The other day I had a chance reading of a saying on a book cover. It went something like this
Do not worry about the past.
Do not dream about your future.
Live in the present and enjoy the moment.
I was really excited about these words. This morning when I read the preface to the collected works of Jane Austen, I encountered the real Jane Austen which was quite different from the literary persona I had met in her novels. I felt really inspired reading about her past which was quite contrary to the essence of the saying which is quoted above. I feel that we should worry about our past, we should feel guilty about our past but we should not dwell on the past for quite long time. We should move on…
Like a roller in the ocean, life is motion
Move on
Like a wind that’s always blowing, life is flowing
Move on
Like the sunshine in the morning, life is dawning
Move on - (ABBA – Move on)
I am here reproducing the life of Jane Austen as I read in the book - The Complete Collection of Jane Austen . The persona who is behind all those great novels including Sense and Sensibility (which we Indians remember as Kandukondein Kandukondein starring awesome Aishwarya and terrific Tabu) is quite different.
Jane Austen, the modest, gentle – natured daughter of the rector of Stevenson...
Her short life could scarcely have been more uneventful. Apart from occasional visits to London, she lived entirely in peaceful rural or provincial surroundings, performing a seemingly uninterrupted round of domestic chores and polite social obligations. Few people in our modern age of rapid communications and strident media of mass entertainment could have hoped to achieve such complete, impenetrable isolation from the outside world.
What distinguished this girl from thousands of others of similar age, upbringing and social standing was the possession of uncommon intelligence and perception, and an even rarer literary ability which flowered into genius. The very seclusion which must have caused others to languish in boredom, and a few perhaps to seethe with rebellion was in her case a positive and indispensable asset. For it was in this unlikely environment that the young Jane Austen dedicated herself to writing, and produced six novels of manners as perfect in conception and execution as anything written before or since.
Her other occupations included helping around the house, sewing and needlework, writing letters, playing the piano and singing. She enjoyed indoor games, amateur theatricals and gardening and the occasional treats of picnics, parties and dances. Walking in the country, calling on sick friends, entertaining visitors, chatting with neighbors – doubtless each day was well –filled
Seated at her desk in the family sitting room, she created the world of the Dashwoods, the Woodhouses and the Ellliots, assumed a reality and a significance out of all proportion to ordinary world of Stevenson and Chawton.
Text Courtesy: The Complete Collection of Jane Austen
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