Jane Austen was born in 1775 in the village of Steventon, England, the seventh child and second daughter in a family of eight. Her father, Reverend George Austen was the rector of the village parish; her mother, Cassandra was very witty and the whole family was keen on acting. Jane evolved in an affectionate family circle and was educated at home like her elder sister. Though the family were not rich the children were well-educated thanks to their readings and had a large network of relationships.
Jane’s sister, named Cassandra like her mother, was Jane’s best friend and confident ; both of them remained single, as it was rather common at the time, and lived together with their mother after their father’s death in early 1805. Jane Austen lived in a stable and lively environment which provided her with the settings of her novels.
She wrote six novels : « Sense and sensibility » (1811), « Pride and Prejudice » (1813), « Mansfield Park » (1814), « Emma » (1815) which were published anonymously, whereas « Northanger Abbey » (1818) and « Persuasion » (1818) were published after her early death at the age of 41. Her younger brother Henry acted as a go-between with her publishers. In the 19th century publishing was one of the few ways a woman could earn money, although anonymously, to ensure her work sold and avoid gender discrimination.
Austen’s novels are deeply concerned with love and marriage but tainted with irony and satire in their depiction of character and society. An acute observer, she wrote realist novels that ridiculed romance and sentimentality. She excelled at describing diverting characters which account partly for the success of her novels.
Austen’s father retired in 1801 and then the family moved to Bath but it was a period of financial instability for Jane. Only in 1809 did her brother Edward provided her and her mother and sister with a cottage in the village of Chawton giving Jane a new goal which was to have her two novels published : « Sense and Sensibility » and then « Pride and Prejudice ». She then became an established author even though she used a pseudonym.
In 1817 her health suddenly declined, she was suffering from Addison disease. She died in July 1817 in Hampshire and she was buried in Winchester Cathedral with no recognition of her work. Today Jane Austen is a best-selling classic author ; her characters are ordinary people from the English middle-class society during the early 19th century. « Pride and Prejudice » inspired an American film as soon as 1940 starring Greer Garson and Laurence Olivier, and more recently the 2005 film directed by Joe Wright starring Keira Knightley and Matthew Macfadyen in a romantic comedy.