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About the Salon
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About Jane Austen Jane Austen, the sixth of eight children, was born Dec. 16, 1775, to George and Cassandra Leigh Austen. Her father was a country parson who settled his family at a rectory in Steventon, Hampshire. Finances were often strained for the Austens, who raised their large family on a modest parish income. Jane was only 8 years old when her brother Edward was adopted by Thomas and Catherine Knight of Kent, wealthy and childless relatives (a theme explored in "Mansfield Park"). One of her greatest gifts was the flawless depiction of the economic underpinnings of her culture. Her intimate knowledge of the impact of money on a woman's life derived from an early awareness of her own position. George Austen, fearing the difficulties his daughters would face in life as women of small fortune, took the unusual step of sending them away to school, where they might learn the accomplishments that would help make them successful marriages. Both sisters nearly died of typhus at the first school, and Jane spent two years at a second school before returning home for good when she was 11. When her elder brother married, George Austen turned over the Steventon home to him. Jane, her parents and her sister, Cassandra, moved to Bath, beginning a brief city life Jane always detested. Her living situation became truly precarious when her father died suddenly in 1805, leaving the women with an insufficient income. Although her brothers helped support them, the three women spent several months each year with relatives. Edward Knight, Jane's brother that had been adopted, finally came to the family's rescue when he gave his mother a house on his estate at Chawton in Hampshire. In 1811, Jane published her first novel, "Sense and Sensibility." Her second novel, "Pride and Prejudice," was her most successful work. Jane began writing "Mansfield Park" in 1811; it was published in 1814. Her ability to see through the conventions of class and gender during her time, and to represent the effects of these conventions with such wit, has made her one of the most beloved of English writers, and she was the first woman writing in England to be considered a great artist. Jane Austen died in 1817 of Addison's disease.
You have the option of purchasing your own copies of The New York Public Library Collector's editions of the classic books being discussed, courtesy of Borders Books and Music. Just click on:
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