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The reception history of Jane Austen follows a path from modest fame to wild popularity. Jane Austen (1775–1817), the author of such works as ''Pride and Prejudice'' (1813) and ''Emma'' (1815), has become one of the best-known and most widely read novelists in the English language.〔Clark, Robert. "(Jane Austen )". ''The Literary Encyclopedia'' (subscription only). 8 January 2001. Retrieved 24 August 2008.〕 Her novels are the subject of intense scholarly study and the centre of a diverse fan culture. During her lifetime, Austen's novels brought her little personal fame. Like many women writers, she chose to publish anonymously and it was only among members of the aristocracy that her authorship was an open secret. At the time they were published, Austen's works were considered fashionable by members of high society but received few positive reviews. By the mid-19th century, her novels were admired by members of the literary elite who viewed their appreciation of her works as a mark of cultivation. The publication in 1870 of her nephew's ''Memoir of Jane Austen'' introduced her to a wider public as an appealing personality—dear, quiet aunt Jane—and her works were republished in popular editions. By the start of the 20th century, competing groups had sprung up—some to worship her and some to defend her from the "teeming masses"—but all claiming to be the true Janeites, or those who properly appreciated Austen. Early in the 20th century, scholars produced a carefully edited collection of her works—the first for any British novelist—but it was not until the 1940s that Austen was widely accepted in academia as a "great English novelist". The second half of the 20th century saw a proliferation of Austen scholarship, which explored numerous aspects of her works: artistic, ideological, and historical. With the growing professionalisation of university English departments in the first half of the 20th century, criticism of Austen became progressively more esoteric and, as a result, appreciation of Austen splintered into distinctive high culture and popular culture trends. In the late 20th century, fans founded Jane Austen societies and clubs to celebrate the author, her time, and her works. As of the early 21st century, Austen fandom supports an industry of printed sequels and prequels as well as television and film adaptations, which started with the 1940 ''Pride and Prejudice'' and evolved to include the 2004 Bollywood-style production ''Bride and Prejudice''. == Background == (詳細はgentry.〔Lascelles, 2.〕 Her family's steadfast support was critical to Austen's development as a professional writer.〔Lascelles, 4–5; MacDonagh, 110–28; Honan, ''Jane Austen'', 79, 183–85; Tomalin, 66–68.〕 Austen read draft versions of all of her novels to her family, receiving feedback and encouragement,〔Le Faye, ''Family Record'', 100, 114.〕 and it was her father who sent out her first publication bid.〔Le Faye, ''Family Record'', 104.〕 Austen's artistic apprenticeship lasted from her teenage years until she was about thirty-five. During this period, she experimented with various literary forms, including the epistolary novel which she tried and then abandoned, and wrote and extensively revised three major novels and began a fourth. With the release of ''Sense and Sensibility'' (1811), ''Pride and Prejudice'' (1813), ''Mansfield Park'' (1814) and ''Emma'' (1815), she achieved success as a published writer. Novel-writing was a suspect occupation for women in the early 19th century, because it imperiled their social reputation by bringing them publicity, viewed as unfeminine. Therefore, like many other female writers, Austen published anonymously.〔Fergus, 13–14.〕 Eventually, though, her novels' authorship became an open secret among the aristocracy.〔Le Faye, ''Family Record'', 225.〕 During one of her visits to London, the Prince Regent invited her, through his librarian, James Stanier Clarke,〔(Laura Boyle, "James Stanier Clarke, librarian to the Prince of Wales" ).〕 to view his library at Carlton House; his librarian mentioned that the Regent admired her novels and that "if Miss Austen had any other Novel forthcoming, she was quite at liberty to dedicate it to the Prince".〔Qtd. in Le Faye, ''Family Record'', 226.〕 Austen, who disapproved of the prince's extravagant lifestyle, did not want to follow this suggestion, but her friends convinced her otherwise: in short order, ''Emma'' was dedicated to him. Austen turned down the librarian's further hint to write a historical romance in honour of the prince's daughter's marriage.〔Le Faye, ''Family Record'', 227.〕 In the last year of her life, Austen revised ''Northanger Abbey'' (1817), wrote ''Persuasion'' (1817), and began another novel, eventually titled ''Sanditon'', which was left unfinished at her death. Austen did not have time to see ''Northanger Abbey'' or ''Persuasion'' through the press, but her family published them as one volume after her death and her brother Henry included a "Biographical Notice of the Author".〔Le Faye, "Memoirs and biographies", 51.〕 This short biography sowed the seeds for the myth of Austen as a quiet, retiring aunt who wrote during her spare time: "Neither the hope of fame nor profit mixed with her early motives ... ()o much did she shrink from notoriety, that no accumulation of fame would have induced her, had she lived, to affix her name to any productions of her public she turned away from any allusion to the character of an authoress."〔Qtd. in Fergus, 12.〕 However, this description is in direct contrast to the excitement Austen shows in her letters regarding publication and profit: Austen was a professional writer.〔Fergus, 12–13.〕 Austen's works are noted for their realism, biting social commentary, and masterful use of free indirect speech, burlesque and irony.〔Southam, "Criticism, 1870–1940", 102.〕 They critique the novels of sensibility of the second half of the 18th century and are part of the transition to 19th-century realism.〔Litz, ''Jane Austen'', 3–14; Grundy, 192–93; Waldron, 83, 89–90; Duffy, 93–94.〕 As Susan Gubar and Sandra Gilbert explain, Austen makes fun of "such novelistic clichés as love at first sight, the primacy of passion over all other emotions and/or duties, the chivalric exploits of the hero, the vulnerable sensitivity of the heroine, the lovers' proclaimed indifference to financial considerations, and the cruel crudity of parents".〔Gilbert and Gubar, 151.〕 Austen's plots, though comic,〔Litz, ''Jane Austen'', 142.〕 highlight the way women of the gentry depended on marriage to secure social standing and economic security.〔MacDonagh, 66–75.〕 Like the writings of Samuel Johnson, a strong influence on her, her works are fundamentally concerned with moral issues.〔Honan, 124–27; Trott, 92.〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Reception history of Jane Austen」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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