Jane Austen

Jane Austen (16 December 1775 – 18 July 1817) was an English novelist best known for her six major works, which interpret, critiqued, and commented on the British landed aristocracy around the turn of the nineteenth century. Austen's stories frequently address women's need for marriage in order to achieve social status and financial security. Her works are part of the shift to 19th-century literary realism and critique the novels of sensibility from the second half of the 18th century. Critics and academics have praised her use of stinging irony, as well as her realism and social critique.

She earned moderate success and little reputation in her lifetime with the publishing of Sense and Sensibility (1811), Pride and Prejudice (1813), Mansfield Park (1814), and Emma (1816), all of which were published anonymously. She also wrote two additional books, Northanger Abbey and Persuasion, both of which were published posthumously in 1818, and started a third, Sanditon, but died before it was finished. Three volumes of childhood writings in manuscript, the brief epistolary novel Lady Susan, and another unfinished novel, The Watsons, were also left behind.

Austen has spawned a slew of critical studies and anthologies. Her books have inspired numerous films, ranging from the 1940s Pride and Prejudice to more current works such as Sense and Sensibility (1995) and Love & Friendship (1999). (2016)

Nationality: U.K