Jane Austen

Jane Austen was born in 1775 in Steventon, Hampshire, and was the seventh of eight children in her family. Her father, Reverend George Austen, was a learned and cultured man, and Jane was primarily educated at home. From a young age, she was an avid reader, particularly enjoying the works of Fielding, Sterne, Richardson, and Scott. She began writing at a very young age, penning "Love and Freindship" at just fourteen. This was followed by "The History of England" at sixteen and "A Collection of Letters" at seventeen. After her father's death in 1805, she and her mother moved to Southampton, eventually settling in Chawton, Hampshire, in 1809, where she wrote her major novels. Although she led a very quiet life—never marrying and rarely leaving home—her works reveal her remarkable powers of observation. Only four novels were published during her lifetime: "Sense and Sensibility" (1811), "Pride and Prejudice" (1813), "Mansfield Park" (1814), and "Emma" (1816), all published anonymously. During a rare outing, she fell ill and died of Addison's disease in 1817. Two more novels, "Persuasion" and "Northanger Abbey," were published posthumously in 1818. "Sanditon," the novel she was working on when she died, was published in 1925.