Jane Austen
- Bill Weger
- 1 day ago
- 1 min read
Profiles in Classic Literature
Jane Austen (1775–1817), who remains immensely popular today, was an English novelist whose keen observations of society, wit, and mastery of free indirect discourse helped shape modern literary realism. She died at age 41.
Literary Works
Born in Steventon, Hampshire, she grew up in a close-knit family that encouraged her writing from an early age. Austen’s novels—Sense and Sensibility, Pride and Prejudice, Mansfield Park, Emma, Northanger Abbey, and Persuasion—explore themes of class, marriage, morality, and the constraints placed on women in Georgian England.
Austen's sharp dialogue and nuanced character studies earned her lasting acclaim, though she published anonymously in her lifetime.
Her work is now recognized worldwide for its intelligence, irony, and enduring insight into human behavior.
