The Life of Jane Austen

Jane Austen was born on December 16, 1775 in a village in Hampshire. One of the eight children of a clergyman, she grew up in a close-knit family. Since the majority of her siblings were brothers, she formed a special bond with her elder sister, Cassandra. At the age of 8, they were sent off to boarding school to receive formal education. 

From a young age, she took a keen interest in literature, and her father supplied her with his books and the tools required to explore her creative side. The family would spend their time making home-based productions of existing plays or act out their own creations. It can be assumed that these skills of improvisation and acting helped nurture Austen.

In around 1787, she started producing her own work and keeping it in notebooks. This collection of stories became known as the Juvenilia. By 1789, she had penned Love and Friendship and began writing seriously. A novel idea that she abandoned would later become Susan, which was written through a series of letters. Her family remembered her completing and reading Elinor and Marianne to them sometime in 1796. 

In the winter of 1795, Austen met Tom Lefroy, a nephew of nearby neighbors, and they started spending a lot of time together. This is the only known instance of Austen admitting that she was in love, which was documented in her letters to her sister. Unfortunately, Lefroy’s family did not approve of this union, as both lovers were penniless. Afterwards, his family sent him away and all efforts were made to keep them apart. 

In December of 1800, the Austen family moved to Bath after her father retired from the clergy. There, she received her first and only known proposal from a family friend, Harris Bigg-Wither. She accepted his proposal for practical reasons, as he was well-off, but she expressed no feelings for him. For this reason, she took back her acceptance the next day. 

Her brother, Henry, was also her literary agent and approached a publisher with the manuscript for Sense and Sensibility. The novel was published in 1811 and received favorable reviews. The same publisher published Pride and Prejudice two years later. The novel was an instant success. Mansfield Park quickly followed and became her most profitable work at that time. Under a different publisher, Emma, Northanger Abbey, and Persuasion, were released. 

By 1816, Austen saw a decline in her health. She disregarded it, but her health got worse each day. She finished writing The Elliots (later known as Persuasion) and began writing The Brothers. She completed about twelve chapters before the illness took a toll on her. At the mere age of 41, she was confined to her bed. Henry and Cassandra took her to Winchester for an illness that did not have a cure at the time. She passed away on July 18, 1817. Her siblings worked to get Northanger Abbey and Persuasion published. The difference in these works, however, was that Henry unveiled the nameless author as Jane Austen.

She may have only written six complete novels during her lifetime, but Austen has left an undeniable mark on literature. Today, she is one of the most widely-read novelists in the English language, with her work being adapted for the large and small screen. 

Citations: 

Jane Austen Biography. Jane Austen - English Author. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.janeausten.org/jane-austen-biography.php.

Jane Austen. Jane Austen Society of North America. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://jasna.org/austen/.