The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1899-04-24
BY PROF. ROLFE.
Jane Austen and Her
Books are Taken Up.
Interest In the University Extension
IN Lectures Increases Work
Of Woman,

8
There was a large and representa-
tive attendance at the High School FRI
day night for the Prof. Rolfe lecture.
The discourse was a clear and able
one appreciated by all as instructive
and thorough. Some discussion foi-
lowed the lecture.
JANE AUSTEN.
.Dea,' books, bright, sparkling tcith ,cit
and animation, IN schfci, the homety
herOines charm, the duu hours fg, and
the ee1y bores are eRchdatiag'
Jane Austen was born in the year
1775, at Steventon, little village III
the south of England Her father was
the rector of the parish. He Was a
scholarly IMAM. The mother too was
Well educated, and was also gifted
with a lively imagination and a re-
lnarkable power of expression. so 1t
is not strange that their children, OF
whom there were seven, were all or
decided ability, and several Of them
distinctly talented.
The ablest of them all was Jane.
This does not mean, however, that she
was at all precocious. Her childhood
and early youth were very much like
those of other English girls broughG
up in homes of similar refinement and
simplicity. She learned to care for
books, but was equally interested an
her everyday duties and pleasures.
Society she enjoyed keenly. She was
very fond of conversation and dancing.
Her knowledge of ithe world was
necessarily limited. She had but the
slightest acquaintance with London or
/,ii% CHI iyyoQ H.
ing of political life; even the mercan-
tile and industrial classes Of the large
towns were entirely unknown to her.
She had been able to observe country
| life alone, the life of landowners large
and small, and of agricultural labor
ems. Still, in spite of these limita-
! lions, she began at the early age. OF
twenty to write novels.
| Success, under such conditions
would seem to be impossible. But she
possessed genius She knew how to
| look beneath the surface of the qulet
restricted life that surrounded her, and
detect the underlying motives and pas
sionS, (which are always and every
| where the same. Her limitations
therefore, are felt only in the out
ward form of her stories. In describ-
! ing accidenta1S, such as the position OF
! her personages, and their interests ano
Occupations, she was obliged to con
| fine herself to the types THAT she hao
observed in the simple society abou
| her. But in the essentials, an dellneat
| ing character, she was as truly rep
| resemtaitive of the whole of human ex
istence as Shakespeare is.
/ The first of her novels was Pride
and Prejudice" 1t was completed be
ol,,o n nj
/ lowed ait once by Sense and Sensible
ity," and that by 'Northanger Abbey
Then the strong creative impulse wa.
found to have exhausted itself. Moth
ing further was produced for som'
twelve years; nor in the meantime
was any determined effort made IL
find "a publisher for these three earl.
works. 1t is evident, therefore, thai
she wrote not from the hope of money
or fame, or amy other form of reward
| but simply because she was under al
inward necessity. Like all other grea
artists she was constrained at time
to produce, no matter how unfavor
able or even d'iscouraging the circum
stances might be-
That the cessation of literary activi
ty was SO long continued was prob
ably owing to change in outward cir
cumstances. When Jane was twenty
five Tin 1901 her father resigned I'll
charge and moved to Bath, an inlan
watering place, where there Wer
many social opportunities, which tn
daughters could not resist. The fou
years there were followed by four a
Southampton, where the distraction
of her life were much the same. Inc
they returned to the country and t
4
write soon revived. 1t led first to
!, revision of Sense and Sensibility,
, and dts sale to a London publisher fo
f15O. Then pride and Prejudice wa
prepared for publication. Both (
these books were fairly successful
but not brilliantly so. Still thel
poor reception did not affect the1
author in the least. She continued he
labors, producing Mansfield Park
and Emma" and Persuasion" Th
, last of these was finished during tn
, last year of her life, when her strengt
had begun to fail. 1t was publishes
as was "Northanger Abbey" also, ate
her death This occurred in 1917,
her forty-second year.
During the half-century and MOI
that has elapsed since she wrote Mi:
Austen's fame has been CROWN
. steadily. She has won the enthusiast
commentator of such critics as SEQ
and Macaulay and Tennyson. 1t
not too much to say that she is or
of the three or four greatest novels
that England has produced.
SUBJECTS FOR ESSAYS AND
CLASS.
/ Tread again the suggestions print
/ | under this heading after the analysis
! the Lamb lecture.1
! 81 What are the tests by which v
may determine the excellence OF
novelist's delineation of character?
g How does Miss Austen's hum
differ from Lambs? What traces
j you find in her books of ''deliclou
quiet mirth, so quiet as TO be inaudlo