Jane Austen

Life
Jane Austen was born in Steventon, Hampshire on December 16, 1775 to the Rev. George Austen and his wife, Cassandra.

Along with six brothers, Austen had an older sister, Cassandra whom she related to.

Austen died of Addison's Disease on July 18, 1817 in Winchester, at the age of forty-one. She was buried in Winchester Cathedral.

Work
Austen's great strengh of her novels was the strong sense of irony in her critique of aristocratic society and the nouveau riche.

With her measure of irony, she was able to summarize social customs and the restraints suffered by women in England.

Her great works include:

• Sense and Sensibility, 1811.
• Pride and Prejudice, 1813.
• Mansfield Park, 1814.
• Emma, 1816.
• Northanger Abbey, 1818.
• Persuasion, 1818.

Today
Today, Austen's work is considered an important part of English literature. It is taught in universities and is the subject of a massive body of scholarly and critical work.

To learn more about Jane Austen, click here for a more detailed biography.

To access more online information, click here for a Wikipedia summary.