Austen, Jane

Austen, Jane (1775-1817), author, b. Steventon, Hampshire. Jane Austen was the first English woman to become a famous author.

She was the daughter of a parson, one of eight children, and she began writing as a child to amuse the family.

She wrote six great novels, the most famous being Pride and Prejudice (1813).

In Miss Austen's time, people liked reading fanciful adventure stories, but her books were about the daily lives of ordinary people and at first she found it hard to get them published. Yet they are still popular today, and Pride and Prejudice has been made into a famous film and there have been many TV adaptations, and the hit movie Bridget Jones's Diary is based on the same story. See IVOR BROWN Jane Austen and Her World Hill & Wang Pub (June 1966)