http://www3.hants.gov.uk/austen
Official Website
Jane Austen was a major English novelist, whose brilliantly
witty, elegantly structured satirical fiction marks the
transition in English literature from 18th century neo-classicism
to 19th century romanticism.
Jane Austen was born on 16 December, 1775, at the rectory in
the village of Steventon, near Basingstoke, in Hampshire. The
seventh of eight children of the Reverend George Austen and his
wife, Cassandra, she was educated mainly at home and never lived
apart from her family. She had a happy childhood amongst all her
brothers and the other boys who lodged with the family and whom
Mr Austen tutored. From her older sister, Cassandra, she was
inseparable. To amuse themselves, the children wrote and
performed plays and charades, and even as a little girl Jane was
encouraged to write. The reading that she did of the books in her
father's extensive library provided material for the short
satirical sketches she wrote as a girl.
At the age of 14 she wrote her first novel, Love and
Freindship (sic) and then A History of England by a
partial, prejudiced and ignorant Historian, together with
other very amusing juvenilia. In her early twenties Jane Austen
wrote the novels that were later to be re-worked and published as
Sense and Sensibility, Pride and Prejudice and Northanger
Abbey. She also began a novel called The Watsons which
was never completed.
As a young woman Jane enjoyed dancing (an activity which
features frequently in her novels) and she attended balls in many
of the great houses of the neighbourhood. She loved the country,
enjoyed long country walks, and had many Hampshire friends. It
therefore came as a considerable shock when her parents suddenly
announced in 1801 that the family would be moving away to Bath.
Mr Austen gave the Steventon living to his son James and retired
to Bath with his wife and two daughters. The next four years were
difficult ones for Jane Austen. She disliked the confines of a
busy town and missed her Steventon life. After her father's death
in 1805, his widow and daughters also suffered financial
difficulties and were forced to rely on the charity of the Austen
sons. It was also at this time that, while on holiday in the West
country, Jane fell in love, and when the young man died, she was
deeply upset. Later she accepted a proposal of marriage from
Harris Bigg-Wither, a wealthy landowner and brother to some of
her closest friends, but she changed her mind the next morning
and was greatly upset by the whole episode.
After the death of Mr Austen, the Austen ladies moved to
Southampton to share the home of Jane's naval brother Frank and
his wife Mary. There were occasional visits to London, where Jane
stayed with her favourite brother Henry, at that time a
prosperous banker, and where she enjoyed visits to the theatre
and art exhibitions. However, she wrote little in Bath and
nothing at all in Southampton.
Then, in July, 1809, on her brother Edward offering his mother
and sisters a permanent home on his Chawton estate, the Austen
ladies moved back to their beloved Hampshire countryside. It was
a small but comfortable house, with a pretty garden, and most
importantly it provided the settled home which Jane Austen needed
in order to write. In the seven and a half years that she lived
in this house, she revised Sense and Sensibility and Pride
and Prejudice and published them ( in 1811 and 1813) and then
embarked on a period of intense productivity. Mansfield Park
came out in 1814, followed by Emma in 1816 and she
completed Persuasion (which was published together with Northanger
Abbey in 1818, the year after her death). None of the books
published in her life-time had her name on them — they were
described as being written "By a Lady". In the winter
of 1816 she started Sanditon, but illness prevented its
completion.
Jane Austen had contracted Addisons Disease, a tubercular
disease of the kidneys (more on JA's illness). No longer able to
walk far, she used to drive out in a little donkey carriage which
can still be seen at the Jane Austen Museum at Chawton. By May
1817 she was so ill that she and Cassandra, to be near Jane's
physician, rented rooms in Winchester. Tragically, there was then
no cure and Jane Austen died in her sister's arms in the early
hours of 18 July, 1817. She was 41 years old. She is buried in
Winchester Cathedral.
Jane Austen died 18 July 1817 at Winchester and was buried in
Winchester Cathedral. Her death notice reads:
"At Winchester, Miss Jane Austen, youngest daughter
of Rev. George Austen, Rector of Steventon, Hants, authoress
of "Emma", "Mansfield Park", "Pride
and Prejudice", and "Sense and Sensibility."'
The opinion that Jane’s fatal illness was Addison’s
Disease, was originally put forward in an article by Zachary Cope
in the British Medical Journal of 18 July 1964, (pp 182-83),
which uses Jane’s own letters to find the symptoms. The
article sees as conclusive Jane’s reference to ‘black
and white’ patches on her skin – evidently
characteristic of Addison’s. The Journal also printed
F A Bevan’s response to Cope, on 8 August 1964, p394, which
makes a case for Jane’s illness being Hodgkins Disease.
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Photo of Jane Austen’s
gravestone in the floor of Winchester Cathedral, which
reads:
In Memory of
JANE AUSTEN,
youngest daughter of the late
Revd GEORGE AUSTEN,
formerly Rector of Steventon in this County She departed
this Life on the 18th of July1817, aged 41, after a long
illness supported with the patience and hopes of a
Christian.
The benevolence of her
heart,
the sweetness of her temper, and
the extraordinary endowments of her mind obtained the
regard of all who knew her and the warmest love of her
intimate connections.
Their grief is in
proportion to their affection they know their loss to be
irreparable,
but in their deepest affliction they are consoled by a
firm though humble hope that her charity, devotion, faith
and purity have rendered
her soul acceptable in the sight of her REDEEMER.
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Jane Austen's will
Jane Austen was at home at
Chawton in Hampshire when she wrote her will on 27th April 1817.
She was ill with what is now thought to have been Addison's
disease, a rare hormonal disorder. Just days later, she moved to
Winchester to be nearer to her doctor. She died on 18th July 1817
and was buried in the cathedral at Winchester.
Jane Austen was one of Britain's greatest
novelists. Her works ('Pride and Prejudice', 'Sense and
Sensibility', 'Emma') achieved widespread acclaim during her
lifetime and they have been popular ever since.
At her death, her total assets were valued
at under £800. In her will, she left nearly everything to her
sister, Cassandra, who nursed Jane through the last illness.
Unfortunately, the will was not signed by witnesses. In order for
it to be proved as hers, two friends had to swear in a written
statement that they had known Jane Austen for years and
recognised her handwriting.
Pride and Prejudice
Jane Austen began writing the novel which later became Pride
and Prejudice in October of 1796 and finished it by August of
the following year; she was then twenty-one years old. Little is
known of this early version of the story beyond its original
title: First Impressions. No copy of that original is
known to exist. Three months after Miss Austen completed work on
the book, her father offered it to a publisher in the hope that
it would make it into print. The publisher refused without ever
having seen the manuscript.
Fortunately for all of her admirers, whether Austen was
discouraged or not by her first rejection, she continued to write;
though, it was not until the winter of 1811, fully fourteen years
after finishing First Impressions, that she again picked
up that manuscript and began revising it into the version we know
today as Pride and Prejudice. This occurred in the wake of
her first publishing success--the publication of Sense and
Sensibility on 30 October 1811. Pride and Prejudice
was far more fortunate than its earlier incarnation; it was
accepted for publication and was presented to the world on 28
January 1813.
Jane Austen's name was never attached to any of her published
novels during her lifetime, and the title page of Pride and
Prejudice read only:
Read it here - http://www.online-literature.com/austen/prideprejudice/
Some useful sites -
http://librivox.org/pride-and-prejudice-by-jane-austen-solo-project/
(listent to the story using mp3)
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