By Nava Atlas | On February 4, 2019 | Updated June 24, 2022 | Comments (0)
Northanger Abbey was actually the first novel that Jane Austen completed with the hopes of publication, in 1803.The following quotes from Northanger Abbey reflect the fun Jane Austen had with her characters, though as always, it’s not just frivolous. She manages to imbue insightful commentary into every delightful line of text and dialog.
This early novel was first titled Susan. Jane’s family sold the copyright to a London publisher for a pittance. The publisher held on to it for years without printing it. It was tied up until 1816 when Jane’s brother Henry managed to buy it back.
Jane spent some time revising the original, renaming her heroine Catherine, but by the time it was published in 1817, she had died. That year, another of her novels, Persuasion, was published as well. Northanger Abbey is considered a coming-of-age novel in which Catherine Morland, the young and rather naïve heroine, learns the ways of the world. Read More→
By Nava Atlas | On January 31, 2019 | Updated December 13, 2025 | Comments (0)
Mansfield Park by Jane Austen (1814) is the third published novel by the esteemed British author. Here we’ll explore a selection of quotes from Mansfield Park, her third published novel.
Fanny Price, the novel’s main character, is sent by her impoverished family to be raised in the household of a wealthy aunt and uncle. The narrative follows her into adulthood and comments on class, family ties, marriage, the status of women, and even British colonialism.
The novel went through two editions before Austen’s death in 1817, but didn’t receive any public reviews until 1821. Critical reception for this novel, from that time forward, has been the most mixed among Austen’s works, and it’s considered her most controversial. Read More→
By Taylor Jasmine | On January 28, 2019 | Updated February 12, 2019 | Comments (3)
Jane Austen (1775 – 1817), the beloved British author, was deeply invested in her craft as a wordsmith. Her talent was recognized early on and valued by her family.
Jane’s father, a country rector, and her brothers played key roles in getting her works published at a time when it was considered unseemly for women to put themselves forth in business.
She longed to see her work in print, regardless of whether or not it would gain her fame or fortune — but getting it published was important to her, contrary to the myth about her extreme modesty. Read More→
By Nava Atlas | On January 25, 2019 | Updated March 23, 2020 | Comments (1)
Frances Ellen Watkins ( 1825 – 1911), later known as Frances Watkins Harper or Frances E.W. Harper, built her reputation on her various talents, including fiction, essays, poetry, and public speaking. Following, we’ll explore the activist wisdom in portions of the speeches of Frances Watkins Harper.
One of America’s first and most successful African-American authors, she was also an active abolitionist, feminist, and conductor on the Underground Railroad.
She launched her writing career in the late 1830s by publishing essays in antislavery journals. At age twenty, her first collection of poems, Autumn Leaves, was published in 1845. She was the first black author to have a short story published (“The Two Offers”) and one of the first to publish a novel (Iola Leroy, 1892). Read More→
By Taylor Jasmine | On January 13, 2019 | Updated December 7, 2020 | Comments (0)
Ethan Frome (1911) by Edith Wharton is a somber tale indeed, but so beautifully told that many readers return to it again and again. An original review in the San Francisco Call from the year the book was published sketches the outline of the novella:
“Twenty years before the tale opens we learn that Ethan Frome has been crippled in a terrible accident … Ethan had his old parents to take care of and after their death he married the young woman who had helped him to nurse them … In a few years she needed assistance, so a young poor relation, Mattie Silver, came to live with them. Slowly she and Ethan fell in love. What happens next isn’t ‘happily ever after.’” Read More→
Categories: 
Comments: