A Brief Biography of Jane Austen
Shrewd, Witty, and Observant, Jane Austen Had a Short but Full Life
Jul 19, 2009
Jane Austen was the seventh of eight children, born on 16 December 1775, in a country parsonage in Steventon, in Hampshire. Six of the children were boys, all born to country rector George Austen and his wife Cassandra.
Jane Austen’s Early Life
The energetic, affectionate family grew up in a rickety but homely rectory shared by pupils of a school run by the Austens.
Jane and her only sister, Cassandra, were quite close and remained so until Jane’s death. Where Jane was the writer, Cassandra was talented with a pencil or paints and canvas, and made several famous portraits of her sister.
Jane was reportedly a shy child who looked up to her older sister Cassandra greatly. Her mother once said of the two: “If Cassandra were going to have her head cut off, Jane would insist on sharing her fate.”
The family lived well but simply at Steventon. Jane Austen, though a prolific writer from a young age, partook of all of the daily duties that running a home in that day and age meant, from drying herbs to making mead.
Family members remember her sitting quietly doing her needlework, suddenly giggling, then running to a desk to make a note of something, undoubtedly a detail for a book she was writing.
Jane Austen’s Literary Life
In her life, Jane Austen seemed to combine the happy equation of elements Ann Radcliffe describes in The Mysteries of Udolpho, a book Jane Austen read and esteemed: “Yet amidst the changing visions of life, his principles remained unshaken, his benevolence unchilled; and he retired from the multitude ‘more in pity than in anger,’ to scenes of simple nature, to the pure delights of literature, and to the exercise of domestic virtues.”
Whilst living this delightful description of existence, Jane wrote six completed novels, two of which were published posthumously in 1818.
Jane Austen proudly declared: “I think I may boast myself, with all possible vanity, the most unlearned and uninformed female that ever dared to be an authoress.” Even so, she was the favourite novelist of George IV, the Prince Regent of England.
Her nephew, James-Edward Austen-Leigh later wrote of her life: “Of events her life was singularly barren: few changes and no great crisis ever broke the smooth current of its course.”
The great wonder of Jane Austen is that she managed to make everyday life into a work of art, in both her writing and her living, something that most people cannot manage, no matter in what age they live.
Jane Austen’s Romances
However, Jane Austen’s life was not without its soft, romantic moments.
- There was a young man, Tom Lefroy, whom she might have loved and who died before the relationship could proceed.
- There was another young man she met whilst on a family holiday at the coast, but that went nowhere, as they were parted and did not keep in touch.
- She actually accepted a proposal of marriage by a family acquaintance, Harris Bigg-Wither, only to recant it the next morning.
However, as lovers and scholars of literature can see, she made good use of her single life and did not seem to bemourn her lack of a husband.
Jane Austen’s Wit
Her dry wit that might not be appreciated or even understood by everyone could have been a defence against sadness. Death was much more common in Jane Austen’s day, as a simple infection that today could be cured with antibiotics could cause death.
This wit is shown in such phrases in letters to her sister Cassandra as these:
- “Mrs. Hall of Sherbourne was brought to bed yesterday of a dead child, some weeks before she expected, owing to a fright. I suppose she happened unawares to look at her husband.”
- And “If Mrs. Freeman is anywhere above ground give my best compliments to her.”
Upheaval in Jane Austen’s Life
The family left its beloved Hampshire countryside in 1800 when Jane Austen’s father retired and moved to Bath. He died in 1805, a blow certainly to the close-knit family. The family then relocated for several years. During this unsettled time, Jane Austen did not write; rather, she seemed to be soaking in life and images to draw upon for future work.
In 1809 the family settled in Chawton, near Alton, Hampshire, where Jane seemed to be content once again and had some productive writing years.
Jane Austen’s Last Years and Death
She visited London a few times during this period, but did not move again until May 1817 when she moved to Winchester, seeking expert medical care for her deteriorating health.
There she died on 18 July 1817, with Cassandra by her side. Cassandra wrote the heartbreaking words: “I was able to close her eyes myself…”
Upon her death, Cassandra wrote: “If I think of her less as on earth, God grant that I may never cease to reflect on her as inhabiting heaven, and never cease my humble endeavours (when it shall please God) to join her there.”
Ever modest, and though Jane Austen lived a brief, mainly uneventful life, she left the world a great legacy of literature, thought, ideas, humour, and wonderful wit.
Who better to write an epitaph than Jane Austen herself? In Mansfield Park, she writes: “Let other pens dwell on guilt and misery. I quit such odious subjects as soon as I can, impatient to restore everybody, not greatly in fault themselves, to tolerable comfort, and to have done with all the rest.”
Sources:
The Wicked Wit of Jane Austen, compiled by Dominique Enright, Michael O’Mara Books Limited, 2002, 2007.
Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen, Penguin Classics, 1995.
Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen, The Everyman Library, 1998.
My Dear Cassandra: The Illustrated Letters, by Jane Austen, selected and introduced by Penelope Hughes-Hallett, Collins & Brown, 1991.
The Mysteries of Udolpho, by Ann Radcliffe, Oxford University Press, 1998, 2008.
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