Jane Austen facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Jane Austen
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Portrait of Jane Austen, drawn by her sister Cassandra (c. 1810)
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| Born | 16 December 1775 Steventon Rectory, Hampshire, England |
| Died | 18 July 1817 (aged 41) Winchester, Hampshire, England |
| Resting place | Winchester Cathedral, Hampshire, England |
| Period | 1787 to 1809–11 |
| Genre | Romance |
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Jane Austen (born December 16, 1775 – died July 18, 1817) was a famous English novelist. She wrote many popular books about love and life. Her stories often focused on the lives of people from the gentry, which was a class of wealthy landowners.
Jane Austen's books are known for their humor and clever observations. They also show how women in her time often needed to marry for social standing and money. Her writing helped change how novels were written. She moved away from overly emotional stories to more realistic ones. This made her books feel very modern for her time.
Austen was born in Steventon, England. She was mostly taught at home by her father and brothers. She also learned a lot from reading books. She lived with her family in different places, including Bath and Chawton. She died in Winchester when she was 41 years old.
She was very humble about her writing. She once said her work was like a "little bit (two inches wide) of ivory," meaning it was small but detailed. Only four of her novels were published while she was alive: Sense and Sensibility (1811), Pride and Prejudice (1813), Mansfield Park (1814), and Emma (1815). Two more, Northanger Abbey and Persuasion, came out after she died. Today, Jane Austen is seen as one of the greatest English writers ever.
Contents
About Jane Austen's Life
It's hard to know everything about Jane Austen's life. This is because many of her letters were lost or destroyed. Her sister, Cassandra, burned most of the letters she had. This means we have only a few details about her daily life. For many years after she died, her relatives wrote about her. They often described her as "good quiet Aunt Jane."
Her Family
Jane Austen's parents were George Austen and Cassandra. They were both from the gentry class. George Austen was a clergyman, which means he worked for the church. They got married in 1764.
Jane had a big family with six brothers and one sister. Her sister, Cassandra Elizabeth, was her best friend. They were very close. Jane also felt close to her brother Henry. He helped her with her writing. Her brothers Charles and Frank worked in the navy. Another brother, Edward, was adopted by a rich cousin. He later changed his last name to Knight.
Growing Up and Learning
Jane Austen was born on December 16, 1775. When she was a baby, a woman named Elizabeth Littlewood took care of her for about a year. In 1783, Jane and Cassandra went to school in Oxford. They later moved to Southampton with their teacher. Both girls got very sick with typhus, and Jane almost died.
After that, Jane was taught at home until 1785. She then went to a boarding school with Cassandra. There, she learned French, spelling, needlework, dancing, and music. She also learned a lot by reading books from her father's large library. Her father encouraged her writing. He even gave her expensive paper to use.
Jane and her family also loved to put on plays at home. Most of these plays were comedies. This was a fun way for Jane to develop her funny and clever writing style.
Her First Writings
Jane Austen started writing poems, short stories, and plays when she was young. She put 29 of these early works into three notebooks. These are now called the Juvenilia. She wrote them between 1787 and 1793.
Some of her early works include Love and Freindship (finished in 1790) and Lesley Castle (finished in 1792). In Love and Freindship, she made fun of popular novels of the time. She also wrote The History of England. This book had 13 watercolour pictures drawn by her sister Cassandra.
Her Final Years
Jane Austen started feeling very sick in 1816. This was the year her novel Persuasion was published. In May 1817, she moved to Winchester to be closer to her doctor. She hoped to find a cure for her illness.
Sadly, Jane Austen died on July 18, 1817, at the age of 41. Doctors believe she likely died from Addison's disease. She was buried in Winchester Cathedral on July 24, 1817.
Jane Austen's Famous Novels
Jane Austen wrote six main novels that are still loved today. These books explore themes of love, marriage, social class, and personal growth.
- Sense and Sensibility (1811)
- Pride and Prejudice (1813)
- Mansfield Park (1814)
- Emma (1815)
- Northanger Abbey (published after her death in 1817)
- Persuasion (published after her death in 1817)
She also wrote some earlier works, like Lady Susan. She started another novel called Sanditon, but she died before she could finish it.
See also
Images for kids
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Steventon Church, as depicted in A Memoir of Jane Austen
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Steventon rectory, as depicted in A Memoir of Jane Austen, was in a valley and surrounded by meadows.
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Thomas Langlois Lefroy, Lord Chief Justice of Ireland, by W. H. Mote (1855); in old age, Lefroy admitted that he had been in love with Austen: "It was boyish love."
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Austen's house, 4 Sydney Place, Bath, Somerset
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Austen was a regular visitor to her brother Edward's home, Godmersham Park in Kent, between 1798 and 1813. The house is regarded as an influence on her works.
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Watercolour of Jane Austen by her sister, Cassandra, 1804.
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Cottage in Chawton, Hampshire where Austen lived during her last eight years of life, now Jane Austen's House Museum
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First edition title page from Sense and Sensibility, Austen's first published novel (1811)
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8 College Street in Winchester where Austen lived her last days and died.
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Austen commemoration on the wall of Poets' Corner in Westminster Abbey, London
