Английский язык. Часть II. Коныгина Г.И - 5 стр.

A After the flurry of literary activity in the late 1790s, which is considered to
be the first period of Jane Austen’s creative life, there was a long spell of unpro-
ductivity. Her vigorous writing career came to a halt. Austen's interest in writing
waned, her literary output was not high. However, she never completely aban-
doned writing and revising her texts.
    The second period of Austen’s creative life began in 1811 when, after years
of scrupulous polishing, her novel Sense and Sensibility was finally published.
This period is characterized by literary maturity and intense productivity. She
critically reworked the manuscripts and renamed her early works. She composed
in quick succession three new books - Mansfield Park (1814), Emma (1816),
and Persuasion (1818). These years were the most rewarding time of her life.
She had the satisfaction of seeing her work in print. Her writings received public
recognition. The published novels were widely read and favourably reviewed.
She became an established (though anonymous) author.
    The best qualities of Austen’s writings come to full fruition in her mature
novels. The author confirms her talent of a keen observer and sharp analyst. She
succeeds in representing a vast collection of characters and locations.
Later novels are mainly deep, slow, reflective narrations in which the literary
satire, though still present, is less sparkling and more subdued. Austen writes
with economy, hardly wasting a word. Her compositions approach perfection.

B According to Austen's biographers, her life was a singularly uneventful one.
It lacked dramatic or noteworthy incidents. Jane never married. However, it is
known that she had several suitors and once accepted a proposal of marriage
from a man she did not love, but reconsidered and rejected it the following
morning. It is also thought that she met a gentleman with whom she developed a
close relationship, and that they might have become engaged, but a mysterious
romantic interest of hers died very suddenly. Jane Austen's novels provide in-
disputable evidence that their author understood the experience of love and of
love disappointed. Otherwise, Jane Austen seems to have lived comfortably with
her family in an atmosphere of tranquil and happy domesticity.

C Jane Austen is one of the greatest authors in the history of English literature.
Her novels are justly considered the finest books in the English language. The
importance of Austen’s writing in the development of the English novel cannot
be overestimated. Scholars recognize that it is Jane Austen who first gave the
novel its distinctively modern character through the realistic treatment of
ordinary people in the unremarkable situations of everyday life. Austen is a su-
perb master of the literary genre of the comedy of manners. The novelist renders
life of a restricted social milieu of the genteel rural society of her time. Jane
Austen’s novels are cited for the accurate observation and penetrating analysis
of individual problems and subtleties of personal relationships of her literary
characters. The author demonstrates sophisticated, detached, and ironical view
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