Jane Austen

View a timeline of Jane Austen's life

Austen was born in 1775 and died in 1817. In that time, she wrote six novels that have gone on to become some of the most celebrated in the English language. This timeline allows you to see the events that shaped her writing, from her informal education at a young age to the illness that eventually took her life.

Jane Austen revolutionized a form of narration in the novel

Austen's books are narrated by a third-person omniscient narrator, which was not new for her time. Austen, however, helped popularize a little-used technique called "free indirect discourse," in which the narrator took on the style and voice of the character being described without drifting into the first-person perspective. It's a technique still often used by novelists today.

A linguist argues Jane Austen's language is what defines her fiction

While many readers love Austen's novels for their characters and their romantic plots, Chi Luu argues that many people (including literary luminaries like Mark Twain, Virginia Woolf, and Ralph Waldo Emerson) underestimate how her adept wordplay, sense of irony, and memorable turns of phrase are what have made readers fall in love with her fiction for centuries.

A computational analysis of Jane Austen's writing

Researchers at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln translated Austen's novels into code to analyze her diction, then published their findings in a searchable database. Users can explore all six of her novels, analyzing the unique words used by her characters and the narrative techniques she employs.

Jane Austen by the numbers

This feature from the Guardian takes a unique approach to Austen's literature, breaking her life, work, and fandom down into data. The slide deck includes comparative analyses of character employment, net worth, and age. Below is a breakdown of Austen's unexpected posthumous rise to fame.

Austen grew up as a member of the 'pseudo-gentry'

Her family grew up near the upper crust of society, but was never fully of it; at times, the family struggled to make ends meet. Austen scholar Dr. Lizzie Rogers said this made her part of the "pseudo-gentry," a contemporary term naming a respected group that still fell short of the aristocratic "landed-gentry." Rogers believes that perspective informed the writer's novels, which often dealt with social conventions.

Austen left formal school at 9

Jane Austen was the seventh of eight children. At 9, her father, a clergyman in the Church of England, removed her and her sister from the Abbey School in Reading because he could not afford the tuition. Jane continued her education at home, where the family read aloud and performed plays.

A guide to the novels of Jane Austen

Austen wrote six novels, four that were published anonymously while she was alive ("Sense and Sensibility," "Pride and Prejudice," "Mansfield Park," "Emma") and two that were published posthumously, under her own name ("Northanger Abbey" and "Persuasion"). This guide, with annotations from Arizona State University professor Devoney Looser, breaks down each book's story and significance, making it an excellent primer for Jane-curious readers.

Jane Austen's novels are set in late Georgian, Regency-era England

Historians call the period from 1811 to 1820 England's Regency era, named after George Augustus Frederick, who was prince regent from 1811 (and would later become King George IV). While Austen is often considered a romance novelist, some scholars argue her novels also raise questions about societal norms around class and gender.

'Pride and Prejudice' initially received a form rejection from a publisher

Jane Austen's most popular novel—it has sold over 20 million copies and been adapted numerous times for the screen—was rejected by publisher Thomas Cadell in 1797, who responded to Austen's father's offer to send the manuscript with a curt form letter: "Declined by return of post."