Jane Austen

Born in 1775 in England, Jane Austen was the seventh of eight children, the second daughter of a clergyman and his wife. While she was mostly educated at home, she did receive two years of education while living with an aunt and a year at a boarding school.

In 1787, Austen began writing parodies of the novels that she and her father were so fond of reading. In 1795, she began writing novels, though her first efforts were rejected by publishers who wouldn't even look at the manuscript. She eventually published her manuscripts anonymously and they were widely read during her lifetime and ever since. After her death in 1817, her brother made the authorship of her books public.

While Austen's heroines always married, she herself remained single.

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