Miss Austen was born on December 16th, 1775 at Steventon, Hampshire, England to Rev. George and Cassandra Austen. She had eight brothers and sisters (other sources say six) and she was the youngest one. Her only sister, Cassandra, was her confidant and best friend. Most of the insight that we have into Jane’s life is from the many letters that were written between Cassandra and herself. (Jane Austen Information Page)
In one letter Jane said that she and her family were “great novel readers, and not ashamed of being so.” (Jane Austen Information Page) She was not ashamed of this even when everyone else put novels to shame. At this time the majority of novels were written and read by females and they had a similar reputation to the romance novels of today.
Austen disagreed with the way women were thought of in her time; that, lacking intelligence, their only purpose was to procreate and serve submissively. But although Austen promotes women’s power and achievements, she does not think they should come at the expense of the established social order. (Greenhaven Press 6)
Although Austen wrote novels like the other females of her time she did not abide by the same outlines as they did. She had a lot of limits as to what she would include or not include in her works. The other novels of this time involved a lot of romance and sexual assault by males, but Jane did not include these things in her novels, or at least not to such an extent as the other novelists did. Some other limitations of hers are as follows: never included the topic of politics, did not describe nobility or included servants and such in a degrading manner, no violence, no soap-opera like plots (doubtful parentage, mistaken identies, etc.), not very many deaths, no conversations between men without women around, not many deep descriptions of the inner thoughts of her male characters, and many other limitations are used in her works. These limitations show that Jane was proud of being a woman and she wrote this that were not degrading to women or other minorities of this time. As said by the Literature Network:
"Austen depicted with a sympathetic imagination the lives of minor landed gentry, country clergymen, and families in various economic circumstances struggling to maintain or enhance their social positions. The most urgent preoccupation of her young, well-bred heroines and heroes is courtship and marriage. Her interest lay in life’s little conundrums of sentiment and conduct."
Jane was a very brilliant young woman; she was very into social events and was constantly seeking for a husband- yet she never found one. Surprisingly Jane lived a quiet life, she never married and seldom left home.
Almost all of Austens works were published anonymously, Pride and Prejudice in 1813, Mansfield Park in 1814, and Emma in 1816. After her death her brother had two works published, Persuasion and Northanger Abbey, and revealed her name and authorship of all her works. Jane did have admirers of her work, yet she was not really appreciated until the late nineteenth century. Many people began to praise her work, such as Sir Walter Scott, Virginia Woolf, and Disraeli. (Jane Austen Information Page)
Jane Austen died on Friday, July 18, 1817 from Addison’s disease, which today would be treated by simple cortisone. At the time of her death she was working on the novel Sanditon that was published in 1925. Austen was buried in Winchester Cathedral on July 24th, and left almost everything she owned to her only sister, Cassandra.
One of the greatest female novelists was Jane Austen. She wrote many works and was strong enough to go through the criticism of her times and come out amazing and one of the best-known authors of the world.
