Jane Austen and Female Authorship
Jane Austen
Jane Austen is a household name in modern times, known for her six critically acclaimed novels and short stories largely revolving around the English landed gentry. She used this medium to discuss prominent women’s issues in an age which ignored them: exploring in particular detail women’s dependence on marriage for social and economic security and a general lack of ownership over their own lives. She rejected the standard genre of ‘novels of sensibility’ that was the norm at the time and was responsible for the era’s steady transition of the literary scene into realism, incorporating wit, humour, honesty and social commentary into her novels, likely responsible for their modern popularity.
Life as a Published Female Author
Married women couldn’t sign contracts in 19th Century Britain, which meant that publishing her work led to Austen’s brother Henry signing in her place. She chose to publish her books anonymously, which was largely due to the social ideals for women at the time. Writing was certainly a lauded and appreciated skill for a woman to have, but was regarded largely as a dignified hobby, secondary to her primary roles as a wife and mother. For this reason, anonymous publication was the norm for female writers, reassuring society that the author was not after celebrity, but purely writing as a hobby turned part-time job.
Though Austen published anonymously, Sense and Sensibility was told to have been written ‘By a Lady’, and her subsequent novels were shown as ‘written by the author of Sense and Sensibility’.
Austen had been burned when she sold the copyright of her manuscript ‘Susan’ to Crosby & Sons for £10, which they then refused to publish, forcing her to buy back the rights in order to get it published properly. Because of this, she chose to publish most of her works ‘on commission’ at her own financial risk, and she had quite a lot of success. Austen made £140 from her first novel, Sense and Sensibility giving her a degree of economic freedom, and had she not sold the copyright of Pride and Prejudice and published it on commission instead, she would have earned £475, double the amount her father earned in a year.
George IV was actually a great admirer of Austen’s works and had a collection at each palace and home he resided in. She was strongly encouraged by James Stanier Clarke, the royal librarian to dedicate ‘Emma’ to the Prince Regent, and even though she didn’t like him very much on account of his gambling, drinking, and womanising, she had little choice. She had a tense relationship with Clarke who gave her pompous literary advice which she resented and, amusingly, wrote ‘Plan of a Novel, According to Hints from Various Quarters’ which was a satiric outline of the ‘perfect novel’ as told by Clarke in his many unwanted letters, intended as revenge. This might have been the original ‘mansplain’ if you will.
When Austen died, however, her epitaph praised her great mind but failed to mention her academic and literary success, reduced to her more ‘feminine’ qualities as she was laid to rest, a reflection of the time and how the era appreciated success and womanhood, seeing them as fundamentally opposing concepts.
Female Authorship in the 19th Century
Beyond just Jane Austen, female authors in the Western Hemisphere were actually able to achieve reasonable financial success and prominence in this era, which is curious when you take its extreme patriarchal nature into account. Women’s academic and intellectual faculties were generally overlooked and dismissed, but by the end of the century, some scholars argue that female writers were more prominent and popular than their male counterparts.
When examining this seemingly contradictory fact, some point to the idea that this era was the first time feminism came to the forefront of literature and academic thought, which could have, naturally, altered the perception of female authors and their works. Several other social factors are at play: the rise of female education meant more women had the skills to be writers, growing cities and towns exposing women to different attitudes and a consciousness of their own imposed inequalities, and the increase in women at the forefront of society in social reform movements.
Later in the 19th Century, in the Victorian era, the ‘woman question’ became hotly debated: what is a woman’s place in art and society? That being said, most women writers did accept their place in the domestic sphere, at least outwardly, while still criticising and writing social commentary about oppression and domestic imprisonment.
At the time Austen was writing fiction, other women were largely writing poetry and children’s books, both seen as ‘feminine genres’ suitable for women to write in their reliance on emotionalism, morality, and intuition. The wider extension into fiction was not greatly received by male critics and their condescension led to poorer reception, not based on the content, skill, or execution, but upon the author’s gender. Charlotte Bronte and Mary Shelley suffered particularly from this and couldn’t quite shake the sexism that plagued the critics’ study of their novels.
Subject matter expanded greatly towards the end of the century, extending beyond the hardships of domesticity as women began to express individualism and a desire for intellectual and social equality with men. The influence of women in the literary scene played a big role in upcoming movements, such as feminism and suffragism — a rare social sphere in which women sometimes even had the upper hand, wanted by publishers for their talents.
Some scholars continue the sexist rhetoric and dismiss female authors of this time as unworthy of academic study and fail to recognise their prominence and popularity, but time has served most of these women well. While at the time, Jane Austen only achieved moderate success and earned her publishers more money than herself, she is now one of the most famous writers in history and celebrated around the world for her incredible talent. Furthermore, Black, Native, and other non-white female writers have been incorporated into the discussion in recent decades, expanding the appreciation to all types of authors during this era, and slowly eradicating the dominance of white men in the historic literary scene.
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