Anatine
Jane Austen Profile

Jane Austen
Keynotes

  Born:  Steventon, Hampshire, 16th December 1775.

  Died:  Winchester, 1817.

  An English novelist noted for her wit and her observation of middle-class society and etiquette, she described her own work as a study of "...three or four families in a Country Village".

  Jane Austen's father, Rev. George Austen, was the rector of Deane and Steventon where the family lived until 1801, and had previously been a fellow of St. John's College, Oxford before entering the church.  Her mother was Cassandra (née Leigh).  They had eight children, six boys and two girls, of whom Jane was the seventh child.

  Jane was educated with her older sister, Cassandra, firstly by a tutor in Oxford named Mrs Cawley, then at the Abbey School in Reading.

  In 1801 Jane moved with her family to Bath, where they stayed until the death of her father in 1805.  She settled with her mother and sister in Chawton, Hampshire in a cottage owned by her brother Edward.

  Jane began her writing career early in life, writing three volumes of manuscripts between 1787 and 1795, the second of which included her burlesque Love and Freindship [sic] in 1790 (published 1922), and before moving to Bath she wrote Pride and Prejudice (1796 - 1797), Sense and Sensibility (drafted in letter form 1797 - 1798), and Northanger Abbey (1798).

  Northanger Abbey was bought by a publisher in 1803, but remained unpublished for some time.  In 1811, Sense and Sensibility was published and well received.  Pride and Prejudice was published in 1813, Mansfield Park in 1814, and Emma in 1815.  In 1816 Jane bought back the rights to Northanger Abbey which was finally published in 1817 along with Persuasion.

  Jane died in Winchester in 1817 after a long illness.  Cassandra and other family members preserved Jane's privacy by destroying many of her letters, and cutting out sections from others.

Works with publication dates:

Volume the First (1933)

Volume the Second (1922)

Volume the Third (1951)

Sense and Sensibility (1811)

Pride and Prejudice (1813)

Mansfield Park (1814)

Emma (1816)

Northanger Abbey (1818)

Persuasion (1818)

Watsons [unfinished]

Lady Susan [unfinished]
 
 

Quotes

"One half of the world cannot understand the pleasures of the other."

Emma

"Human nature is so well disposed towards those who are in interesting situations, that a young person, who either marries or dies, is sure to be kindly spoken of."

Emma

Business, you know, may bring money, but friendship hardly ever does."

Emma

"It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife."

Pride and Prejudice

A lady's imagination is very rapid; it jumps from admiration to love, from love to matrimony in a moment."

Pride and Prejudice

"You have delighted us long enough."

Pride and Prejudice

"Next to being married, a girl likes to be crossed in love a little now and then."

Pride and Prejudice

"I do not want people to be very agreeable, as it saves me the trouble of liking them a great deal."

Letters

Links

The Jane Austen Centre in Bath
http://www.janeausten.co.uk/

Jane Austen's House
http://www.janeausten.demon.co.uk/

Jane Austen - offers links to pages related to Jane Austen
http://www.lang.nagoya-u.ac.jp/
%7Ematsuoka/Austen.html

The Jane Austen Society
http://www.janeaustensociety.org.uk/

Guardian Unlimited - Jane Austen
http://books.guardian.co.uk/authors/
author/0,5917,-12,00.html

Jane Austen Forum
http://forum.janeausten.co.uk/
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Jane Austen Information Page
http://www.pemberley.com/janeinfo/janeinfo.html

Jane Austen Etexts etc.
http://home.earthlink.net/~lfdean/austen/

The Millennium Library - Jane Austen
http://www.millenniumlibrary.co.uk/millib/reference/
notes.php?entry=Jane%20Austen&fromdb=2

A selection of books by Jane Austen available from W.H. Smith:
 

Sense and Sensibility  (paperback)

Sense and Sensibility  (hardback)

Pride and Prejudice  (paperback)

Pride and Prejudice  (hardback)

Mansfield Park  (paperback)

Mansfield Park  (hardback)

Emma  (paperback)

Emma  (hardback)

Northanger Abbey  (paperback)

Northanger Abbey and Persuasion  (hardback)

Persuasion  (paperback)

Favourite Jane Austen Novels Boxed Set - Pride and Prejudice, Sense and Sensibility, and Persuasion (Complete and Unabridged).

Jane Austen Boxed Set - Persuasion, Northanger Abbey, Mansfield Park.

Jane Austen Boxed Set - Pride and Prejudice, Emma, Sense and Sensibility.

Jane Austen Boxed Set - Emma, Pride and Prejudice, Sense and Sensibility.

Jane Austen - Pride and Prejudice, Mansfield Park, Persuasion Vol 1.

Jane Austen: the Collected Shorter Works

Jane Austen: the Complete Novels

Penguin Complete Novels of Jane Austen - Sense and Sensibility, Pride and Prejudice, Mansfield Park, Emma, Northanger Abbey, Persuasion, Lady Susan.

Jane Austen Collection - Persuasion, Pride and Prejudice, Sense and Sensibility, Lady Susan Vol II - (Audio Book).

Volume the First  (hardback)

Jane Austen Encyclopedia  (paperback)

Jane Austen Encyclopedia  (hardback)

Jane Austen: Family History Vols 1-6

Jane Austen: Novels, Letters and Memoirs In Their Original First Editions

Jane Austen's Letters