Jane Austen was born on the 16th of December 1775, in the village of Steventon, near Basigstoke, in Hampshire. She was the daughter of Reverend George Austen and his wife, Cassandra. Jane was educated mainly at home and did not experienced life away from her family. Even from a young age, Jane was encouraged to write, and often performed plays, with her brothers and sisters, as a pastime.
Her first novel, Love and Freindship, she produced at the tender age of fourteen. In her early twenties Jane wrote the works which were later reworked and published as some of her most loved works, Sense and Sensibility, Pride and Prejudice and Northanger Abbey.
Jane Austen greatly enjoyed dancing, which is reflected in her writing. Another one of her loves was the country which she enjoyed through long walks. It was an unexpected and shocking event when her parents announced that the family would be moving away to Bath in 1801. The next four years were of considerable difficulty for Jane Austen, as she had a great dislike for the busy town and the confines of city life. It was in 1805 when her father passed away. The sadness of his passing was compounded by the great financial difficulty that befell the Austen women, who were forced to rely on the charity of the Austen sons. It was around that time that Jane Austen, while on holiday in the West country, fell in love. Tragically he died before their love could flourish, causing her deep sadness.
In July of 1809, the Austen ladies moved back to their beloved Hampshire countryside, on her brother's, Edward, offer of a permanent home on his Chawton estate. The following seven years were of great productivity for her as she revised Sense and Sensibility and Pride and Prejudice and subsequently published them in 1811 and 1813 respectively. Mansfield Park was published in 1814, followed by Emma in 1816 and followed by Persuasion which was eventually published in 1818 along with Northanger Abby, after her death. Interestingly, none of the books which were published in her lifetime credited her as the author-they were simply described as having been written "By a Lady". Her last novel, which she was unable to complete on the account of her illness, Sanditon was started in the winter of 1816. Jane Austen passed away in her sister's arms in the wee hours of the 18th of July, 1817. She is buried in Winchester Cathedral.