Jane Austen Biography
Jane Austen (1775 – 1817) English author who wrote romantic fiction combined with
social realism. Her famous novels include Sense and Sensibility (1811), Pride and
Prejudice (1813), Mansfield Park (1814) and Emma (1816).
Early Life of Jane Austen
Jane Austen was born in Steventon, Hampshire on 16th December 1775. She was the
seventh daughter of an eight child family. Her father, George Austen, was a vicar
and lived on a reasonable income of £600 a year. However, although they were middle
class, they were not rich; her father would have been unable to give much to help
her daughters get married. Jane was brought up with her five brothers and her elder
sister Cassandra. (another brother, Edward, was adopted by a rich, childless couple
and went to live with them). Jane was close to her siblings, especially Cassandra,
to whom she was devoted. The two sisters shared a long correspondence throughout
her life; much of what we know about Jane comes from these letters, although,
unfortunately, Cassandra burnt a number of these on Jane’s death.
Jane was educated at Oxford and later a boarding school in Reading. In the early
1800s, two of Jane’s brother’s joined the navy leaving to fight in the Napoleonic
wars; they would go on to become admirals. Her naval connections can be seen in
novels like Mansfield Park. After the death of her father in 1805, Jane, with her
mother and sister returned to Hampshire. In 1809, her brother Edward, who had been
brought up by the Knights, invited the family to the estate he had inherited at
Chawton. It was in the country house of Chawton, that Jane was able to produce some
of her greatest novels.
Novels of Jane Austen
Jane Austen – sketch by her sister Cassandra
Jane Austen’s novels are a reflection of her outlook on life. She spent most of her
life insulated from certain sections of society. Her close friends were mainly her
family and those of similar social standing. It is not surprising then that her
novels focused on two or three families of the middle or upper classes. Most of her
novels were also based on the idyll of rural country houses that Jane was so fond
of.
Her novels also focus on the issue of gaining a suitable marriage. In the
Nineteenth Century, marriage was a big issue facing women and men; often financial
considerations were paramount in deciding marriages. As an author, Jane satirised
these financial motivations, for example, in Pride and Prejudice the mother is
ridiculed for her ambitions to marry her daughters for maximum financial
remuneration. Jane, herself remained single throughout her life. Apart from brief
flirtations, Jane remained single and appeared to have little interest in getting
married. (unlike the characters of her novels)
The strength of Jane’s novels was her ability to gain penetrating insights into the
character and nature of human relationships, from even a fairly limited range of
environments and characters. In particular, she helped to redefine the role and
aspirations of middle-class women like herself. Through providing a witty satire of
social conventions, she helped to liberate contemporary ideas of what women could
strive for.
During her lifetime the novels were reasonably popular. One of her strongest
supporters was Walter Scott. He said of her novels:
“That young lady has a talent for describing the involvements of feelings and
characters of ordinary life which is to me the most wonderful I ever met with.“
In the early nineteenth-century, women were not allowed to sign contracts and
publishing a book had to be done by a male relative. Through her brother, her
publisher Thomas Egerton agreed to publish Jane’s novels and on release, they sold
well. At the time, the novel reading public was quite small, due to the cost of
paper. The initial print run of her first novel ‘Sense and Sensibility’ (1811) was
just 750. However, as they sold out, the book was reprinted and later books had
bigger print runs. Jane earned a modest income from her book royalties but achieved
little fame as the books were published anonymously.
In 1815, she learnt that the Prince Regent (the future King George IV) requested
one novel to be dedicated to him. Emma is therefore dedicated to the King, even
though Jane did not like the reports of his womanising and licentious behaviour.
Death of Jane Austen
Just a few years after achieving modest success as a published author, Jane began
feeling unwell and, despite trying to brush it off and continue writing, her
condition deteriorated rapidly. Jane died in 1816, aged only 41. She died of
Addison’s disease, a disorder of the adrenal glands. She was buried at Winchester
Cathedral.
There are two museums dedicated to Jane Austen.
The Jane Austen Centre in Bath and
The Jane Austen’s House Museum, located in Chawton Cottage, in Hampshire, where she
lived from 1809 –1816
In 2005, Pride and Prejudice was voted best British novel of all time in a BBC
poll.
Jane Austen Novels
Sense and Sensibility (1811)
Pride and Prejudice (1813)
Mansfield Park (1814)
Emma (1815)
Northanger Abbey (1818, posthumous)
Persuasion (1818, posthumous)
Lady Susan (1871, posthumous)
Unfinished fiction
The Watsons (1804)
Sanditon (1817)
