Austen vs. Austin

I have been to Austin once - a couple years ago my family just randomly decided to go to Texas. It was a fun trip! I don't remember much of Austin (as we spent most of our time around Dallas as it was)... it was a big town, the interstates were all inter-weaving and confusing, and man, it was HOT. And we went in March! Anyways, I'd probably prefer Austen to Austin myself. (though, I know some of you would go the other way... and you know who you are... thanks for giving me the idea for this post)

On Austen.... I came across this in some of my study stuff for school (I'm taking an entire class on Jane Austen!), and I thought it was really interesting! When she was 12, she wrote a few short, fictional pieces for her family. I'm posting one below. Let me know what you think! I thoroughly enjoyed it. :D

Study guide: 

At about twelve years of age, Jane Austen began writing short fictional pieces for the entertainment of her family circle. It is significant that, from the first, she thought of her writing as a vehicle for amusement. In these pieces Austen imitated and exaggerated faults and excesses of popular fiction and many of her efforts are witty and effective parodies. They also show that, from an early age, she had a well-tuned sense of the ridiculous. And they reveal that she was steadily refining her awareness of what fiction could and could not do.

One of these pieces, written when she was about sixteen, is entitled 'Love and Friendship'. It is a very short epistolary novel, some thirty pages in length, and in it the heroine, Laura, writes a series of letters to a young acquaintance, relating the 'Misfortunes and Adventures' of her life. This is how these 'Misfortunes and Adventures' begin:

"One Evening in December as my Father, my Mother and myself, were arranged in social converse round our Fireside, we were on a sudden, greatly astonished, by hearing a violent knocking on the outward Door of our rustic Cot [cottage].

My Father started -'What noise is that,' (said he). 'It sounds like a loud rapping at the Door' -(replied my Mother) 'it does indeed' (cried I). 'I am of your opinion;' (said my Father) 'it certainly does appear to proceed from some uncommon violence exerted against our unoffending Door.' 'Yes' (exclaimed I) 'I cannot help thinking it must be somebody who knocks for Admittance.'

'That is another point' (replied he). 'We must not pretend to determine on what motive the person may knock -though that someone does rap at the Door, 1 am partly convinced.'

Here, a 2(nd) tremendous rap interrupted my Father in his speech and somewhat alarmed my Mother and me.

'Had we not better go and see who it is?' (said she) 'the Servants are out.' 'I think we had' (replied I). 'Certainly,' (added my Father) 'by all means,' 'Shall we go now?' (said my Mother), 'The sooner the better,' (answered he). 'Oh! let no time be lost' (cried I).

A third more violent Rap than ever again assaulted our ears. 'I am certain there is somebody knocking at the Door' (said my Mother). 'I think there must,' (replied my Father). 'I fancy the Servants are returned;' (said I) 'I think I hear Mary going to the Door.' 'I'm glad of it' (cried my Father) 'for I long to know who it is.'

I was right in my Conjecture; for Mary instantly entering the Room, informed us that a young Gentleman & his Servant were at the Door, who had lost their way, were very cold and begged leave to warn themselves by our fire.

'Won't you admit them? (said I), 'You have no objection, my Dear?' (said my Father). "None in the World' (replied my Mother).

Mary, without waiting for any further commands immediately left the room and quickly returned introducing the most beauteous and amiable Youth, I had ever beheld. The servant, she kept to herself. 

My natural Sensibility had already been greatly affected by the sufferings of the unfortunate Stranger and no sooner did I first behold him, than I felt that on him the happiness or Misery of my future Life must depend."

-Jane Austen, (Minor Work: 79-80) 


Study guide once again: 

There is the ludicrous over-dramatizing of a simple and ordinary event - a knocking at a door; and there is the wordy, and repetitious dialogue as the event is debated at length, and entirely unnecessarily. When the 'beauteous and amiable Youth' is finally admitted, Laura is of course immediately and completely in love with him, and 'greatly affected' by his' sufferings', though she has never seen him before, and as yet knows nothing at all about these 'sufferings'. Throughout the extract, and indeed in the work as a whole, there is a constant straining after the unusual and the improbable, for its own sake and without any attempt to reflect or analyze. And here, of course, there is a significant contrast between what Austen does when she is writing her own novels, rather than parodying those of others; there, her focus is on the ordinary rather than the extraordinary, and on the depth that can be found in that ordinariness.