Introduction
Jane Austen (1775-1817) was not especially well-known in her own day, but has subsequently become recognised as one of the foremost novelists in English. Her dry wit, sparkling characters and radical themes have endeared her novels and herself to millions, not least Winston Churchill.
GEORGE Austen, a rural clergyman in Steventon, Hampshire, was blessed with a family of six sons and two daughters.
His next-to-youngest child was Jane, whom he encouraged to write tales for the family’s entertainment. A busy round of relatives and parishioners provided plenty of material for her acute observation.
As a country Rector, George was a Gentleman but not wealthy. His wife’s relatives, the Leighs, were aristocracy, however, and two of Jane’s brothers rose to the rank of Admiral in the Navy; another, Henry, went into banking.
Jane welcomed such social mobility in Georgian England, and in her novels she criticised snobbish resistance to it.
Yet she was wary of it too. Her heroes and heroines embrace the change, but only by remaining people of old-fashioned good character, nurtured by close-knit families and traditional Christian morals.
This idyllic life in Steventon was interrupted by George’s retirement to Bath in 1800, but worse was to follow when, in 1805, Jane’s much-loved father died unexpectedly.
Précis
Jane Austen learnt her trade as a novelist writing for the amusement of her busy extended family, exploring the rapid social changes of Georgian England (a feature of her own life too) with both enthusiasm and caution. However, the death in 1805 of her father, a Hampshire clergyman, turned her settled life upside down. (54 / 60 words)
Jane Austen learnt her trade as a novelist writing for the amusement of her busy extended family, exploring the rapid social changes of Georgian England (a feature of her own life too) with both enthusiasm and caution. However, the death in 1805 of her father, a Hampshire clergyman, turned her settled life upside down.
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Variations: 1.increase the length of this precis to exactly 60 words. 2.reduce the length of this precis to exactly 50 words. 3.introduce one of the following words into the precis: although, because, besides, or, otherwise, ought, unless, until.
Word Games
Sevens Based on this passage
Suggest answers to this question. See if you can limit one answer to exactly seven words.
What did Jane Austen’s father do for a living?
Suggestion
He was a clergyman in rural Hampshire. (7 words)
Variations: 1.expand your answer to exactly fourteen words. 2.expand your answer further, to exactly twenty-one words. 3.include one of the following words in your answer: if, but, despite, because, (al)though, unless.
Jigsaws Based on this passage
Express the ideas below in a single sentence. Do not be satisfied with the first answer you think of; think of several, and choose the best.
Harris Bigg-Wither proposed to Jane in 1802. She accepted. Next morning she withdrew her acceptance.