By Ellen Madden
The well-known author Jane Austen was born on the 16th of December 1775, and was the second daughter and seventh child in her family. She died on the 18th of July 1817 at the age of 47. She lived a short and extraordinary life. She never married or had any children; instead, she wrote rather fascinating novels, which are still being read centuries later. Unlike most women at that particular time, she and her sister as well as her brothers received excellent education.
In Jane Austen’s family, there were eight people: four sons and two daughters as well as a loving mother and father. Jane’s father was Reverand George Austen, who was a rector in Hampshire, while her mother, Cassandra Leigh, was known for her humour through her various stories and stanzas, which allowed the family to experience joy through acting. She spent most of her life in Hampshire, England, with her family, where Jane was also laid to rest in Winchester Cathedral in Hampshire.
Within her lifetime, she has written six novels in beautiful detail, in which we can see various characters go through good times and how they face hard times.
The first book was published in 1811, titled Sense and Sensibility. The main characters of this novel are the Dashwood sisters, who challenge and explore the true meaning of societal norms, love, and marriage. Jane Austen made sure to focus on the victories and failures of life, which we all experience in unique ways in our own lives. Austen has also concentrated on using her intellect and her unique insight into the environment humans have lived in, and the different ways they have changed throughout her life. This novel contains 368 pages which can be read in approximately twelve hours.
The second novel was Pride and Prejudice, published in 1813. Jane Austen gives us, as readers, an insight into what it was like to live in the nineteenth century in England through the eyes of her characters, the Bennet sisters. This novel captures how the expectations of society, love, and marriage can all be connected in more ways than one throughout our lives. Pride and Prejudice is the first large novel Jane Austen has written, which contains 480 pages and can be read in sixteen hours.
Thirdly, Jane Austen wrote Mansfield Park, which was published in 1814. This is a classical novel that shows the experience of Franny Price, a cautious and modest woman who travels through love, the Bertram family, and how the hierarchy was formed as a society, as she uncovers the real meaning of happiness and true love.
Jane Austen wrote the well-known novel Emma in 1815. Emma Woodhouse uncovers the real truth of matchmaking in the nineteenth century. Jane Austen uses her unique humour and personalised view of society to help discover friendship, love, and the journeys that everyone faces. This novel is by far the largest, containing 512 pages.
Jane Austen then proceeded to take a break from completing her novels until 1817, when she published two novels in the same year.
Northanger Abbey covers a woman’s achievements and failures as she goes through her vigorous life in the eighteenth century in England. This novel also explores how people have lived in this society. This novel was the shortest novel written by Jane Austen, which contains 130 pages and can be read with comfort in four hours.
Meanwhile, Persuasion reveals the life of Anne Elliot, who works through expectations and regrets set by society, and captures second chances. As she explores societal classes, love, and how persuasion can make us change our lives through accepting opportunities and working through regrets.
Unfortunately, due to her short life, she was unsuccessful in completing her last novel, Sanditon which we all believe would have been a magnificent book, just like Jane Austen’s previous novels, which dealt with the raw truth of the real world and society that our ancestors lived in during her time.