As stated earlier, I am not an Austen scholar, and much of the information presented here has been taken from websites such as the Republic of Pemberly and the Jane Austen Society of North America. And for a nice timeline, visit JaneAusten.org.
Jane Austen was born Dec. 16, 1775, at Steventon, Hampshire, England (near Basingstoke), to the Rev George Austen and his wife Cassandra. From her writings, it seems a happy, close and literate family, but poor when you consider Jane was the seventh of eight children. She was especially close to her sister, also named Cassandra, and her brother Henry, who saw that her novels Persuasion and Northanger Abbey were published after her death.
The family saw successes and failures and joys and tragedies: they enjoyed staging plays and attending balls, two of her brothers became admirals, Henry suffered a bankruptcy, Cassandra’s fiancé died of yellow fever.
Jane’s romances were also in keeping with her heroines. In 1795-6 she had a “mutual flirtation” with Tom Lefroy, an Irish relative whose financial prospects made it unlikely there would ever be a match. Their romance is the basis for the movie Becoming Jane.
Jane famously did accept a marriage proposal when she was 27 to a man six years her junior but she turned down Mr. Harris Bigg-Wither the next day. This event was also incorporated, shifted in time, into Becoming Jane.
In 1800 after her father retired, the family moved to Bath, a move that, despite her close association with Bath, Jane did not desire. Her father died in January 1805, leaving Jane, her mother and sister, dependent largely on the benevolence of her brothers.
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After her father’s death, the three women moved frequently, staying with friends and relatives, but in 1809, brother Edward provided them with a house in Chawton, near his home in Hampshire (he had been adopted by a rich childless cousin). It was in Chawton that Jane flourished and in 1811 her first book, Sense and Sensibility, was published, followed by Pride and Prejudice in 1813, Mansfield Park in 1814 and Emma in 1815.
But although she saw financial success her fame grew slowly because her books were anonymously credited to “a Lady.” Only her closest family knew her to be an author. Critics even scoffed that a woman could write such books. It was not until Persuasion and Northanger Abbey, published together in December 1817, that it was acknowledged that she was the author of her six novels.
She died July 18, 1817, at age 41, and like her sister, was never married. Since 1832, when her novels were republished, they have never been out of print.
