Jane Austen is a celebrated nineteenth century author, writer and novelist, who was born on 16 December, 1775, in Steventon, a village in the south of England. The seventh of eight children, of whom only two were girls, Austen was close with her sister Cassandra and their confidante-style relationship is mirrored in some of Austen’s works, such as between sisters Elizabeth and Jane in Pride and Prejudice. Both Austen girls received an inadequate education by modern standards, having been raised in a social era where women were expected to focus their efforts on securing advantageous marriages. Other than a short-term tutor and a brief stay at a boarding school, Austen was mostly educated by her father, who tutored young men in the Austen home. On the death of her father, Austen, her mother, and Cassandra were forced into a life of lesser means, and through the financial support of Austen’s brothers moved to Southampton then Chawton where Austen began writing her published works.

Among Austen’s published works, Pride and Prejudice, published in 1813, is arguably her greatest and most popular. Her other notable works include Sense and Sensibility, published in 1811, Mansfield Park, published in 1814, Emma, published in 1816, and Persuasion, published posthumously in 1818. Three volumes of her collected younger writings were published more than a hundred years after her death. Austen’s witty insight into her feminine identity and the social mores of her time, which she often parodies in her works, gives readers a glimpse into the values from a specific period in history while at the same time exploring complex themes that still fascinate and hold relevance today.

Austen never married, despite having received a proposal, and spent her life in company with her family. She died in Winchester, England, on 18 July, 1817, with novel Sanditon, unfinished. Although Austen’s novels were favourably received at the time of publishing, she did not receive personal fame as a writer during her lifetime.