Jane Austen

     Jane Austen was born on Decemeber16, 1775. Her parents were George and Cassandra Austen. Jane was taught at home, except in 1783 when she went to a tutor in Southampton. Unfortunately, she left due to an outbreak of a disease. She loved to read and one of the books she loved to reread over and over again was Richardson's Sir Charles Grandison. She started to write Love and Friendship in 1787. Afterwards she began writing Sense and Sensibility, First Impressions and Northanger Abbey. Jane loves to go to parties and balls, which gave her many ideas for books and novels. In 1800 George Austen moved to Bath when he decided to retire. That summer Austen apparently had a secret romance, which inspired her to write Persuasion. 2 years later, Harris Bigg-Wither proposed to Jane, she accepted at first but the next morning she ran away with her sister. She never married. They moved back to Southampton when her father died. She also began to rewrite Sense and Sensibility. It was published in 1811, but the author was anonymous. The book made little money, but she decided to carry on and rework First Impressions. It was published in 1813, when it was renamed Pride & Prejudice. In 1814,  Mansfield Park was published and the book was sold out in six months. She then began on the book, Emma, which  was dedicated to the Prince of England and published in 1815. Persuasion was published the next year. In 1817 she began to write Sanditon,  but it was never finished. She died on  July 18th 1817, in Winchester. No one knows how Jane actually died but some say it was Addison's disease ("Pemberley").

       Jane's influences when writing were George Eliot, Burney, and Radcliffe ("Pemberley"). She had an ambition to change eighteenth century fiction, because she thought it was unrealistic of how humans actually interact (Jones). Most of her inspiration came from her own life. All the parties, social gatherings, love, it all came from her life and it appears in almost every story Austen has created. She grew up in a middle class family therefore most of her characters were from middle-class society. She did not make the novels tragic or over the top. she wanted to keep her novels normal like their lives. During her life, women depended on the men for their very life's and futures. Their job in life was to marry a man that could give them a nice home and lifestyle.Women with good wealth and appearance were easier to marry off. Marriage was bot done for love, but by money. Income was constantly talked about like social rank. Jane Austen realized the power of marriage and money when her father died. She realized that in order to sustain a happy life she would have to marry (Jones). This gave her many inspirations for her books, especially Pride & Prejudice and Emma. Marriage and Income are both very common themes that are placed in Austen's books, due to the time in which she was living in, and how her family raised her.

Fullerton, Susannah. "Jane Austen Biography." Jane Austen Society of Australia. JASA, 09 Mar 2008. Web. 5 Aug 2011. http://www.jasa.net.au/jabiog.htm.

Jones, Chris. "A Look into the Life of Jane Austen: Her Passions and Inspiration." associated content. yahoo, 2011. Web. 5 Aug 2011. http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/799845/a_look_into_the_life_of_jane_austen.html.

"Biography: Life (1775-1817) and Family." Pemberley. Republic of Pemberley, 2010. Web. 5 Aug 2011. http://www.pemberley.com/janeinfo/janelife.html#life1a.