Jane Austen

http://pluto.scs.ryerson.ca/~monica/austen.htm

Jane Austen was an English novelist. She was born on December 16th, 1775, in the Stevenson rectory to George Austen and his wife, Cassandra Leigh. She was the seventh of eight children. Austen discovered her father's library at an early age. There were about 500 volumes in the Austen family library. Her family loved to discuss literature when she was young. She would entertain them with short plays.

Austen had an incurable itch to write, even when she was very young. She sets an example for female novelists. Her life was very short, but even when she was sick she kept writing. Austen lived her life unmarried. She was in love at one point but the young man died shortly afterwards. She accepted a proposal of marrige but, after sleeping on it, changed her mind. That was never done in her times.

"It is a truth universally aknowledged that a single man in position of a large fortune must be in want of a wife." That is the famous first line from Pride and Prejudice. All of her works are really enjoyable to read. They show what life what like back then, through female eyes. Pride and Prejudice wasn't the only novel she wrote. There are many others such as:
Sense and Sensibility
Emma
Mansfield Park
Persuation
Northanger Abbey

Pride and Prejudice was orinally called "First Impressions." In the last years of her life she started a new novel but died before she could finish it.

http://www.tportal.hr/kultura/knjige/fset.html

Jane Austen died in 1817 at the age of 41. Austen died of Addison's disease(a hormone disorder). There was no cure back then. Although her writing career was cut short, her great wit lives on in her novels.