Jane Austin - Who Was She?

By john plummer
Friday, March 01, 2002

All the information contained in the pages of this site has been broken down from the book From SBS Publishing

Emma By Jane Austen @ SBS Publishing

Introducing Jane Austen

So who is Jane Austen? An English writer from the late 17th century who at the start of her witting career wasn't really all that popular but now is very famous for her literary works.

Born in the village of Steventon in 1775 to an Anglican clergyman and his wife

Her parents had a total of eight children and her sister Cassandra was her favorite companion through all of her short life and they lived together and constantly wrote one another all of their lives. Austen was educated at home as was normal for this period of history - Education started at age of eleven. Was educated in Italian and French and could also play the piano and had a passion for reading

Family lived in Bath from 1801 but although Bath was a lively city Asten and her sister were happier when they were in the small village of their birth and after their father died they moved to Southampton with their mother. They didn't stay there long and then moved to Chawton where they stayed until Astens death in 1817... She was just 41

Austen loved to write as a child to amuse her family and by the age of twenty she had already written several unpublished novels by reworking her previous material. Her works were all published anon. Her book Emma was dedicated to the price regent. While at Chawton she wrote

1. Pride And Prejudice
2. Sense & Sensibility
3. Emma
4. Persuation
5. Mansfield Park

Mostly her books refected on her life or parts of it but from reading Emma we can tell that she tried not to acknowledge any people other than ones in her own social circle. Some parts of her stories are taken from her real life family (p.7) such as her brother living with her uncle and aunt.

A critic once described her works as Regulated Hatred

All her works are based on love and marriage but the words have no sentimentality. Austen has strong ideas about what will make a good relationship (Romantic love, Comfort, Security, Shared Opinions). Is believed that when younger Austens lover died young and although she she accepted proposals of mariage her life must have had quite a bit of unhappiness as she never found a man she wanted to marry.

although her novels are limited in the areas they cover she manages to express a great deal of feeling in them. Her stories are today extremely popular and have been adapted to be used in tv cinema and theater too. Austin has entertained the world for close on two hundred years.

John is a teacher at CCAA

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