tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-579367039984189257.post5994490096615974946..comments2023-10-28T00:37:58.716-07:00Comments on Fiction by Mary Simonsen: Jane Austen's World - The First Ten Years (1776 -1785)Unknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-579367039984189257.post-29401816966931110402010-04-20T09:18:36.831-07:002010-04-20T09:18:36.831-07:00Thank you, Tony. Although Austen chose to write ab...Thank you, Tony. Although Austen chose to write about three or four families in a neighborhood, I do think she would be curious about those things going on outside of Hampshire, and since her father gave her free rein in the library, I think he would have encouraged her in other areas as well.Mary Simonsenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03400923132711871703noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-579367039984189257.post-50597588919854933952010-04-20T08:55:48.188-07:002010-04-20T08:55:48.188-07:00Thats always a difficult one Mary. How much did Ja...Thats always a difficult one Mary. How much did Jane Austen know?<br />As she grew older she must have learned a about things from two of her brothers who went away to sea in the Royal Navy and from Henry, who became a banker and dealt with the London elite.However, the two sailor brothers were away at sea, often for years at a time, so that method of learning new things was a slow process. If you have ever been to Steventon it feels and is a quiet backwater now, but in 1785 in the depths of rural Hampshire.....?<br /> Jane Austen was obviously highly intelligent and very very alert to everything around her, as shown in her novels, so if anybody in her situation could learn of world events she could. Her father, the Reverend Austen, took in borders , sons of the minor gentry, and educated them to sit exams for the top public schools and the Oxford entrance, so there was always access to outside influences and her father had an extensive library of books which Jane was allowed to read.TONYhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07767998391294014275noreply@blogger.com