Austen, Jane

English novelist. She described her raw material as ‘three or four families in a Country Village’. Sense and Sensibility was published in 1811, Pride and Prejudice in 1813, Mansfield Park in 1814, Emma in 1816, and Northanger Abbey and Persuasion together in 1818, all anonymously. She observed speech and manners with wit and precision, and her penetrating observation of human behaviour results in insights that go beyond the limitations of the historical period. Many of her works have been successfully adapted for film and television.

Austen was born in Steventon, Hampshire, where her father was rector. She was sent to school in Reading with her elder sister Cassandra, who was her lifelong friend and confidante, but she was mostly taught by her father. In 1801 the family moved to Bath and after the death of her father in 1805, to Southampton, settling in 1809 with her mother and sisters in a house in Chawton, Hampshire, provided by her brother Edward (1768–1852). She died in Winchester, and is buried in the cathedral. Austen's novels reveal her to be a scrupulous and conscious artist who is consistently concerned with the accuracy of information used. This commitment to precision is mirrored in her precise use of language. Describing individuals coping with ordinary life and social pressures, she probes the centres of human experience, using a sharp, satiric wit to expose the follies, hypocrisies, and false truths of the world. Although she was a contemporary of Romanticism, her novels retain a certain classicism and detachment, always keeping a sense of proportion. Most involve a movement towards self-realization, felt particularly in Emma. Austen's plot is often conveyed by dialogue, which also reveals character.