK)
Sense and Sensibility and Pride and Prejudice both revolve around sisters, and Jane had a great bond with her own sister Cassandra, but they remained single all their lives. Her other famous novels are Mansfield Park , Emma and Persuasion.
The Beautifull Cassandra is a short novel by Jane Austen written in her youth and one of her earliest pieces of writing. It is known as a dedication to her older sister Cassandra. It is a book about books and its theme was satire. Austen parodies the intense melodrama in the novels published during the time. The protagonist Casandra is a young woman who is out in this world and seeks to make a life for herself.
Narrating the slightly criminal adventures of the sixteen-year-old title character, The Beautifull Cassandra gives us Austen’s most irrepressible heroine, who, after stealing a hat, leaves her mother’s shop to flounce around London, eating ice cream (without paying), taking coach rides (without paying), and encountering handsome young ladies and gentlemen (without speaking)—all to return home hours later with whispered joy: “This is a day well spent.”
Austen was only twelve or thirteen when she wrote The Beautiful Cassandra.
Source - BL UK
Image - background of the image is that on February 4 1813, Jane Austen writes to her sister Cassandra. She writes about the second evening when the rough manuscript of Pride and Prejudice is read to her family member and Jane is not happy with the response. Jane proceeds to offer some criticism of her own novel: 'The work is rather too light, and bright, and sparkling; it wants shade.’
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