Jane

The real-life places that inspired Jane Austen’s most memorable fictional country houses

Country houses serve as an ever-charming backdrop to the novels of Jane Austen. With the help of specially commissioned drawings, Jeremy Musson considers her treatment of their architecture. Illustrations by Matthew Rice. We become aware of country houses in the novels of Jane Austen in different ways. Her descriptions are sparse; there are no Trollopian …

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How did Jane Austen’s novels promote a virtuous life?

Portrait of Jane Austen, via Open University; with detail from the Athenian School of Raphael, 1509-1511, via BBC Jane Austen’s novels promote the idea of ​​virtuous living as an indispensable aspect of individual experience and society. Her novels are stories about virtue as a means of moral education. Austen drew on the classical tradition that …

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