Jane Austen had little contact with society outside her extended family, and
none whatsoever with London literary life. Yet her novels earned the acclaim of
such literary figures as Sir Walter Scott, who praised her 'talent for
describing the involvements and feelings and characters of ordinary life'.
Admired for their sharp -- indeed, often wicked -- social observation, their
satirical wit, the brilliance of their author's comic realism and her sure grasp
of human nature, Jane Austen's novels remain as fresh today as when they were
first published, concentrating as they do on universal human social traits --
romantic innocence, self-delusion, gullibility, greed, snobbery, rudeness,
arrogance, and obsequiousness. Above all, they centre on the antics of those
seeking well-connected and well-appointed husbands and their efforts to elbow
out their less 'suitable' rivals. The Wicked Wit of Jane Austen is an absorbing
collection of her sharpest, most profound and amusing observations -- on human
nature, money, marriage, life and society -- taken from her novels and also from
her extremely entertaining letters. Easy to dip in to and highly quotable, this
beautifully decorated volume will delight all Austen devotees, as well as
readers less familiar with her life and work. The seventh child of a country
parson, Jane Austen was born in Hampshire in December 1775, and although she was
brought up in an academic household her formal education was limited. Her first
publication was Sense and Sensibility which came out in 1811; this was followed
by Pride and Prejudice in 1813, Mansfield Park in 1814, and Emma in 1816.
Northanger Abbey and Persuasion were published posthumously in 1818. She was not
widely known as their author in her lifetime -- indeed she was fiercely private
and against self-promotion -- but her novels were well received and the Prince
Regent kept a set in each of his residences. She died on 18 July 1817, and is
buried in Winchester Cathedral. Although obituaries ran in several newspapers,
her novels were soon out of print, but found their way back into circulation
around 1870, since when they have remained an undisputed part of our literary
heritage.