Jane Austen's Family:
- Father: George Austen, Anglican clergyman, died 1805
- Mother: Cassandra Leigh
- Siblings: Jane Austen was the seventh of eight children.
- James, also a Church of England clergyman
- George, institutionalized, disability uncertain (may have been mental retardation, may have been deafness)
- Henry, banker then Anglican clergyman, served essentially as Jane's agent with her publishers
- Francis and Charles, fought in the Napoleonic wars, became admirals
- Edward, adopted by a wealthy cousin, Thomas Knight
- older sister Cassandra who also never married
- Aunt: Ann Cawley; Jane Austen and her sister Cassandra studied at her home 1782-3
- Aunt: Jane Leigh Perrot, who hosted the family for a time after George Austen retired
- Cousin: Eliza, Comtesse of Feuillide, whose husband was guillotined during the Reign of Terror in France, and who later married Henry
The family was associated with the Tories and maintained a sympathy for the Stuart succession rather than the Hanoverian.
Education:
- early education at home, as was usual for girls of the time; her brothers were educated at Oxford
- widely read; her father had a large library of books including novels
- 1782-1783 - Jane Austen and her sister Cassandra studied at home of their aunt, Ann Cawley
- 1784-1786 - boarding school in Reading, with her sister Cassandra
Novels Published:
- Northanger Abbey - sold 1803, not published until 1819
- Sense and Sensibility - published 1811 but Austen had to pay the printing costs
- Pride and Prejudice - 1812
- Mansfield Park - 1814
- Emma - 1815
- Persuasion - 1819
More About Jane Austen:
Jane Austen began writing as a child, circulating her stories mainly to family and friends. On George Austen's retirement in 1800, he moved the family to Bath, a fashionable social retreat. Jane found the environment was not conducive to her writing, and wrote little for some years, though she sold her first novel while living there. The publisher held it from publication until after her death.
Jane Austen never married, nor did her sister, Cassandra, who was engaged for a time to Thomas Fowle, who died in the West Indies. Jane Austen had several young men court her. One was Thomas Lefroy whose family opposed the match, another a young clergyman who suddenly died. Jane accepted the proposal of the wealthy Harris Bigg-Wither, but then withdrew her acceptance to the embarrassment of both parties and their families.
When George Austen died in 1805, Jane, Cassandra, and their mother moved first to the home of Jane's brother Francis, who was frequently away. When the wife of Jane's brother Edward died, he provided a home for Jane and Cassandra and their mother on his estate. It was at this home where Jane resumed her writing.
Jane Austen died, probably of Addison's disease, in 1817. Her sister, Cassandra, nursed her during her illness. Jane Austen was buried in Winchester Cathedral.
Jane Austen's novels were first published anonymously. Sense and Sensibility was written "By a Lady," and poshumous publicatios of Persuasion and Northanger Abbey credited simply to the author of Pride and Prejudice and Mansfield Park. Her obituaries disclosed that she had written the books, as does her brother Henry's "Biographical Notice" in editions of Northanger Abbey and Persuasion.
Juvenilia were published poshumously.
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