Jane Austen

Welcome! Here follows a brief biographical sketch.

Jane Austen (16 December 1775 – 18 July 1817) was an English novelist known primarily for her six novels, which implicitly interpret, critique, and comment on the English landed gentry at the end of the 18th century. "Jane Austen." Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. 23 Mar. 2025. Web. 3 Apr. 2025.

Unfortunately, hard facts and specifics about her are in limited supply. She didn't leave a diary behind, and she didn't achieve enough fame in her own lifetime for biographers to begin taking notes. We do not even have an accurate image of what she looked like!

Much of the pieced-together information about Austen's life comes to us via family remembrances and through the surviving letters she wrote herself, particularly those back and forth with her sister, Cassandra, who filtered what we know – and what we do not know --about her sister!

Jane Austen lived at Steventon, Hampshire, where her father was rector, for the first twenty-five years of her life. When Reverend George Austen retired, he moved the family to Bath. After his death in 1805, the Austen females found themselves in reduced circumstances and were without a settled home again until 1809, when they were given the use of the cottage at Chawton by Jane’s wealthy brother, Edward Austen Knight.  

Jane began feeling unwell around February of 1816 -- remaining undiagnosed over the next year and a half, with symptoms improving or worsening, off and on. Despite the efforts of her physician, Mr. Lyford and her sister (or sister-in-law) Mary Lloyd Austen, who assisted with the nursing, Jane died in Winchester on July 18^th,1817, at the age of 41. She is buried in Winchester Cathedral – not Abbey - in Hampshire, UK.  Hansen, Micah D. and Winslow, Shannon. "Author's Notes." The Persuasion of Miss Jane Austen – a Novel. CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform, 2014. 262–263.