Jane Austen (/ˈɒstɪn, ˈɔːs-/; 16 December 1775 – 18 July 1817) was an English novelist known primarily

for her six major novels, which interpret, critique, and comment upon the British landed gentry at 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. Her works critique the novels of sensibility
of the second half of the 18th century and are part of the transition to 19th-century literary
realism.[2][b] Her use of biting irony, along with her realism and social commentary, have earned her
acclaim among critics and scholars.

With the publication of Sense and Sensibility (1811), Pride and Prejudice (1813), Mansfield Park (1814),
and Emma (1816), she achieved modest success and little fame in her lifetime, as the books were
published anonymously. 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.

Austen gained far more status after her death, and her six full-length novels have rarely been out of
print. A significant transition in her posthumous reputation occurred in 1833, when her novels were
republished in Richard Bentley's Standard Novels series, illustrated by Ferdinand Pickering, and sold as a
set. They gradually gained wider acclaim and popular readership. In 1869, fifty-two years after her
death, her nephew's publication of A Memoir of Jane Austen introduced a compelling version of her
writing career and supposedly uneventful life to an eager audience.

Austen has inspired a large number of critical essays and literary anthologies. Her novels have inspired
many films, from 1940's Pride and Prejudice to more recent productions like Sense and Sensibility (1995)
and Love & Friendship (2016).

Little biographical information about Austen's life exists except the few letters that survived and the
biographical notes her family members wrote.[4] During her lifetime, Austen may have written as many
as 3,000 letters, but only 161 survive.[5] Her older sister Cassandra burned or destroyed the bulk of
letters she received in 1843, to prevent their falling into the hands of relatives and ensuring that
"younger nieces did not read any of Jane Austen's sometimes acid or forthright comments on
neighbours or family members".[6][c] Cassandra meant to protect the family's reputation from her
sister's penchant for forthrightness; in the interest of tact she omitted details of family illnesses and
unhappinesses.[7]
The first Austen biography was Henry Thomas Austen's 1818 "Biographical Notice". It appeared in a
posthumous edition of Northanger Abbey, and included extracts from two letters, against the
judgement of other family members. Details of Austen's life continued to be omitted or embellished in
her nephew's A Memoir of Jane Austen, published in 1869, and in William and Richard Arthur Austen-
Leigh's biography Jane Austen: Her Life and Letters, published in 1913, all of which included additional
letters.[8] The legend the family and relatives created reflected their bias in favour of presenting the
image of "good quiet Aunt Jane", the portrayal of a woman whose domestic situation was happy and
whose family was the mainstay of her life. Modern biographers include details previously excised from
the letters and family biographies, but Austen scholar Jan Fergus explains that the challenge is to avoid
the presenting the opposite view – one of Austen languishing in periods of deep unhappiness who was
"an embittered, disappointed woman trapped in a thoroughly unpleasant family".[4]

George Austen (1731–1805), served as the rector of the Anglican parishes at Steventon and at nearby
Deane.[12][d] He came from an old, respected, and wealthy family of wool merchants. As each
generation of eldest sons received inheritances, the wealth was divided, and George's branch of the
family fell into poverty. He and his two sisters were orphaned as children and had to be taken in by
relatives. His sister Philadelphia went to India to find a husband and George entered St John's College,
Oxford on a fellowship, where he most likely met Cassandra Leigh (1739–1827).[14] She came from the
prominent Leigh family; her father was rector at All Souls College, Oxford, where she grew up among the
gentry. Her eldest brother James inherited a fortune and large estate from his great-aunt Perrot, with
the only condition that he change his name to Leigh-Perrot.[15]

The two were engaged, probably around 1763 when they exchanged miniatures.[16] George had
received the living for the Steventon parish from the wealthy husband of his second cousin, Thomas
Knight.[17] They married on 26 April 1764 at St Swithin's Church in Bath, by licence, in a simple
ceremony, two months after Cassandra's father died.[18] Their income was modest, with George's small
per annum living; Cassandra brought to the marriage the expectation of a small inheritance at the time
of her mother's death.[19]

In December 1800 George Austen unexpectedly announced his decision to retire from the ministry,
leave Steventon, and move the family to 4, Sydney Place in Bath.[73] While retirement and travel were
good for the elder Austens, Jane Austen was shocked to be told she was moving from the only home she
had ever known.[74] An indication of her state of mind is her lack of productivity as a writer during the
time she lived at Bath. She was able to make some revisions to Susan, and she began and then
abandoned a new novel, The Watsons, but there was nothing like the productivity of the years 1795–
1799.[75] Tomalin suggests this reflects a deep depression disabling her as a writer, but Honan
disagrees, arguing Austen wrote or revised her manuscripts throughout her creative life, except for a
few months after her father died.[76][g] It is often claimed that Austen was unhappy in Bath, which
caused her to lose interest in writing, but it is just as possible that Austen's social life in Bath prevented
her from spending much time writing novels.[77] The critic Robert Irvine argued that if Austen spent
more time writing novels when she was in the countryside, it might just have been because she had
more spare time as opposed to being more happy in the countryside as is often argued.[77]
Furthermore, Austen frequently both moved and travelled over southern England during this period,
which was hardly a conducive environment for writing a long novel.[77] Austen sold the rights to publish
Susan to a publisher Crosby & Company, who paid her £10.[78] The Crosby & Company advertised
Susan, but never published it.[78]

Austen was a regular visitor to her brother Edward's home, Godmersham Park in Kent, between 1798
and 1813. The house is regarded as an influence on her works.[79]

The years from 1801 to 1804 are something of a blank space for Austen scholars as Cassandra destroyed
all of her letters from her sister in this period for unknown reasons.[80] In December 1802 Austen
received her only known proposal of marriage. She and her sister visited Alethea and Catherine Bigg, old
friends who lived near Basingstoke. Their younger brother, Harris Bigg-Wither, had recently finished his
education at Oxford and was also at home. Bigg-Wither proposed and Austen accepted. As described by
Caroline Austen, Jane's niece, and Reginald Bigg-Wither, a descendant, Harris was not attractive—he
was a large, plain-looking man who spoke little, stuttered when he did speak, was aggressive in
conversation, and almost completely tactless. However, Austen had known him since both were young
and the marriage offered many practical advantages to Austen and her family. He was the heir to
extensive family estates located in the area where the sisters had grown up. With these resources,
Austen could provide her parents a comfortable old age, give Cassandra a permanent home and,
perhaps, assist her brothers in their careers. By the next morning, Austen realised she had made a
mistake and withdrew her acceptance.[81] No contemporary letters or diaries describe how Austen felt
about this proposal.[82] Irvine described Bigg-Wither as a somebody who "...seems to have been a man
very hard to like, let alone love".[83]

In 1814, Austen wrote a letter to her niece, Fanny Knight, who had asked for advice about a serious
relationship, telling her that "having written so much on one side of the question, I shall now turn
around & entreat you not to commit yourself farther, & not to think of accepting him unless you really
do like him. Anything is to be preferred or endured rather than marrying without Affection".[84] The
English scholar Douglas Bush wrote that Austen had "had a very high ideal of the love that should unite a
husband and wife ... All of her heroines ... know in proportion to their maturity, the meaning of ardent
love".[85] A possible autobiographical element in Sense and Sensibility occurs when Elinor Dashwood
contemplates that "the worse and most irremediable of all evils, a connection for life" with an
unsuitable man.[85][h]
Watercolour of Jane Austen by her sister, Cassandra, 1804.[86]

In 1804, while living in Bath, Austen started, but did not complete, her novel The Watsons. The story
centres on an invalid and impoverished clergyman and his four unmarried daughters. Sutherland
describes the novel as "a study in the harsh economic realities of dependent women's lives".[87] Honan
suggests, and Tomalin agrees, that Austen chose to stop work on the novel after her father died on 21
January 1805 and her personal circumstances resembled those of her characters too closely for her
comfort.[88]

Her father's relatively sudden death left Jane, Cassandra, and their mother in a precarious financial
situation. Edward, James, Henry, and Francis Austen (known as Frank) pledged to make annual
contributions to support their mother and sisters.[89] For the next four years, the family's living
arrangements reflected their financial insecurity. They spent part of the time in rented quarters in Bath
before leaving the city in June 1805 for a family visit to Steventon and Godmersham. They moved for the
autumn months to the newly fashionable seaside resort of Worthing, on the Sussex coast, where they
resided at Stanford Cottage.[i] It was here that Austen is thought to have written her fair copy of Lady
Susan and added its "Conclusion". In 1806 the family moved to Southampton, where they shared a
house with Frank Austen and his new wife. A large part of this time they spent visiting various branches
of the family.[90]

On 5 April 1809, about three months before the family's move to Chawton, Austen wrote an angry letter
to Richard Crosby, offering him a new manuscript of Susan if needed to secure the immediate
publication of the novel, and requesting the return of the original so she could find another publisher.
Crosby replied that he had not agreed to publish the book by any particular time, or at all, and that
Austen could repurchase the manuscript for the £10 he had paid her and find another publisher. She did
not have the resources to buy the copyright back at that time,[91] but was able to purchase it in
1816.[92]