Jane's Page
Jane Austen, the seventh child of the rector of Steventon, Hampshire, was born on December 16, 1775. She was educated at home by her father. At an early age she began writing sketches and satires for her family's amusement. As a clergymen's daughter she had ample opportunity to study the habits of the middle class, the gentry and the aristocracy. At 21, she began a novel called First Impressions, an early version of Pride and Prejudice. In 1801, on her father's retirement, the family moved to Bath. Two years later she sold a first version of Northanger Abbey to a London publisher, but the first novel to appear in print was Sense and Sensibility, published at her own expense in 1811.
After her father's death in 1805 the family moved to Southampton, then to Chawton Cottage in Hampshire. Despite this relative retirement, she was still in touch with the wider world, mainly through her brothers; one had become a rich country gentlemen, another a London banker, and two were naval officers.
Though her novels were published anonymously, she had many early and devoted followers, amoung them the Prince Regent and Sir Walter Scott. In 1816, her health declining she wrote Persuasion and revised Northanger Abbey. Her last work Sandition, was left unfinished at her death on July 18, 1817. She was buried in Winchester Cathedral. Her Identity as an author was announced to the world posthumously by her brother Henry who supervised the publication of Northanger Abbey and Persuasion.
The Novels
The beauty of Jane Austen's work, for me, has always been in her fidelity to observed truth and her belief in always keeping the subject well within range of observation. Her heroines always remain firmly established at the center of her composition, heroines who are strong, witty, delicate and tough. At a time when creating such characters was not the most prudent course to take if one wanted to be published or read, she chose to do so anyway, even going as far as paying to have her first novel published. She had an incorruptible sense of consistency, and the sense of the uniqueness of the individual is never lost in the process. Nor is the function of dialogue ever sacrificed to the demands of the character. She expects us to give as close and lingering attention to the reading as she has given to the writing.
This page hosted by 
Get your own Free Home Page