I love reading novels, especially those classics. My favorite writer is Jane Austen, the one who wrote pride and prejudice. When BBC screened its latest adaptation of Jane Austen's novel pride and prejudice, it was watched by a record 18 million British viewers. The series was then sold to 18 countries round the world, from America to Australia, from Iceland to Israel, there are Jane Austen fans in all corners of the globe, and even special Jane Austen discussion groups on the internet.
Jane Austen never once traveled aboard in her life time and she hardly ever left the south of England. When she died a spinster in 1817, only four of her six novels had been published, all anonymous and she eared a grand total of 648.65 pounds from her books. Now, nearly 200 years later, sales of her novels rival modern bestsellers, reaching 35,000 a week. There have been film and television productions of not only pride and prejudice, but also Emma, Persuasion, and the Oscar-winning Sense and Sensibility. Her house in Chawton in Hampshire is visited by 200 people a day.
She wad born in 1775, the seventh of eight children. Her father was the reverend George Austen. They were not well off, and lived in a village. By the time when she was 12, Jane was writing stories about heroines imprisoned in haunted castles, being rescued by glamorous heroes. In Jane's own life there were three romantic attachments. The first was a handsome Irish law student called Tom Lefroy, who she met in 1795, but who had to return to Ireland a year later. The second, in 1801, was a young man called Samuel Blackall who she fell in love with when on holiday in Devon, but who tragically died suddenly soon after. The third was a large young man called Harries whose proposal she briefly accepted in 1802, "but he had nothing to recommend him but his size," so she changed her mind.
In 1801 the family moved to Bath, where she was very unhappy. To make matters worse, in 1805 her father died, leaving his widow, Jane and her only sister Cassandra, also unmarried, even poorer than before. For four years they had to move from house to house, often staying with relatives. Finally in 1809 her brother Edward allowed them to live in a house on his estate in Chawton, only a few miles from Steventon where she had grown up. Here she was much happier, despite being the poor relation, dependent on charity. She not only revised her earlier novel but was able to write new ones, using her experiences to satirize and make fun of the social inequalities she saw around her. At last in 1811, Sense and Sensibility was the first of her novels to be published.
参考译文:
我喜欢看小说，特别是那些精典名著。我特别喜爱的一个作者是简.奥斯丁。她写过一部小说叫《傲慢与偏见》。当BBC(英国广播公司)上映简.奥斯丁的《傲慢与偏见》小说的最终改写本时，当时创下了1800万英国观众的收看记录。之后，一系列的丛书出售到全世界18个国家，从美国到澳大利亚，从冰岛到以色列，全世界到处到有简.奥斯丁的狂热书迷，甚至在互联网上还有专门的简.奥斯丁的讨论组。
简.奥斯丁在她的生活中没有出过一次国，甚至从末离开过英国的南部。在1987年她过世的时候，还是个末婚女子，她的六部小说只有四部已经出版，并且全部是匿名的，她只挣到了共648.65英镑，这就是她小说的全部酬劳。如今，也就是此后将近200年后，她小说的销售商击败了当今的推销员，每星期可达到35000英镑的收益。已经成为电影、电视出版物的不仅仅是《傲慢与偏见》，还有《埃玛》、《劝导》、还有奥斯卡获奖作品《理智与情感》。她在汉普郡Chawton的家，每天都不低于200人参观拜访。
简.奥斯丁出生于1775年，是家里八个孩子中的第七个。她的父亲是受人尊敬的牧师乔治. 奥斯丁。她们家不富裕，而且住在一个乡村里。直到她十二岁的那年，简.奥斯丁一直在写关于女主人公被关押在魔鬼城堡的故事，直到被魅力英雄拯救出来。在简的生命中，有三次浪漫的情感历程。第一次，是与一个英俊的爱尔兰法律系的学生，名叫Tom Lefroy，她是在1795年遇到他的，但他不得不在一年之后返回爱尔兰。第二次是在1801年，一个名叫Samuel Blackall的年青男子在德尔郡的假日里让她坠入爱河。但是那个男子没过多久，突然悲惨地死去了。第三次是与一个名叫Harries大个子年青人，在 1802年他向她未婚的时候，她暂且允诺了他，"但是他除了他的架码之外，一无所长"，于是她改变了主意。
