Jane Austen was born in Steventon, England, in 1775, where she lived for the first twenty-five years of her life. Her father, George Austen, taught her largely at home. She began to write while in her teens and completed the original manuscript (手稿) of Pride and Prejudice, titled First Impressions, between 1796 and 1797. A publisher rejected the manuscript, and it was not until 1809 that Austen began the revisions that would bring it to its final form. Pride and Prejudice was published in January 1813, two years after Sense and Sensibility, her first novel, and it achieved a popularity that has continued to this day. Austen published four more novels: Mansfield Park, Emma, Northanger Abbey, and Persuasion. The last two were published in 1818, a year after her death.
During Austen’s life, however, only her immediate family knew of her authorship of these novels. At one point, she wrote behind a door that would make a noise when visitors approached; this warning allowed her to hide manuscripts before anyone could enter. Though publishing with no name prevented her from acquiring an authorial reputation, it also enabled her to preserve her privacy at a time when English society associated a female’s entrance into the public sphere with a loss of female qualities. Additionally, Austen may have sought to remain unknown because of the more general atmosphere of repression (约束)in her times.
The social environment of Austen’s Regency England was particularly stratified (分层次), and class divisions were rooted in family connections and wealth. In her work, Austen is often critical of the assumptions and prejudices of upper-class England. She distinguishes between internal merit (goodness of person) and external merit (rank and possessions). Though she frequently criticizes humorously those who pay too much respect to social position but look down upon people of a lower social position, she also makes fun of the poor manners and misbehavior of those lower on the social scale. Nevertheless, Austen was in many ways a realist, and the England she depicts is one in which social mobility is limited and class-consciousness is strong.
Ideas of appropriate behavior for each gender factored into Austen’s work as well. While social advancement for young men lay in the military, church, or law, the chief method of self-improvement for women was the acquisition of wealth. Women could only accomplish this goal through successful marriage, which explains the ubiquity of matrimony as a goal and topic of conversation in Austen’s writing. Though young women of Austen’s day had more freedom to choose their husbands than in the early eighteenth century, practical considerations continued to limit their options.
Even so, critics often accuse Austen of portraying a limited world. As a minister’s daughter, Austen would have done church work and was certainly aware of the poor around her. However, she wrote about her own world, not theirs. The critical analysis she makes of class structure seem to include only the middle class and upper class; the lower classes, if they appear at all, are generally servants who seem perfectly pleased with their fortune. This lack of interest in the lives of the poor may be a failure on Austen’s part, but it should be understood as a failure shared by almost all of English society at the time.
In general, Austen occupies a curious position between the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Her favorite writer, whom she often quotes in her novels, was Dr. Samuel Johnson, the great model of eighteenth-century classicism and reason. Her plots bear similarities to such works of Johnson’s contemporaries as Pamela, written by Samuel Richardson. Austen’s novels also display an ambiguity about emotion and an appreciation for intelligence and natural beauty. In their awareness of the conditions of modernity and city life and the consequences for family structure and individual characters, they prefigure (预示) much Victorian literature (as does her usage of such elements as frequent formal social gatherings, sketchy characters, and scandal).
66. From the passage we know that Pride and Prejudice by Austen __________.
A. earned her instant reputation
B. remains well received today
C. achieved popularity after her death
D. is revised by her immediate family.
67. What can be inferred from the passage?
A. She used different pen names in her life.
B. The success of her works troubled her a lot.
C. People could change their social status flexibly.
D. She couldn’t enter a profession like men.
68. In her writing, marriage became a goal and topic of conversation because _________.
A. women were placed at a disadvantage in their marriage
B. men could advance themselves in their careers through marriage
C. only through good marriage could women realize their dreams.
D. only through proper marriage could women find their true love.
69. What can we learn from the fifth paragraph?
A. Austen was criticized for her devotion to church work.
B. Austen made no reference to life of the poor in her works.
C. The lack of interest in the lives of the poor is only Austen’s failure.
D. Austen’s works mainly reflect the lives of middle and upper class.
70. It is implied in the passage that __________.
A. Austen was somewhat influenced by her contemporary writers.
B. Austen and her contemporary writers changed Victorian literature.
C. Austen played a less important part in the nineteen century.
D. Austen was one of the pioneers of eighteenth-century classicism.