I really wanted to know Jane Austen...Part 1

So the world is a boom with the writings of Jane Austin. Lately there are movies and reprints of her books EVERYWHERE! I have always known of her and I have read snipets of her works here and there. But I have never sat down and read each of her novels one after the other. And even if I had I might have had some of the misconceptions of her and her books.

I knew that I wanted to read these books with my children, but that I also wanted to include in that reading a real study of her and of her life. I didn't want her to be just a passing fad of the day. To be put away until another time when she would be popular again.

I happened upon a gem of a book called "A Portrait of Jane Austin" by Cecil. Wow! This is so well written and really brings you as close as he can to this beloved woman of literature.

I also bought the complete novels in one. But I will be reading about her before I begin to read her to my children. I hope to put in little snipets of information to them about her as we read her books. And then when they are older "teens" to reread them again.

There are a few things that stand out to me about Jane and her time. She and her siblings were sent to nursing houses soon after birth and were seen everyday by their parents. This was the custom of the day and very normal living. I did wonder about this. How a mother could send her new babies off to nursing houses so she could tend to the home and more serious matters other than nursing. But one has to look at the time. "Good Sense" was to be upheld as the most prized of human traits. They were not mushy or wishy washy. And though religious they were not sentimental towards it as we are now.

So this was "good sense" during the time and it worked. Jane's mother cared for them very much and I am assuming after the point where they needed full time nursing they were returned to their rightful home. And after that time they stayed full time with their mother.

How different I am from Jane's mother. How would I be thought of? I am sure I would be too emotional and too concerned with my babies. I mean I nurse them until they ween themselves and I carry them around in a sling. What would they have thought of my baby wearing and nursing? I wonder if I would have been backwards, almost unmodern and resembling some other culture. Or would Mrs. Austen have looked at my time and seen my conveniences and decided that I had the time to afford these pleasures? I think she would, seeing how sensible she was.

Isn't that funny? Women everywhere are reading these books and surely putting to them the ideals we have today! I am so very glad I am venturing into her life before reading her books. To know this time and their ways. I think it will help to understand and teach it.

To further show how much good sense they had I have to bring up another fact or two. The second son George to be born to the Austen's was born "mentally defective" and from an early age spent his life away from home. That is the only mention of him. Would Jane's mother visit him? I assume so. I think maybe to be of "good sense" and to be able to preform all of her duties (she was not a lazy woman) she allowed others who were better able to attend to his everyday needs to do so. I just wish there was more to be said for him. And I wonder if she was ever emotional over this in private. I feel I know women, but were these women just different? Different because of the time and because of the normalcy of it in their upbringing?

There was another occasion of this kind of thing in the Austen's life. Edward who was born after George and considered the second child also had a strange story when you put it along side modern ideals. The knights, the son and daugther-in-law of Mr. Austens patron, were very fond of him. He spent more and more time there and Mr. Austen was concerned in his son getting behind in Latin grammer. Mrs. Austen thought differently and told her husband, "I think you better oblige your cousins and let the child go".

Can you believe that? They had every means to tend to this child an LOVED him. But he was adopted by the knights and eventually became the heir to this childless couple. It is said that mother and child were fond of each other even afterwards. Was this "good sense" in the fact that she might have foreseen the fate of her child if he were to be adopted? He really "made out" and in the process this childless couple enjoyed a child that they could not produce on their own.

What do modern mothers think of this? We baulk at the idea of anyone over powering our motherhood over our children. We fight for the lead with our Mother-in-laws and we put our own mothers in their place often. And many a mother has had a HARD time with a son falling in love with a woman and becoming second.

Mrs. Austen was in my opinion very interesting. I would love to read more on her. And it really colors who Jane Austen was. She wrote about what she saw, about her world.

The children were homeschooled for the most part. The boys did go off to school at the proper age and the girls did attend about 2 years off. But it is said that this time was not full of learning. And since it was not productive they came back home. Jane went with her sister at age 7, her sister was 9. And she went along too because the parents did not want to seperate the two.

They end up coming home to be mostly UNSCHOOLED! How then did a child of 15 write so eloquently? She was not educated in the sense we think of today. Public school of today would have been a joke. I wonder what Jane would have thought of today's public schooling. That place is cranking out children who can't form thought in words let alone to paper. She thought herself as uneducated. But the child read and read and read! Her parents took a keen interest in her personal led studies. Her father loved books. And the whole family wrote and created.

Infact Jane was not praised or celebrated by her family for her writing. It was normal! She was not pushed to do it. She just did it. She was not groomed to be better. She was allowed to write when she wanted, it was all CHILD LED!

Infact she began writing to entertain her family and friends.

This family read together often and put on little productions.

This is what is missing in so many homes! We tell our children from an early age that they could be this or that. We groom them for it. And we have preconceived notions about who they will be. I think that we can all take a lesson from the Austen's. They were themselves avid readers and writers. And this in turn produced a child that read and wrote.

Jane did not struggle with reading or the written word. She never had a fear of it. And it was normal!

This leads me to some of the parents I know. They keep their babies home and give in to them every whim and pleasure. This creates children that then are brushed off to school to be taught by everyone else other than their own parents. And then they whine that the child can't read or write well. They aren't doing well in their school career. But then they feel they are doing it right! They are not to blame.

These same parents would judge Mrs. Austen and her motherhood. But the proof is in the pudding! Her children all did very well for themselves! So really what could they say?

And what about socialization? The children of the Austen's did not suffer a boring existence. But they were home almost all of the time. And they really knew each other and their neighbors. They became good citizens and adults. All this from the confines of friends and family. I think I am very happy that my children will have the same. Jane's sister was very taken with her younger sister. And Jane with her. I compare this to a world full of broken sister relationships.

Another thing I have gathered in my studies is that the Austen's did not coddle their children, they treated them as equals and as the grown ups they should be.

What would the Austen's think of the parent's of today? I don't want to know!