Jane austen was the daughter of George Austen and Cassandra Leigh.
Her father was the rector of the Anglican parishes at Steventon,
Hampshire and her mother came from the noble Leigh family. Jane
was their seventh child. In 1783 she was sent away to be educated
by a Mrs. Ann Cawley, but after she nearly died from typhus
she returned home and was educated there.
She read
widely from the libraries of her father and of Warren Hastings,
the godfather of her cousin Elizabeth. During her youth the
Austens staged a series of amateur plays at home. From an early
age she also started writing poems and stories.
As
an adult she continued to live at home and in 1793 she started
a play and between 1793 and 1795 she wrote a short novel, "Lady
Susan". After that she started a full novel, "Elinor and Marianne".
The manuscript is lost but she used elements from it in "Sense
and Sensibility" (1811).
In 1800 her father retired
and decided to move to Bath, much to Jane's dislike. In 1802
she received a proposal of marriage from Harris Bigg-Wither,
an unattractive man with good prospects. She accepted him, but
the next morning she withdrew her acceptance.
In 1805
her father died and the family was left in poor financial circumstances.
They moved to Southampton in 1806 to live with brother Frank
and his wife. In 1809 they settled in a cottage in Chawton.
By now Jane had written several novels and she finally succeeded
in publishing "Sense and Sensibility" in 1811. It was published
anonymously, reviewed favourable and sold well and in 1813 "Pride
and Prejudice" followed. "Mansfield Park" followed in 1814 and
was even more successful.
Although all her books were
published anonymously, she was told that the Prince Regent liked
her novels and she was invited by his librarian to visit the
library at Carlton House. She did so but further details about
this visit are unknown, although James Staniel Clarke, the librarian,
freely suggested subjects and characters for future novels afterwards.
"Emma" was published in 1815 and dedicated to the Prince Regent.
By
1816 she had almost completed two further novels. She suffered
from health problems, but ignored them and started a third new
novel early in 1817. But her health detoriated and in May she
was brought to Winchester for treatment. There she died in a
house near Winchester Cathedral on 18 July. Her brother Henry
arranged for her funeral in the Cathedral. That is was allowed
was probably due to his connections with the clergy and not
to the fact that she was the author of several well received
novels. There is no word about her authorship on her gravestone.
Her
finished novels "Persuasion" and "Northanger Abbey" were published
together in December 1817 and in a biographical note by Henry
her identity was first revealed to the public. It took many
years before Winchester Cathedral realised why so many people
asked for the grave of Jane Austen. Although her books were
republished in the 1830s it wasn't until the 1880s before they
became widely popular.
Related persons
• is brother/sister of Austen, Cassandra Elizabeth
• is cousin of Austen, Elizabeth
• was published by Bentley, Richard
• knew Lefroy, Thomas Langlois
• was published by Murray, John
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