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Jane Austen Biography

Jane Austen was an 18th century romance novelist who wrote about the trials and tribulations in finding a suitable husband. While her novels told of different stories with unique characters, the common theme was a strong leading woman, alone and in search of true love. While happiness always found itself in the end, it was the struggle and the drama of getting there that has made Jane Austen's novels popular to a vast array of readers.

One striking appeal of Jane Austen's romance literary work is that her characters were not only limited to the upper class society - she incorporated the rich and the poor and in most instances the lower class prevailed in the end.

Jane Austen's Emma was her fourth novel in order of publication and the fifth in order of writing (Gillie: 1974:133). Emma is the story of a young, wealthy and beautiful woman who is preoccupied with the love life of her friends than in finding true love for herself. Her father provided all the luxuries any young woman would want - a beautiful home, fashionable clothes and an attractive dowry that would catch the attention of any eligible man. As a result of these extravagancies, Emma Woodhouse exuded self-confidence and was incredibly forward when it came to getting her own way. She reveled in 'match-making' and found joy and happiness in creating 'love connections' for her single friends. While a majority of Jane Austen's female lead characters were of middle class society, Emma was a young, beautiful woman from a wealthy family. She had all of the riches any young woman would desire; however she was too preoccupied with playing matchmaker to friends and family to find a suitable partner for herself.

Jane Austen was born on December 16th, 1775 in Hampshire, England and was the second youngest in a family of eight children. She began writing during her teenage years but did not publish her work until she was in her late thirties. Although Austen was famous for writing fictional romantic tales of young women in search of love, there has been little documented about her own personal relationships. Jane Austen never married; she was proposed to at least once and declined the engagement (Gillie: 1974:7). The most memorable events of Jane Austen's life were the publication of her novels. Sense and Sensibility was published in 1811, Pride and Prejudice was published in 1813, Mansfield Park was published in 1814, Emma was published in 1815 and Northanger Abbey and Persuasion were both published in 1817. While many authors during Jane Austen's time were writing fictional stories about exotic lands and faraway places, Austen wrote about the simpler, everyday aspects of life. Fans of Jane Austen take joy in being able to reread her stories time and time again and it is the familiarity of her work that has made her one of the most famous fictional writers of all time. Jane Austen died on July 18th, 1817 at forty-two years of age. She had six novels published at the time of her death.