Jane Austen
1775-1817. English novelist.
Jane Austen was born 16 December 1775 in Steventon, Hampshire. She was born into a big family with five older brothers, one older sister and one younger brother. Her father was the rector of Steventon. Jane Austen was fascinated by books very early as her father had a big library and her family read a lot, and started writing when she was about 15. During the 1790s, she wrote her first versions of Sense and Sensibility (at that time called Elinor and Marianne), ''Pride and Prejudice'' (then called First Impressions) and Northanger Abbey (then called Susan). But only in the years between 1809 and 1816 did she start revising them and published her first novel, ''Sense and Sensibility'', in 1811. During that time she started composing other novels, like Mansfield Park, Emma and Persuasion, and managed to publish some of them (Pride and Prejudice 1813, Mansfield Park 1814, Emma 1816). In 1816 Jane Austen got ill and died on 18 July 1817. Her novels Northanger Abbey and Persuasion were published posthumously. Jane Austen stayed, like her sister Cassandra, unmarried.