Jane Austen
Jane Austen was born in Steventon, Hampshire on 16th December 1775, being the seventh of eight children.
For the first 25 years of her life Austen, along with her family, lived at the Rectory in Steventon. Whilst young, Jane and her sister Cassandra went to school in Oxford and Southampton and also attended the Abbey school in Reading. It was during this period that she was encouraged to write and at the age of 14, began writing drafts for her novels. However it would be over 20 years before her first novel, Sense and Sensibility, was published in 1811.
Around the year 1801, the family moved from Steventon to Bath. It was a difficult time for them; they made some acquaintances but not many friends. Jane was not at her happiest in Bath, although the area did influence some of her writing.
A year after moving to Bath an old neighbour from Hampshire, Harris Bigg-Wither of Manydown Park proposed to Jane. Although she at first accepted him, he was later refused. This appears to be reflected in one of her characters, Fanny Price, who initially accepts Henry Crawford, but then realizing the error she is making, changes her mind. Austen never married, but through her heroines she made some intriguing observations about relationships and marriage. Miss Elizabeth Bennet in Pride and Prejudice is a good example of this when she says: 'A Lady's imagination is very rapid; it jumps from admiration to love, from love to matrimony, in a moment'.
After spending some time with her brother, Frank who was in the Navy and stationed at Southampton; Austen and her sister and mother were offered a home by another of her brothers, Edward. They happily settled into life at Chawton House in Hampshire in 1809.
It was whilst they were living at Chawton House that Sense and Sensibility was published. Another of her brothers Henry, who was supportive of her work, helped her with this as he negotiated with the publisher for her. Although at first, she was not known as the author, later Henry made it known and her fame was instantaneous.
Sense and Sensibility, originally titled 'Elinor and Marianne' lets the reader observe the opposites of its two main characters. Elinor, the oldest sister, represents 'sense', whilst her younger sister, Marianne is her opposite and has an 'excess of sensibility'. Whilst Elinor observes the correct code of conduct in her dealings with Edward Ferrars, Marianne, who is highly emotional and outwardly passionate,is very blatant in her pursuit of Willoughby. This leads to humiliation of the cruellest kind, not just for Marianne herself, but also for her long-suffering family when she is eventually rejected by Willoughby. Marianne's ensuing threatening illness shows a darker side to Austen's writing and allows the reader to feel infinitely closer to the characters affected. However, Marianne recovers and she and Elinor do marry happily.
Pride and Prejudice was next published in 1813, along with Mansfield Park in the same year. Emma was published in 1816, a year before Austen's death at the young age of 41, after a serious illness. Her sister Cassandra, whom she was very close to, was with her when she died and she is buried in Winchester Cathedral. Persuasion and Northanger Abbey were both published in 1818, a year after her death.
Each of Austen's novels, introduce us to strong female characters in varying social and economic situations. Through each of them, we see Austen's observations of Regency England and the social and moral restraints suffered, particularly by women of the time. Ahead of her time, she didn't panda to Romanticism, the popular movement of the time, but with her attention to detail, amusing story-lines, irony of her style and wit, she became part of a new genre of popular writing.
Contributed by Joanne
(Published on 28th Aug 2013 )