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1775年12月16日，简·奥斯汀诞生于汉普郡斯蒂文顿村的牧师宅邸，在八个子女中排行第七，并在此度过人生前二十五载。尽管她短暂的一生历经政局动荡、革命浪潮、战争烽火与工业革命巨变，但这些宏大叙事始终未成为其精致小说创作的核心主题。奥斯汀更倾心于书写切身经验——聚焦乡绅阶层的微观世界及其森严的阶级壁垒。简的父亲乔治·奥斯汀牧师是斯蒂文顿村博学多闻的教区长，母亲卡桑德拉（本姓利）则出身于神职世家。奥斯汀家虽非富贵门庭，却保持着体面的社会地位，尤为注重子女教育。
英国小说家简·奥斯汀生平
The English novelist Jane Austen was born December 16, 1775, the seventh of eight children, in the Parsonage House of Steventon, Hampshire, where she spent her first twenty-five years. During her brief lifetime Austen witnessed political unrest, revolution, war, and industrialization, yet these momentous events are not the central subjects of her finely focused novels. Rather, Austen wrote of her immediate experience: the microcosm of the country gentry and its class-conscious insularity. Jane’s father, the Reverend George Austen, was the erudite country rector of Steventon, and her mother, Cassandra (née Leigh), was descended from an aristocratic line of learned clergymen. By no means wealthy, the Austens nonetheless enjoyed a comfortable, socially respectable life, and greatly prized their children’s education.
简与唯一的胞姐、挚爱的卡桑德拉曾在南安普敦与雷丁短暂求学，但主要教育在宅邸 [dǐ] 完成。斯蒂文顿谷仓中的家庭戏剧排演，与简研习法语、意大利语、历史、音乐及十八世纪小说的日常相映成趣。自幼酷爱阅读的简十二岁便执笔创作，这无疑得益于其书香门第的熏陶。家庭与写作确是她毕生挚爱；纵有1802年转瞬即逝的婚约，奥斯汀终身未嫁。其早期小说《埃丽诺与玛丽安》《第一印象》皆创作于斯蒂文顿时期，但原始版本未曾付梓[。
Jane and her beloved elder (and only) sister, Cassandra, were schooled in Southampton and Reading for a short period, but most of their education took place at home. Private theatrical performances in the barn at Steventon complemented Jane's studies of French, Italian, history, music, and eighteenth-century fiction. An avid reader from earliest childhood, Jane began writing at age twelve, no doubt encouraged by her cultured and affectionate family. Indeed, family and writing were her great loves; despite a fleeting engagement in 1802, Austen never married. Her first two novels, “Elinor and Marianne” and “First Impressions,” were written while at Steventon but never published in their original form.
1801年父亲退休后，简随双亲与姐姐迁居巴斯。这座温泉胜地虽迥异于她钟爱的乡居生活，却为这位擅于社交的年轻作家提供了丰沛的观察素材，这些体验日后皆在其小说中绽放异彩。1805年父亲辞世，奥斯汀偕母姊移居南安普敦，数年后定居汉普郡乔顿小屋直至生命终点。重返乡野令她文思泉涌，早年作品在此重获新生：改编自《埃丽诺与玛丽安》的《理智与情感》于1811年问世，两年后脱胎于《第一印象》的《傲慢与偏见》接踵而至。
简·奥斯汀名著《傲慢与偏见》
Following her father’s retirement, Jane moved in 1801 with her parents and sister to Bath. That popular watering hole, removed from the country life Jane preferred, presented the sociable young novelist with a wealth of observations and experience that would later emerge in her novels. Austen moved to Southampton with her mother and sister after the death of her father in 1805. Several years later the three women settled in Chawton Cottage in Hampshire, where Austen resided until the end of her life. She relished her return to the countryside and, with it, a renewed artistic vigor that led to the revision of her early novels. Sense and Sensibility, a reworking of “Elinor and Marianne,” was published in 1811, followed by Pride and Prejudice, a reworking of “First Impressions,” two years later.
在乔顿客厅的静谧时光里，奥斯汀又完成四部传世之作（《曼斯菲尔德庄园》《爱玛》《诺桑觉寺》《劝导》）。她创作勤勉却行事低调，坚持作品仅限至亲知悉。所有小说皆匿名出版，包括其兄亨利在她逝世后整理面世的《诺桑觉寺》与《劝导》。
Austen completed four more novels (Mansfield Park, Emma, Northanger Abbey, and Persuasion) in the Chawton sitting room. Productive and discreet, she insisted that her work be kept secret from anyone outside the family. All of her novels were published anonymously, including the posthumous release, thanks to her brother Henry, of Northanger Abbey and Persuasion .
奥斯汀晚年生活平静安逸。未竟之作《桑迪顿》于1817年春搁笔，彼时她健康状况急剧恶化，被送往温彻斯特求医，病征疑似阿狄森氏病或淋巴瘤变种。1817年7月18日，简·奥斯汀溘然长逝，长眠于温彻斯特大教堂。
The last years of Austen’s life were relatively quiet and comfortable. Her final, unfinished work, Sanditon, was put aside in the spring of 1817, when her health sharply declined and she was taken to Winchester for medical treatment of what appears to have been Addison’s disease or a form of lymphoma. Jane Austen died there on July 18, 1817, and is buried in Winchester Cathedral. |
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发表于 2025-5-11 14:01:49
