Jane Austen was born on December 16, 1775, in the village of Steventon, near.
She was the youngest of seven children. She was daughter of the .
Reverend George Austen and his wife Cassandra. Jane was educated at home and never really.
lived apart from her family. From her oldest sister Cassandra, she was most inseparable. As a .
little girl Jane was encouraged to write. .
Impressively, at the age of fourteen she wrote her first novel. It was entitled Love and .
Friendship and soon after she published A History of England by a Partial, Prejudiced and .
Ignorant Historian. In her early twenties Jane Austen wrote the novels that were late published .
as Sense and Sensibility, Pride and Prejudice, and Northanger Abbey. The Watson's was .
another of her novels, however it was never completed. Her other three books Mansfield Park, .
Emma, and Persuasion belong to a later period which were written between 1811 and 1816. .
Mansfield Park was published in 1814 and Emma in 1816. All were anonymously published.
Some readers wonder whether the childhood of the character Catherine Morland in Jane .
Austen's novel Northanger Abbey might reflect her own personal childhood. .
As a young lady Jane Austen enjoyed dancing and she attended many balls in the .
neighborhood. This activity is featured in many of her novels. She loved the country and long .
country walks and had several Hampshire friends. In 1801 Austen was shocked when her .
family announced that they would be moving away to Bath. The next four years in Bath were.
difficult ones for her. She disliked the surroundings of a busy town and missed her Steventon .
life. After her father's death, his widow and two daughters had many financial difficulties and.
had to rely on charity. "However, she wrote little in Bath and nothing at all in Southampton" .
(Fullerton). This discontinued her motivation shortly for writing books. But, she was very .
familiar with he eighteenth century novels.
