Jane Austen – Biography

The Biography of Jane Austen

Jane Austen was an author of the Georgian epoch who specialized in writing novels. She became reputable as a social commentator in her notables novels which include Sense and Sensibility, Emma, and “Pride and Prejudice”.

A Brief Introduction about Jane Austen

On the 16th of June 1775, Steventon, Hampshire in England graced the birth of Jane Austen. Austen didn’t gain popularity in her own time but the legacy she built through her love-centered comic novels among the landed gentry became widely known after 1869. In the twentieth century, her reputation reached great heights. The creative gap between romance and realism was filled with her novels which include Pride and Prejudice and Sense and Sensibility. Her works have since then passed as classical treasures in the domain of literature.

Her Early Life
Jane Austen was born by Cassandra and George Austen on December 16, 1775, in the Steventon, Hampshire, England. She passed as the second daughter and the seventh child of her parents. Jane’s parents were honorable members of their community. Her father worked as a rector who had Oxford-education for the community Anglican Parish. There was a cordial relationship in her family and the children were bred in an environment that laid emphasis on the primacy of learning and creativity. As young children, Jane and her siblings were motivated to study from their father’s endowed library.
In years to come, Jane would become closer to her father and elder sister, Cassandra. As a matter of fact, she and Cassandra partnered together not only to write a book but to publish it in their names.
Because of the need to pursue more formal education, Jane and Cassandra were taken to boarding school. At this time, Jane was still a young girl in her preadolescence. As boarders, they had hard times with typhus to an extent that Jane almost lost her struggle with the disease. Due to lack of money at that time, their formal education was terminated and they had to return home and live with their family.

Literary Works
Stories had always been a great fascination in the world of Jane and this made her write in bound notebooks at a very young age. In 1970, her writing skills had been polished through consistency and as an adolescent. She started working on her novels. She wrote a parody of a fictional romance titled Love and Friendship. It was structured as a form of love letters. This style of writing revealed her creativity and disapproval of sensitivity. It also depicted a distinguished perspective that would be a template for most of her writings in time to come. A year after that, she wrote a parody of historical content that featured illustrations drawn by Cassandra titled “The History of England”. These notebooks that contained plays, poetry, and short stories have earned the name, Jane’s Juvenilia.

During her early adulthood, Jane’s lifestyle was characterized by socializing with neighbors, serving in church, playing the piano, and taking care of the family house. At nights and most weekends, she was engaged in cotillions and she had her skills and accomplishments in dancing merited to this. Any evening that she skipped cotillions, she was fond of reading a novel aloud to the hearing of her family as a form of learning and entertainment. Occasionally, some of the read novels were hers.

Her style continually prospered as she wrote the story Lady Susan. Lady Susan was an epistolary work of art that centers on a deceptive lady who employed her lasciviousness, sexuality, intelligence, and charm as a means to take advantage of other people. Jane also began the writing of her major stories. She used the series of letter’s style to write the first among them and titled it, Elinor and Marianne. In years to come, that title would be changed to the reputable ‘Sense and Sensibility’. She also started another work she titled the First Impression. In years to come, that title would also be changed to Pride and Prejudice. She also wrote another story titled ‘Susan’. After her demise, the title, Susan was changed to Northanger Abbey by her brother, Henry.

Jane followed her parents and her sister Cassandra to Bath in the year, 1801. Four years later, she lost her father to a short illness. The death of her father had a detrimental consequence on the family with respect to finance. Jane, Cassandra, and their mother had to squat with various family members as they were constantly evicted from rented apartments.

In 1809, there was a cessation to the accommodation problem as they had a permanent settlement in Chawton at Jane’s brother Edward’s cottage.
Between the period of 1811-1816, Jane began an anonymous publication of her works. She was in her 30s. It was at this time that she had a pseudonymous publication of Mansfield Park and Emma, Sense and Sensibility, and Pride and Prejudice. The latter, Pride and Prejudice had a critical acclamation bearing to the fact that Jane referred to it as “my darling child”.

Death and Legacy
At age 41, Jane was sick and some people opined that the sickness was Addison’s disease. She did not succumb to the disease but struggled to write as she would normally do. She focused on the modifications of her older works and also created a new story titled The Brothers. Her motive was to complete the book not knowing, the book would be released posthumously after her demise as Sanditon together with another novel titled Persuasion. At a point, her health condition exacerbated to the extent that she quitted writing. July 18, 1817, marks Jane’s death in Winchester, Hampshire, England.

The accolades and financial returns Jane Austen received in her lifetime were minor compared to what he received in her death. Only her first three novels had begun to gain popularity and monetary value before she died. However, after her death, her brother Henry publicized that she was an author giving to most of Jane’s works.

In this epoch, Jane Austen is acclaimed to be one of the best English writers of all time according to the ordinary people and academics. In 2002, she ranked No. 70 of the rankings of “100 Most Famous Britons of All Time” in the British public poll organized by BBC. Austen’s transition from local to international author began in the 1920s. It was at this period that her works gained recognition among scholars as masterpieces and her fame skyrocketed. A club was also formed by her audience and fans of that epoch and with the name Janites. The club began to gain more grounds in resemblance to the Trekkie Phenomenon that the supporters of Star Trek franchise depicted.

Her works have also gained entrance into various films and TV adaptations of this age. Works like Emma, Pride and Prejudice, Sense and Sensibility, and Mansfield Park fall are evidence of such works. For example, Emma was used to make the film and TV series Clueless.

Austen Jane found her name in worldwide news in 2007. The scenario that caused it was when David Lassman submitted slightly revised Jane’s manuscripts to several publishing companies removing the name “Jane Austen” as their author, and they were all turned down. He made a detailed statement of the scenario in an article he titled, Rejecting Jane. The article was a tribute paid to an author who had a quality taste for humor and wit.