Este sumário é focado na vida e obras da autora e romancista inglesa, Jane Austen.
Biography
Jane Austen was born in Steventon in 1775. Daughter of a church rector, she spent her life within the circle of her family and was home educated by her father.
Austen showed an interest in literature at an early age and her earliest writings date from 1787.
After her father's death, her family settled in Chawton, where she produced her most mature works. She died in Winchester in 1817.
Works
Her main works were all written between 1798 and 1816, although some were published posthumously. Our focus will be on her most popular novels, Sense and Sensibility and Pride and Prejudice.
Sense and Sensibility
This novel tells the story of the destitute Dashwood family, especially focusing on the sisters, Elinor and Marianne, personifications of common sense and sensibility, respectively.
Upon the death of their father, the family estate is left for their half-brother John to be taken care of and although he was instructed to help his sisters, John is dissuaded of his duty by his greedy wife, Fanny. So, the entire family, which includes their mother and a younger sister, moves to Barton Cottage, where Marianne meets Colonel Brandon.
From here, we are invited to join the love life of both sisters: while Marianne becomes infatuated by the attractive fortune hunter John Willoughby, who deserts Marianne for an heiress, making space for a sensible marriage with Colonel Brandon, Elinor forms an attachment with Edward Frears, Fanny's brother.
Among many misunderstandings, which lead Elinor to think Edward is engaged and married to Lucy Steele, only to find out that Lucy is actually married to Edward's brother, the other Mr. Frears. Both sisters end up married.
Pride and Prejudice
This book focuses on the Bennet family, composed by Mr. and Mrs. Bennet and their five unmarried daughters.
While Mrs. Bennet is obsessed with finding suitable husbands for their daughters, the arrival of two young bachelors to the village is received with great happiness.
Mr. Bingley and Mr. Darcy, both rich, are soon introduced to the Bennet family, and while Mr. Bingley and Jane, the eldest daughter, form an attachment despite their social status differences, Elizabeth, the second daughter, despises Darcy for his pride and prepotence, although he fancies her.
From then, a tale of love, pride, prejudice and forgiveness drives the story, with Elizabeth repeatedly refusing Darcy's feelings for her, and her own feelings for him, all driven by a blind pride and prejudice for his high social position.
Meanwhile, Jane and Bingley are deeply in love, but Bingley's sister, Caroline, disapproves of the relationship and makes the whole Bingley family move back to London unexpectedly, breaking Jane's heart even more when Caroline predicts that her brother and Darcy's sister will marry.
In the end, all the feelings of pride are forgotten, when Elizabeth realises that Darcy is, after all, a good man, and never had intentions of splitting Bingley and Jane, although he admits his pride. Bingley also returns from London to propose to Jane, begging for forgiveness.
