珍.奥斯汀(1775～1817年)
Austen, Jane
英国女作家。出身牧师家庭，其小说中的背景、人物和题材来自她所生活的小地主乡绅及乡村神职人员组成的世界。她最亲密的伴侣是她的姊姊卡桑德拉。早期作品多是模仿时下文体之作，尤其是感伤小说。她针对当时英国中产阶级习俗创作的六部喜剧式长篇小说有《理性与感性》（Sense and Sensibility, 1811）、《傲慢与偏见》（Pride and Prejudice, 1813）、《曼斯菲尔德花园》（Mansfield Park, 1814）、《艾玛》（Emma, 1815）、《劝导》（Persuasion, 1817）和《诺桑觉寺》（Northanger Abbey，1817年出版，但写成的时间比其他书都早）。她创造了自己生存年代英国中产阶级生活的社会风情喜剧（comedy of manners），作品以慧黠、真实、展现同情及简洁风格着称。透过描绘日常生活中的普通人，使小说具有鲜明的现代性质，她是第一人。她的小说都是以匿名的方式出版，其中两部是在她四十一岁死後才出版，她可能死於艾迪生氏病。
English version：
1775～1817年
Austen, Jane
English novelist. The daughter of a rector, she lived in the circumscribed world of minor landed gentry and country clergy that she was to use in her writing; her closest companion was her sister, Cassandra. Her earliest known writings are mainly parodies, notably of sentimental fiction. In her six full-length novels—Sense and Sensibility (1811), Pride and Prejudice (1813), Mansfield Park (1814), Emma (1815), Persuasion (1817), and Northanger Abbey (published 1817, but written before the others)—she created the comedy of manners of middle-class English life in her time. Her writing is noted for its wit, realism, shrewd sympathy, and brilliant prose style. Through her treatment of ordinary people in everyday life, she was the first to give the novel its distinctly modern character. She published her novels anonymously; two only appeared after her death at 41, which probably resulted from Addison's disease.
