Jane Austen Jane Austen, Born on 16Th December 1775, Was An
Jane Austen, born on 16th December 1775, was an English novelist known primarily for her six major novels, which are all about society and life during the end of the 18th century.
Austen's plots often explore the dependence of women on marriage in the pursuit of favourable social standing and economic security. She uses irony and humour in her books and these have earned her acclaim among critics. Her books give the readers a massive insight into just how much money and social status influenced the decisions that people made about marriage at this time.
With the publication of Sense and Sensibility (1811), Pride and Prejudice (1813), Mansfield Park (1814) and Emma (1816), she achieved success as a published writer. She wrote two other novels, Northanger Abbey and Persuasion, both published posthumously in 1818, and began another, eventually titled Sanditon, but died before its completion. She also left behind three volumes of juvenile writings in manuscript, the short epistolary novel Lady Susan, and another unfinished novel, The Watsons.
Her six full-length novels have rarely been out of print, although they were published anonymously and brought her moderate success and little fame during her lifetime. They are all available in the library and are a fabulous way to learn about life in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century.
Interesting facts:
In addition to educating Jane, her father George played aa major part in attempting to get Jane’s works published. At the time women were not allowed to sign contracts on their own as they needed permission form their father or husband. In the end Jane actually paid a publisher to publish her work and she paid him commission on any copies sold.
Her father who was the rector of the Anglican parishes at Steventon, Hampshire, and at nearby Deane. He retired in 1800 and the family moved to Bath and when he died, Jane and her mother and sister struggled financially. Jane’s brother helped them and offered them a large cottage in the country in Chawton village Hampshire.
Jane was never married but she had three romances. The first was Tom Lefroy, the Irish nephew of a close family friend who came from an affluent family and although they fell in love, Tom could not marry someone in a lower social circle than Jane and so their romance was cut short. His inheritance would have been cut off if he had married Jane. The movie Becoming Jane starring Anne Hathaway is all about this romance. Next, Jane Had a summer romance with a clergyman in Devon during the summer of 1801. Sadly, the young man died before he could propose to Jane. Finally, a man named Harris Wither proposed to Jane and Jane accepted. She was under pressure from her family to marry but the next day she changed her mind. She told her niece a few years later: ‘Nothing can be compared to the misery of being bound without love.’