JANE AUSTEN

Jane Austen (1775-1817), English author wrote numerous influential works

contributing to the Western literary canon including Pride and Prejudice (1813) which
starts;It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good
fortune must be in want of a wife. However little known the feelings or views of such a
man may be on his first entering a neighbourhood, this truth is so well fixed in the minds
of the surrounding families, that he is considered as the rightful property of some one or
other of their daughters. ha!ter 1
Austen had rejected suitor Harris Bigg Wither at the last minute and never ended up
marrying, but still she expresses a keen grasp of the traditional female role and the ensuing
hopes and heartbreaks with her memorable protagonists including Emma Woodhouse, anny
!rice, "atherine #orland, Anne Elliot, and Eli$abeth Bennett of Pride and Prejudice% Writing in
the romantic vein, Austen was also a realist and has been lauded for her form and structure of
plot and intensely detailed characters who struggle with the issues of class&consciousness
versus individualism' self&respecting men were supposed to become lawyers or join the church
or military, and respectable women married to improve their station in life%
(ane had started writing at an early age and her family were highly supportive, though
as was done at the time her works were published anonymously% Her combination of irony,
humour, and sophisticated observations of the societal and cultural machinations between the
classes epitomise the often absurd problems of inheritance, courtship, morals, and marriage in
)egency England% #odestly successful during her life, her works have gone on to inspire
adaptations to the stage and film and have endured the test of time even into the *+st
century%
Born on +, -ecember, +../ (ane Austen was the daughter of "assandra 0ne 1eigh2
0+.345+6*.2 and the reverend 7eorge Austen 0+.3+5+68/2% 9he Austens were a very close&
knit family: (ane had six brothers and one sister, "assandra, who would later draw a famous
portrait of (ane% 9hey lived in the village of ;teventon in Hampshire county, England, where
7eorge was rector% <oung (ane was tutored at home and attended the Abbey ;chool in
)eading, Berkshire%
(ane was inseparable from her older sister "assandra% 9hey sang and danced and
attended balls together% When 7eorge retired around +68+, he moved his family to Bath where
he died in +68/% Adjusting to the ensuing financial difficulties, (ane, "assandra and their
mother then moved to ;outhampton for a time before settling in a cottage on the estate of
Edward Austen in the village of "hawton, Hampshire in +684, which is now a museum% Austen
had missed ;teventon life and now returning to the Hampshire countryside she wrote in
earnest, revising and writing new works including Sense and Sensibility 0+6++2, Pride and
Prejudice 0+6+32, Mansfield Park 0+6+=2, and Emma 0+6+/2%
!ossibly suffering from Addington>s disease, (ane Austen died on +6 (uly, +6+.% ;he
lies buried in the north aisle of the nave in Winchester "athedral in Winchester, England