Jane Austen is an English writer who added modern character to the novel form by writing about everyday events. She was born in 1775 in Steventon, Hampshire as a daughter of a clergyman and was raised to love literature. She was tutored at home and showed an interest in writing from a younger age; however, she was very shy and she always hid her writings on little pieces of paper from her family. She had six brothers and one beloved sister named Cassandra who was her closest friend. Her father supported her in her writing and he often bought her pencils and paper to write on.
Although most of Austen's novels are centered around courtship and marriage, Jane Austen never married herself, nor did her sister Cassandra. However, both of them were active in the social life and were very well acquainted with the upper class that Austen so often portrayed in her novels. Austen wrote her first novel Sense and Sensibility in 1797, but she only read it privately to her family. She published the novel thirty years later; however, she stayed anonymous and used the pseudonym "A Lady." Jane Austen's most popular novel is Pride and Prejudice which is considered one of the greatest novels in English literature. This novel was followed by many later successes and she the remaining six novels she published were: Emma, Mansfield Park, Northanger Abbey, and Persuasion. She continued to write in spite of her illness. She died at the age of 41, leaving her last two novels unfinished.
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With Jane Austen you can start from the very beginning. Sense and Sensibility will acquaint you with the rich-landed gentry and the lovers and admirers of the two sisters Marianne and Elinor. Sense and Sensibility is available on audio download. If you like this novel, we recommend Pride and Prejudice which we offer on audio download and CD. At LearnOutLoud.com we can hopefully help you listen to them all!