From Vikipedia

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jane_Austen

Jane Austen was born at the rectory in Steventon, Hampshire, in 1775, daughter to the Rev. George Austen (1731–1805) and his wife Cassandra (née Leigh) (1739–1827). She lived in the area for most of her life and never married. She had six brothers and one older sister, Cassandra, to whom she was very close. The only undisputed portrait of Jane Austen is a somewhat rudimentary coloured sketch done by Cassandra which resides in the National Portrait Gallery, London. Her brothers Frank and Charles went to sea, eventually becoming admirals. In 1783, she was educated briefly by a relative in Oxford, then in Southampton. In 1785–1786, she was educated at the Reading Ladies boarding school in the Abbey gatehouse in Reading, Berkshire. In general, she received an education superior to that generally given to girls of her time, and took early to writing, beginning her first tale in 1789.

Austen's life was relatively uneventful. In 1801 the family moved to Bath, the scene of many episodes in her writings (though Jane Austen, like her character Anne Elliot, seems to have "persisted in a disinclination for Bath"). In 1802 Austen received a marriage proposal from a wealthy but "big and awkward" man named Harris Bigg-Wither, who was six years her junior. Such a marriage would have "established" her (in the terminology of the day), and freed her from some of the constraints and "dependency" then associated with the role of a spinster who must rely on her family for support. Such considerations influenced her to at first accept his offer, but she then changed her mind the next day. It seems clear that she did not love him. After the death of her father in 1805, Austen, her sister, and her mother lived in Southampton with her brother Frank and his family for several years until they moved in 1809 to Chawton. Here her wealthy brother Edward had an estate with a cottage, where he allowed his mother and sisters to live. Their house is now open to the public.

Austen continued to live a quiet life with her family. In 1816, she began to suffer from ill-health. It is now thought she may have suffered from Addison's disease, the cause of which was then unknown. Her disease had ups and downs, but in 1817 her condition became so serious that she travelled to Winchester. She died there two months later, and was buried in the cathedral. Novels

· Sense and Sensibility (published 1811)

· Pride and Prejudice (1813)

· Mansfield Park (1814)

· Emma (1816)

· Northanger Abbey (1817) posthumous

Persuasion (1817) posthumous