Jane Austin was born on the 16th December 1775, at Stevenson rectory and publicly christened on 5 April 1776. Jane’s parents George Austen (1731- 1805) and Jane’s mum Cassandra (1739-1827), were members of the substantial gentry families. George’s job was a manufacturer. Jane’s mum and dad married on the 26th April 1764 at Walcott Church in
Bath. Jane’s mum placed her with Elizabeth Littlewoods for about a year, who nursed Jane.
Jane Austen’s immediate family was large: she had six brothers, James (1765- 1819), George (1766-1838), Edward (1767-1852), Henry Thomas (1771-1850), Francis William (1774-1865), Charles John (1779-1852), lastly she had one sister called Cassandra Elizabeth (9th January 1773-1845), like Jane she died unmarried.
Cassandra Elizabeth was Jane’s closest friend as well as her sister. Out of the brothers, Jane ale=ways felt closest to Henry, he was a banker until the bank closed down then he was an Anglican Clergyman. Henry was also Jane’s Literacy agent, Henry had a large group of friends veering from bankers, merchants, publishers, painters and actors, this provided Jane with a social life. George was sent to live with a local family because he use to have fits and use to have mental problems, this is described in Jane Austin’s biography. Charles and frank went to join the Navy, both rising a rank of admiral, then Edward was adopted by his 4th Cousin.
In 1783, Jane and Cassandra were sent to Oxford to be educated by Mrs. Ann Crawley and then they moved to Southampton later in the year with her. Later in that year suddenly Jane and Cassandra both caught Typhus and they nearly died. After that happened she was educated at home, until in early 1785 Jane and her sister Cassandra were sent to boarding school. The school curriculum there studied French, spelling, needlework, dancing and music and perhaps drama. In December 1786, Jane and Cassandra had to be sent home because they could not afford to go the boarding school any more.
Jane was reminded of her education by reading books guided by her father and her brothers James and Henry. Jane also went to private theatres which were a part of her education. From when she was seven until she was thirteen the family and close friends staged in a range of plays, these include; Richard Sheridan’s The Rivals (1775) and David Garrick’s Bon Tom. Most of these plays were comedies; this suggests one of the reasons in which Jane Austen used comedy.
After finishing Lady Susan, Jane attempted to write a full length novel, called Elinor and Marianne, but her sister reminded her that she would have to read to the family before 1796 and this was told through a series of letters. There is no trace of the drafts for this novel published in 1811 as sense and sensibility.
When Jane was twenty, she meet a boy called Tom Lefroy a nephew of a neighbor. He visited Stevenson from December 1795 to January 1796. He had just finished university with a degree. Tom and Jane had been introduced at a ball. In the letter she sent to Cassandra it was clear they had been spending a lot of time together. Tom’s family sent him away at the end of January, marriage would not happen because neither of them had any money. Then Tom visited Hampshire, so he would see the Austen’s and then Jane never sore him again.
Jane started working on her second novel, called First Impressions in 1796. She completed the draft in 1797 when she was only 21; this later became pride and prejudice. As Jane did with all her other novels as well, she read it to her family first. Her father made an attempt to publish one of Jane’s novels in November 1797. George Austen wrote a letter to Thomas Cadell an established publisher in London to ask if he would consider publishing the Novel a “Manuscript” in three volumes. This was the length of “Miss Burney’s Evelina” at the authors finical risk Cadell quickly returned the letter marked “Decline by the return of Post”. Jane might have never known what her father went through to try and publish her books. Following the completions of making First Impressions , Jane Austen returned to the novel Elinor and Marianne and from the November 1797 until mid 1798, she revised it heavily she scanned through the format and changed it to third person narrative.
During in the middle of 1798, after finishing Elinor and Marianne, Jane began writing a third novel with the working title Susan, later known as Northanger Abbey. Jane completed it in the next year, in early 1803. Her brother Henry Austin offered Susan to Benjamin Crosby a London publisher. He paid ten pounds for the copyright. Benjamin advertised the book in the press but did not do anything else. The manuscript Novel remained in Benjamin‘s hands unpublished, until Jane repurchased the copyright from him in 1816.
Early in 1816, Jane Austen began to feel unwell. She ignored her illness at first and continued to work. She tried to do her normal routine and family activities. By the middle of that year her family knew there was something wrong with her, and Jane’s physical condition got worse throughout that year what lead to her death. On the 18th July 1817, in Winchester at the age of 41, Jane died.
