Almost everyone has heard of Jane Austen and her works, but her own history isn’t nearly as well known. Her books are known for depicting the real, everyday lives of people during the time period, especially female characters. Her writing is iconic, using satire and wit to capture the complexities often found in relationships.
According to Jane Austen’s House, she was born in 1775, and grew up in a house in Steventon, located in Hampshire, England. In the Austen house, there were six boys and two girls, one of those girls being Jane herself. In addition to the Austens, there were also many boys that her father the Rev. George Austen took in as pupils.
The Austens were a literate and creative family that took enjoyment in many things, including acting, games, and writing. Jane herself started writing at age 11, and over the next six years, she would start writing stories for her family and friends. Everything that survived is in three notebooks found in London and Oxford, written in Jane’s very own handwriting. Her stories as a teenager were mostly parodies of her favorite books, and her works were full of action.
When Jane was six, she and her sister, Cassandra, went to school. However, in elementary school when a fever broke out and both girls became ill, they returned home. They later attended Abbey House School in Reading, and they were taught writing, reading, history, French, and much more. After a year, their education continued at home. While they might not have had much formal education, they had complete access to their father’s library. Thus began Jane’s love of reading.
When Jane was 25, her father retired and moved his wife and daughters to Bath, a once stylish town that was past its best by the time that they arrived. While she was in Bath, she attended balls, parties, and concerts. However, things took a turn when Jane’s father died in 1805. This left his wife and two daughters on a very small income, and they eventually went to live with Jane’s brother Frank, his wife Mary, and their friend Martha Lloyd in Southampton.
While living in Southampton, Jane completed many works. She completed her first drafts of Elinor and Marianne, First Impressions, and Susan. However, some of these works were later published under a different name. While she had been living in Bath, she had been working on The Watsons, which went unfinished.
In 1809, Edward, Jane’s elder brother, invited the women to live on his estate. Jane wrote a poem to Frank about how happy she was in the new house. She practiced piano every morning and went on walks to Alton. In the evenings, the women would read by the fire and play games.
Because she now had time to write, she took out her earlier works. She rewrote Elinor and Marianne, and it became Sense and Sensibility. With the help of Jane’s brother Henry, it was accepted for publication in 1810 by Thomas Egerton, who also published Pride and Prejudice and Mansfield Park. She wrote and published more books over the years with a range of publishers including John Murray, a famous publisher back then.
She began her last ever novel in 1817, and it was called The Brothers. However, this was later published as Sanditon. She only finished the first twelve chapters before she was bedridden. She wrote a will, leaving nearly everything she had to her “dearest sister Cassandra”. On 18 July 1817, Jane died at just 41 years old.
Six months after her death, Northanger Abbey and Persuasion were published. In the preface, Henry and Murray included a biographical novice which listed Jane as the author of all of her published works for the very first time. Her nephew, James Edward Austen-Leigh, published her first full biography.
While Jane Austen may have died in 1817, her legacy certainly hasn’t. Her books are still extremely popular, and she’s a well known author even 200 years later. Her books have parodies, like Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, Sense & Second-Degree Murder, and Pride and Premeditation. However, they don’t stop with written books. There are many different movies for many of her books, including Pride and Prejudice and Zombies. Her work continues to inspire new ideas in people today, and with that, her legacy lives on.
