Jane Austen - Star of the Literary Sky :: Biography Biographies Essays

Jane Austen - Star of the Literary Sky      Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Jane Austen was born on December 16, 1775 in a town called Steventon, Hampshire, near Basingstoke, England. In a family of eight children, she was the second eldest. Her mother was called Cassandra, as well as her older sister and her father was George Austen, the local rector (clergyman). When her sister Cassandra, who was only three years older and to whom she was really close, wanted to go to Oxford, she followed, but the two girls had to come back home after only a few months. They were inseparable. Their mom even declared once, "If Cassandra were going to have her head cut off, Jane would insist on sharing her fate." Despite the Oxford drop out, Jane did not lack education. Her brother James helped her study and with his help, she could afterwards "lay claim to a good knowledge of history as well as a little Latin, Italian and musical training." However, Jane decided in 1787 to dedicate all her spare time to writing. She wrote mostly in her parents' living r oom, accompanied by all her family. Her very first work consisted of three volumes of "Juvenilia," a series of parodies and satirical stories, which was only published after her death. At the age of only 19 she started working on "Lady Susan," who was going to be later known as "Northanger Abbey." In 1795 she started working on "Elinor and Marianne," which eventually became "Sense and Sensibility." Only a year after, she began "First Impressions," which later turned into the much appreciated, and the author's personal favourite, "Pride and Prejudice."      Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   The surroundings of Steventon impressed Jane Austen immensely, which is why a lot of the landscapes in the outdoor scenes of her novels, resemble the gardens and walkways of her hometown. Unfortunately, Jane did not live in Steventon her whole life. In 1800, her family moved to a small town called Bath. Later, when her father died in 1805, Jane, Cassandra and their mother moved to a small village from southern England, called Chawton. After her father's death, they became very poor, as the funds that came from her father's clerical affairs stopped when he stopped breathing. This resembles the situation that Austen describes in "Pride and Prejudice," where it is explained that if Elizabeth Bennet's father died, her whole family's money, house and furniture would go to the closest male relative of the family.