As the unmarried daughter of a clergyman, Jane Austen observed the lives of – mostly untitled – landowners in the English countryside. She observed the conventions and interactions of class and courtship, and the foibles of those “with no profession” – that is, “gentlemen.”
Her heroines, who generally start out with some disadvantage of class or dowry, rub shoulders with social climbers, sycophants, rakes, tyrants, and many others, including women in their own circle who make bad choices and suffer for them. (If you can’t serve as a role model, at least you can serve as a warning to others.)
But many of Austen’s plots and plot twists are influenced by conventions of Regency-era society – conventions that have faded or disappeared entirely in the last two centuries.
One goal of this site to explain those conventions, not as an academic exercise, but so that readers can enjoy Austen’s novels more fully on the next read. (You do read them more than once don’t you?)
By the way, this site has nothing to do with the clever and eccentric choose-your-own-adventure book Austenland, or the gloriously fun movie, except to share the authors’ and producers’ enthusiasm for all things Jane.