Jane Austen

Mara Fox

Early Life

• Born: December 16, 1775 to George and Cassandra Leigh Austen

• Father was a cergyman• Mother was of minor gentry class, related

distantly to titled people• 6 brothers• 1 sister

FASHIONABLE CONNECTIONS

George Austen

• Educated at Oxford and Tonbridge• Was cleric because of wealthy family member,

Thomas Knight of Godmersham Park, Kent• The Knights later adopted Edward Austen as

their son and heir

Elizabeth (Eliza) Hancock

• Cousin to Jane• Married Jean Capotte, French aristocrat• Married Henry Austen when Capotte was

beheaded during French Revolution

Madam Lefroy

• Sister of Kentish squire Sir Samuel Egerton Brydges

• ‘Took up’ Austen and encouraged her intellectual growth.

SIBLINGS

James

• Oxford• Succeeded his father

George

• Was sickly and did not participate in family life

Edward

• Adopted by the Knights• Took over Knight estate in 1797

Henry

• Oxford• Military, gave that up• Banking• Married widowed cousin, Eliza• Became clergyman when bank failed

Cassandra

• Austen’s best friend• Never married, Fiancé died

Francis and Charles

• Royal Naval Acadamy• Became Admirals

WRITINGS

Pride and Prejudice: A Novel

• The story of Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy, one of Austens best known books, in which two people who seem to hate each other, fall in love despite the help and interference of those around them, as well as themselves.

Sense and Sensibility: A Novel

• The story of the courtship of two sisters, Elinor and Marianne Dashwood

Northanger Abbey

• Considered Austen’s earliets substancial work• Story of Christine Morland, a young woman

thrown into a semblance of a courtship who is noticed by the youngest son of General.

Mansfeild Park: A novel

• Story of Fanny Price, who is removed from her family and treated like an outcast.

• Austen become seriously ill in March 1817 and dies on July 18, 1817 before Northanger Abbey is published

Works Cited

• Lady,, By A. "Jane Austen Biography." UNet Users' Home Pages. Web. 11 Dec. 2010. <http://people.brandeis.edu/~teuber/austenbio.html>