Jane Austen

Author:
Jane Austen

Date of birth: 16-Dec-1775
Place of birth: Steventon, Hampshire UK

About the author:
Jane Austen (1775–1817) was an English novelist whose works are known for their wit, social commentary, and keen observations of 19th-century English society. Born on December 16, 1775, in Steventon, Hampshire, she was the seventh of eight children in a close-knit, educated family. Her father was a clergyman who encouraged Jane’s reading and writing from an early age.

Austen began writing as a teenager, crafting stories, poems, and plays for family entertainment. Her first major novel, Sense and Sensibility, was published anonymously in 1811, followed by Pride and Prejudice (1813), which remains her most beloved and widely read work. These were followed by Mansfield Park (1814), Emma (1815), and posthumously published novels Northanger Abbey and Persuasion in 1818.

Her novels focus on the lives, manners, and romantic entanglements of the British gentry and are praised for their strong, complex female characters, subtle irony, and sharp critique of social class and marriage norms. Though modestly successful in her lifetime, Austen's reputation grew significantly in the 19th and 20th centuries, and she is now regarded as one of the greatest writers in the English language.

Jane Austen never married and lived much of her adult life with her family. She died at the age of 41 on July 18, 1817, in Winchester, likely from Addison’s disease or another chronic illness.

Her legacy endures, with her novels continually adapted for film, television, and stage, and her influence seen in countless writers who followed. Austen's blend of romantic storytelling with social realism continues to captivate readers around the world.