Jane Austen’s World: Regency, Revolution and Reaction

Jane Austen 1775-1817

The House of Hanover

George III r. 1760-1820 1st Hanoverian king born in England American colonies lost in his reign Good family man: 15 children Highly cultured 1768: founded Royal Academy of Arts 65,000 of his books went to British Museum Mental derangement, perhaps caused by porphyria, led to Regency under his son (later George IV) in 1811. George III (reigned 1760-1820) was determined to appoint his own ministers and reassert some of the Monarch's independence lost under the first two Georges. However, George's accession in 1760 marked a significant change in Royal finances; it was agreed that the whole cost of the Civil List should be provided by Parliament in return for the surrender of hereditary revenues by the king for the duration of his reign. His reign saw the loss of the American colonies in 1783. After an uprising in Ireland in 1798, the Act of Union of 1801 linked Ireland and England and dissolved the Irish Parliament; instead Irish representatives went to the Westminster Parliament. George was a conscientious King and a devoted father and husband; his interest in botany and farming earned him the nickname 'Farmer George'. In 1788 he became mentally deranged, although this may have been due to porphyria, a hereditary physical disorder. George recovered by 1789, but then relapsed, becoming permanently deranged in 1810. George III, portrait by Johann Zoffany (1733/4-1810) © Royal Collection

Regency England 1811-1820

George IV b. 1762, r. 1820-30 Prince Regent 1811-1820 Final victory in Napoleonic Wars at Battle of Waterloo – June 1815 Known for extravagant lifestyle Illegally married a Catholic widow, Maria Fitzherbert, 1785 Married Caroline of Brunswick, 1795 – disastrous George II (reigned 1727-60), at the age of 60, was the last British sovereign to fight alongside his soldiers, at the Battle of Dettingen in 1743 in Germany, against the French. Like his father, for much of his reign George's political options were limited by the strength of the Jacobite cause (James Stuart the Old Pretender, and then his son, Charles Edward Stuart), with which many of the Tories were linked. George's reign was threatened in 1745 when Charles Edward Stuart, the Young Pretender, landed in Scotland. After some initial success (which led to the national anthem in its current form becoming popular among the Hanoverian loyalists), Charles was defeated at the Battle of Culloden in April 1746 and the Jacobite threat was over. The foundations of the industrial revolution were laid during George's reign, with new levels of production in industries such as coal and shipbuilding and also in agriculture, together with a rapid rise in population. Overseas, trade was boosted by successes such as Clive's victories in India at Arcot (1751) and Plassey (1757), which placed Madras and Bengal under British control, and Wolfe's capture of French-held Quebec in 1759 (part of a successful campaign which transferred Canada with its wealthy trade in fish and fur from French to British rule). As the country prospered and George's reign lengthened, his early unpopularity (he did not travel far in England, and much preferred Hanover) changed into a general respect. The King's eldest son, Frederick, died in 1751. George's grandson therefore inherited the throne, on George's death in 1760

England in 1819 An old, mad, blind, despised, and dying king, -- Princes, the dregs of their dull race, who flow Through public scorn, -- mud from a muddy spring, -- Rulers who neither see, nor feel, nor know, But leech-like to their fainting country cling, Till they drop, blind in blood, without a blow, -- A people starved and stabbed in the untilled field, -- An army, which liberticide and prey Makes as a two-edged sword to all who wield, -- Golden and sanguine laws which tempt and slay; Religion Christless, Godless -- a book sealed; A Senate, -- Time's worst statute unrepealed, -- Are graves, from which a glorious Phantom may Burst, to illumine our tempestous day. -- Percy Bysshe Shelley

A TIME OF REVOLUTIONS

A Time of Revolutions Industrial Revolution American Revolution: 1775-1783 French Revolution: 1789-94 Napoleonic Wars: 1804-15

Official British Reaction to the French Revolution Curtailment of civil liberties and harsh repression suspension of the writ of habeus corpus advocates of political change charged with treason 1791: Rejection of a bill to abolish the slave trade 1793: Declaration of war against France 1805-1815: Napoleonic Wars

Women in the Public Sphere

Restoration and 18th C. Theatre Theatres had reopened with restoration of Charles II in 1660 French influence: Actresses Heroic couplets Neoclassical modes: Social comedies Heroic tragedies Comedy of Manners Witty--language driven Satirical of social mores Risque Marriage and money 18th C. Comedy of Sentiment Ladies at the opera from Gallery of Fashion (1796).

England’s first professional female author: Aphra Behn 1640?-1689 Playwright The Forced Marriage (1670) The Amorous Prince (1671) Abdelazar (1676) The Rover (1677-81) The Feign'd Curtezans (1679) The City Heiress (1682) The Lucky Chance (1686) The Lover's Watch (1686) The Emperor of the Moon (1687) Lycidus (1688) Novelist Venice Preserv'd The History of the Nun Love Letters between a Nobleman and his sister (1684) The Fair Jilt (1688) Oroonoko (c.1688) The Unfortunate Happy Lady: A True History “All women together ought to let flowers fall upon the grave of Aphra Behn, for it was she who earned them the right to speak their minds.” Virginia Woolf

Mary Pix 1666-1709 Susanna Centlivre 1669-1723 Eliza Haywood 1693-1756 Charlotte Charke 1713-1760 Hannah More 1745-1833 Elizabeth Inchbald 1753-1821 Painting of the interior of the Drury Lane Theater List of Women Dramatists.

Lady Mary Wortley-Montagu Early Feminists Mary Astell 1666-1731 Lady Mary Wortley-Montagu 1689-1762 A Serious Proposal to the Ladies, for the Advancement of Their True and Greatest Interest (1694) Some Reflections on Marriage (1700) Advocated equal education for women Questioned the value of marriage for women in a patriarchal society Poet, prodigious letter writer, world traveller Advocate for smallpox vaccination Carried on poetic debate with Alexander Pope Court Poems, 1716 Letters from Turkey, 1763 Shared Astell’s opinions on education and marriage Lady Mary's "Town Eclogues" were published in a pirated edition as Court Poems in 1716. Of her famous Letters from the East she made a copy shortly after her return to England. She gave the manuscript to Benjamin Sowden, a clergyman of Rotterdam, in 1761. After Lady Mary's death this was recovered by the Earl of Bute, but meanwhile an unauthenticated edition, supposed to have been prepared by John Cleland, appeared (1763), and an additional volume, probably spurious, was printed in 1767. The rest of the correspondence printed by Lord Wharncliffe in the edition of her letters is edited from originals in the Wortley collection. This edition (1837) contained "Introductory Anecdotes" by Lady Bute's daughter, Lady Louisa Stuart. Lady Mary's journal was preserved by her daughter, Lady Bute, until shortly before her death, when she burnt it on the ground that it contained much scandal and satire, founded probably on insufficient evidence, about many distinguished persons.

Professional writer, philosopher and feminist 1790: Vindication of the Rights of Men: response to Burke in defense of the ideals of the French Revolution 1792: A Vindication of the Rights of Women 1794: An Historical and Moral View of the French Revolution Mary Wollstonecraft 1759-97

Popular 18th Century Authors Anna Letitia Barbauld Popular 18th Century Authors Charlotte Smith Maria Edgeworth Mary Robinson portrait by Gainsborough Joanna Baillie

Popular Contemporary Novelists Ann Radcliffe, 1764-1823 Fanny Burney, 1752-1840 Madame d’Arblay

Jane Austen and the Novel of Manners Novels dominated by the customs, manners, conventional behavior and habits of a particular social class Often concerned with courtship and marriage Realistic and sometimes satiric Focus on domestic society rather than the larger world Other novelists of manners: Anthony Trollope, Edith Wharton, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Margaret Drabble

“Improved” by Mr. Andrews, 1869 Jane Austen by Cassandra Austen, c. 1810 “Improved” by Mr. Andrews, 1869

The Austen Family

Francis “Frank” or “Fly” Austen Sir Francis Austen The Naval Brothers Francis “Frank” or “Fly” Austen Sir Francis Austen Admiral of the Fleet Charles Austen Rear Admiral

Cassandra Austen “If Cassandra were going to have her head cut off, Jane would insist on sharing her fate.” Mrs. Austen Possible portrait of Cassandra Silhouette of Cassandra

Great Britain in the Regency Era Austen Country

Austen Rectory at Steventon 1775-1801 Steventon Church

Chawton Cottage 1809-1817

Jane Austen Novels Sense and Sensibility (pub. 1811) Pride and Prejudice (1813) Mansfield Park (1814) Emma (1816) Persuasion (1818) posthumous pub. Northanger Abbey (1818) posthumous pub. Died July 18, 1817 Born December 16, 1775 Juvenilia “The Three Sisters” “Love and Freindship” [sic] “The History of England” “Catharine, or the Bower” “The Beautifull Cassandra” [sic] Shorter works Lady Susan (novella) The Watsons (inc. novel) Sanditon (inc. novel)

Austen’s Will from the UK National Archives: http://www

Jane Austen’s grave in Winchester Cathedral In Memory of JANE AUSTEN, youngest daughter of the late Revd GEORGE AUSTEN, formerly Rector of Steventon in this County. She departed this Life on the 18th of July 1817, aged 41, after a long illness supported with the patience and the hopes of a Christian. The benevolence of her heart, the sweetness of her temper, and the extraordinary endowments of her mind obtained the regard of all who knew her and the warmest love of her intimate connections. Their grief is in proportion to their affection, they know their loss to be irreparable, but in their deepest affliction they are consoled by a firm though humble hope that her charity, devotion, faith and purity have rendered her soul acceptable in the sight of her REDEEMER. A brass tablet was added at a later date. Jane Austen. Known to many by her writings, endeared to her family by the varied charms of her character and ennobled by her Christian faith and piety was born at Steventon in the County of Hants, December 16 1775 and buried in the Cathedral July 18 1817. "She openeth her mouth with wisdom and in her tongue is the law of kindness".

Online Sources Jane Austen Information Page: http://www.pemberley.com/janeinfo/janeinfo.html The American Society of Jane Austen Scholars http://facstaff.uww.edu/hipchene/JAusten/page.htm Jane Austen Society of Australia: http://www.jasa.net.au/index.html Jane Austen: The Victorian Web: http://www.victorianweb.org/previctorian/austen/bioov.html Fashion Era: Regency Taste: http://www.fashion-era.com/regency_taste.htm Regency England Cartoons: http://www.cartoonstock.com/vintage/directory/r/regency_england.asp Life in Regency England: http://www.suite101.com/article.cfm/regency_romance/51693 Jane Austen and Representations of Regency England: http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=103384858