Austen

Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)

JANE, an English novelist, born at Stevenson, Hampshire, of which parish her father was the rector, Dec. 16, 1775. She was the youngest of seven children, among whom she had but one sister, and of her brothers two ultimately rose to the rank of Admiral in the navy. Jane learned French and Italian, and had a good acquaintance with English literature, her favorite authors being Richardson, Johnson, Cowper, Crabbe, and later, Scott. In 1801 she went with her family to Bath, and after her father's death in 1805, removed to Southampto-1, and, finally, in 1809, to Shawton, near Winchester. She had written stories from her childhood, but it was here she first gave anything to the world. Four stories were published anonymously during her lifetime: "Sense and Sensibility" (1811); "Pride and Prejudice" (1813); "Mansfield Park" (1814), and "Emma" (1816). The first two were written before the gifted authoress was more than two-and-twenty years old. Early in 1816, her health began to give way. In May, 1817, she went for medical advice to Winchester, and there she died, July 18, 1817. She was buried there in the Cathedral. "Northanger Abbey" and "Persuasion" were published in 1818, when the authorship of the whole six was first acknowledged. Jane Austen's novels are the earliest example of the so-called domestic novel in England. The finest critics, with singular unanimity, have praised the delicacy of her touch, and her faultless work has called forth the most unqualified admiration from Southey, Coleridge, Sydney Smith, and Lord Macaulay. small town of