Most literary critics today can’t even begin to conceive discussing contemporary fiction without mentioning the contributions and influence of Jane Austen. It is pretty much universally acknowledged truth in literary circles that Jane Austen is an iconic English novelist that is also one of the most memorable, and her legacy remains more than 200 years later.

Jane Austen died at the age of 41 and left behind six completed novels. In her writings, Jane Austen portrayed life in the late 18th century as she saw it, with a critical and frequently hilarious tone laced with irony, as well as a feeling of realism about the age and the people she wrote about.

Today, the works of Jane Austen have been widely adapted into dozens of films, miniseries, and television shows, becoming well-known titles that conjure images of peculiar female leads and unconventional romances.

However, while many are acquainted with Jane Austen’s characters, like the intriguing Mr. Darcy and the stubborn Elizabeth Bennett, not much is known about Jane Austen’s life itself. Content Bash presents more than 40 facts about Jane Austen that can help us reach a better understanding of the beloved writer’s life and work.

Jane Austen: Early Life, Family, Childhood & Education

1. When and where was Jane Austen born?

Jane Austen was born in Steventon, Hampshire on December 16, 1775. Her birth was a full month after her parents were expecting her. Due to the harsh winter that year, it wasn’t until April 5, 1775 that Jane got baptized at their local church.

2. Jane Austen’s mother was from a higher social rank than her father

Jane Austen’s father was George Austen, who was orphaned as a child. Jane Austen’s mother was Cassandra Leigh, who came from a prominent family. They probably met at St. John’s College, Oxford and married on April 26, 1764. The difference in social dynamics between George and Cassandra perhaps explains why the topic of love across different social classes is so commonly present in Jane Austen’s novels.

3. Jane Austen’s mother didn’t raise her kids in their infancy

Once the children were weaned at the age of 3 to 4 months, Cassandra Leigh sent them to the village where they were taught how to walk, use the bathroom, and speak. When they reached the age of 2, they returned to their family home after being looked after by caregivers.

4. Jane Austen had 7 siblings

While Jane Austen came from a large family of 8 children, she was the only girl along with her older sister Cassandra Austen. The biographies written about her usually only mention that Jane Austen had 5 brothers: James, Frank, Charles, Edward, and Henry. However, there’s a 6th forgotten brother named George Austen.

5. Cassandra Austen did the portrait of Jane Austen

Cassandra Austen was Jane Austen’s older sister who had some pretty good artistic skills. Cassandra Austen was a talented watercolorist who provided illustrations for Jane’s manuscript for The History of England. Cassandra Austen even provided a sketch of her sister that has been the basis for many other renditions of Jane Austen.

6. Jane Austen’s brother George was sent away

George Austen may have been deaf and mute, suffering from epilepsy and learning difficulties as well. Whatever it was that George Austen suffered from, the family couldn’t look after him and sent him away to be fostered. Despite the fact that Jane Austen’s family financially supported George and visited him on a regular basis, he is rarely mentioned in the family’s memoirs, and Jane Austen does not mention George in any of her letters.

7. Henry Thomas Austen hyped up his sister

Henry Thomas Austen (June 8, 1771 — March 12, 1850) was Jane Austen’s big brother and worked as clergyman and banker. Henry Austen was also Jane Austen’s favorite brother and the feeling was probably mutual. Henry Thomas was very popular, outgoing, and socially ambitious and would often talk up his sister’s novels to his circle of friends. It likely contributed to her success.

8. Jane’s cousin saved her life

In 1783, Jane Austen and her sister Cassandra were sent to be educated by Mrs. Ann Cawley, when they both caught typhus fever. Jane was awfully ill, but Mrs. Cawley made no attempt to notify her parents, for some crazy unknown reason. Jane Cooper was Jane Austen’s cousin and she took it upon herself to write to her aunt and alert her that Jane’s life was in danger. Mrs. Austen and her sister Mrs. Cooper left immediately for Southampton to save their daughters.

9. Jane Austen and Cassandra had to leave school because it was too expensive

Jane Austen began attending Reading Abbey Girls’ School with her sister Cassandra in early 1785, where she was taught by Mrs. La Tournelle, who had a cork leg and a passion for theatre. The sisters went home by the end of 1786 because the Austen family couldn’t afford the school tuition for the two girls. Jane Austen “never again lived anywhere beyond the bounds of her immediate family environment.”

10. Jane Austen was educated by her father

Jane’s education later became the responsibility of her father, George Austen. Her father had a large library, and academics believe Jane Austen was a voracious reader from a young age because of it. In addition to teaching his daughter, George Austen was instrumental in getting her works published. Believe it or not, women were not allowed to sign contracts on their own at the time and needed their father’s or husband’s approval.

11. Winston Churchill was a fan of Jane Austen

As Britain went to war again between 1939 and 1940, sales of Pride and Prejudice soared. In a rare moment of relief from leading the battle against fascism, Winston Churchill completed Pride and Prejudice with a bittersweet yearning for the trouble-free world he discovered there: “What calm lives they had, those people!”

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Life & Times of Jane Austen

12. Jane Austen lived mostly during wartime

For nearly 29 of Jane Austen’s 41 years, England and France were at war. Despite living in wartime for a significant percentage of her life, there is no mention of war in any of the works of Jane Austen.

13. Jane Austen wrote around 3,000 letters, but only 160 survived

Jane Austen’s life is filled with gaps and question marks that would be a lot easier to fill with the thousands of letters she wrote in her lifetime. However, Jane’s sister, Cassandra burned these letters after Jane’s death to prevent them from falling into the wrong hands and protect the family’s reputation.

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14. Jane Austen was good with her hands

While Jane Austen was obviously brilliant with words, most people don’t know that Jane Austen was also quite handsy. From folding letters to sewing, Jane was “successful in everything she attempted with her fingers,” as her nephew described.

15. Jane Austen brewed her own beer!

Ever the hipster, Jane Austen — along with the rest of the Austen family — knew how to brew her own beer from scratch. Jane Austen even had a specialty brew: spruce beer made with molasses for an extra sweet kick. Here’s a link to the Austen family recipe for mead.

16. Jane Austen was never married, but was engaged for one night

While the heroines of Jane Austen all end up happily married in her books, she wasn’t getting chased by suitors and didn’t get married up to her death. The one marriage proposal she did receive was a surprising one from Harris Bigg Wither, who was the wealthy brother of her friends and heir to a considerable estate. Jane Austen first accepted this enticing offer, but after a sleepless night, changed her mind, realizing she would be unhappy if she married without love.

17. Jane Austen stopped writing for almost a decade

By 1801, Jane Austen had completed 3 of her books, demonstrating how feverishly she was working at the time. Then in the few years before her father’s death, she appeared to have stopped writing completely. This might have been due to her father’s decision to transfer the family to Bath after his retirement. According to scholars, Jane Austen hated this relocation and temporarily quit writing as a result.

18. Jane Austen was fond of one thing while living in Bath

Jane developed an affection for Bath buns (or “bunns”) while visiting and then living in Bath. These large, rich cakes were served warm and soaked in butter, similar to French brioche bread. The Austen family ate them for breakfast, but they were particularly Jane’s favorite. She wrote to her sister, “You know how interesting the purchase of a sponge cake is to me.”

19. Jane Austen had a real-life Sense and Sensibility romance

When Jane was around twenty years old, Jane met Tom Lefroy and a romance quickly sparkled. Jane wrote to her sister that he was a “very gentlemanlike, good-looking, pleasant young man,” and hinted that she was expecting a proposal from him. Unfortunately for the couple, Tom Lefroy’s family considered any upcoming engagement as very problematic. Tom was being supported externally by family members while in school and marrying someone from a lower social standing might risk him losing his inheritance. As a result, Lefroy’s family interfered and Tom was gone.

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20. Jane Austen wrote anonymously

Jane Austen’s published writings, from Sense and Sensibility to Emma, never actually bore her name. “A Lady” was named the writer of Sense and Sensibility, whereas later works like Pride and Prejudice were credited to “The Author of Sense and Sensibility.” It’s possible that Austen chose anonymity since female authors were frowned upon at the time for choosing what was perceived to be a potentially vulgar, male-dominated profession.

21. Jane Austen made little money and died with a small estate

Despite the fact that her books sold well in her time, Jane Austen didn’t gain much money from them. This was mainly because she sold the copyright directly to the publishers, inhibiting herself from any future revenue, as was the case for Pride and Prejudice. Jane Austen only sold Pride and Prejudice for £110 (about $149 USD), while her book made 4x that profit in revenue.

22. Jane Austen was only credited for her work after her death

Jane Austen’s name appeared in print for the first time only after her death in 1817, when her brother Henry Thomas Austen penned a eulogy to accompany the posthumous release of Persuasion and Northanger Abbey.

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23. Jane Austen kept imagining the lives of her characters after the novels

Jane Austen’s imagination did not stop with the pages of her novels, and she would imagine the progression of her characters long after she had written the last line. According to her nephew, Jane Austen would tell her family about what happened to her characters after the book.

24. Jane Austen used straight pins to edit her work

In at least one instance, she edited her work using straight pins, a time-consuming and painful procedure. Jane Austen grabbed the pins and used them to tie modifications to the parts that needed rewrites for the unfinished manuscript The Watsons. The technique has been around since the 17th century. You can even buy your own straight pins and be like Jane Austen!

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25. Jane Austen’s writings were pirated and translated into French

Jane Austen’s books were translated into French and released in poorly-made, pirated versions in France without Austen’s knowledge or agreement. To make matters worse, Austen’s chief translator in France was a lady named Madame Isabelle de Montolieu who didn’t understand English very well. Her translations only scratched the surface of Austen’s work as she relied on assistants to provide a summary and frequently altered the plots and characters radically.

What books did Jane Austen write? Major Works

26. Jane Austen wrote satirical novels and parodies as a teenager

At the age of 12, Jane began writing different types of work that she would later call her “Juvenilia.” Among these works was the satirical novel, Love and Friendship, which she wrote at the age of fourteen. At 16, she wrote textbook parodies and titled it The History of England… by a partial, prejudiced and ignorant historian.

27. When did Jane Austen publish her first novel Sense and Sensibility?

Sense and Sensibility was published in 1811. It was not credited to Jane Austen but to instead “A Lady.” The print run for the first edition was 750 copies — which sold out by the middle of 1813.

28. Sense and Sensibility could’ve been completely different

When Jane Austen started writing Sense and Sensibility, she was only 19 years old and gave it the title Elinor and Marianne, naming it after the heroines. The novel also looked a lot different as it was told in the form of letters – an epistolary form. It wasn’t until 1811 that the tale was published with a narrative form and the title Sense and Sensibility.

29. When did Jane Austen publish Pride & Prejudice?

Pride and Prejudice was published on January 28, 1913. The novel got its share of attention upon publication, and it remains one of the most popular novels in the history of the English language.

30. A publisher rejected Pride and Prejudice without even reading it

When Jane Austen wrote First Impressions, which was the early version of Pride and Prejudice, her father George Austen sent it to a publisher in London for feedback. The book was rejected by the publisher without even being read.

31. Jane Austen didn’t invent the term “Pride and Prejudice”

The term “Pride and Prejudice” was a nod to another female writer named Frances Burney that Jane Austen was a huge fan of. Frances Burney used the phrase in her 1782 novel Cecilia.

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32. Darcy and Elizabeth in Pride and Prejudice might be modeled on her real-life romance

Tom Lefroy had a brief romance with Jane Austen, who she mentioned in two letters to her sister Cassandra. Some have speculated that he was in mind when Austen created the character of Mr. Darcy in Pride and Prejudice, as the courtship between Tom Lefroy and Jane Austen occurred during the year or so that it was written. Scholars believe Austen modeled the novel’s heroine, Elizabeth Bennet, and used her own personality to model Mr. Darcy.

33. Charlotte Brontë wasn’t a fan of Pride and Prejudice

In a letter, Charlotte Brontë, the eldest of the famous literary Brontë sisters, describes Pride and Prejudice as a disappointment and described it as “a carefully fenced, highly cultivated garden, with neat borders and delicate flowers; but … no open country, no fresh air, no blue hill, no bonny beck.”

34. When did Jane Austen publish Mansfield Park?

Mansfield Park — the 3rd novel published by Jane Austen — was first published in July 1814. It was a hit with the public and the first printing sold out within 6 months.

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35. When did Jane Austen publish Persuasion?

Persuasion by Jane Austen was published posthumously on December 20, 1817, along with Northanger Abbey as part of a 4-volume set. It had an initial print run of 1,750 copies that quickly sold out.

36. When did Jane Austen publish Northanger Abbey?

Jane Austen published Northanger Abbey posthumously on December 20, 1817, along with Persuasion as part of a 4-volume set. The initial print run for the two-fer was 1,750 copies — which quickly sold out.

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37. Northanger Abbey almost didn’t get published

Jane Austen sold a manuscript novel in two volumes titled Susan to the publisher Crosby & Co. for £10 in 1803. This publisher did not print the piece and instead kept the manuscript. Austen allegedly threatened to take her work back from them, but Crosby & Co answered that she would face legal ramifications if she did so. Jane’s brother, Henry, eventually purchased it back in 1816, edited it, and republished it after Austen’s death underneath a new title: Northanger Abbey.

38. An early reference to baseball can be found in Northanger Abbey

The 1st chapter of Northanger Abbey contains the passage “”Catherine, who had by nature nothing heroic about her, should prefer cricket, baseball, riding on horseback, and running about the country.” Published in 1817, this contains one of the earliest known references to the sport of baseball.

39. When did Jane Austen publish Emma?

Jane Austen published Emma on December 23, 1815. It was published in 3 volumes, and would be the last novel published in Jane Austen’s lifetime.

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40. Jane Austen dedicated Emma to Prince Regent, whom she hated

While Jane Austen despised the way the Prince Regent treated his estranged wife Caroline, she ended up dedicating Emma to him. Apparently, the Austen family physician was also the Prince’s, and Prince Regent was a fan of Jane Austen’s work. The Prince Regent invited her to a tour of his massive library along with his librarian James Clarke. During this visit, Clarke told Austen that she could dedicate her next novel to him if she wished — which sounded more of order rather than a suggestion!

41. Jane Austen’s unfinished manuscript was auctioned and sold for almost £1,000,000

Jane Austen’s single known work of fiction surviving in a manuscript is around 17,500 words long, and it reads like a large 1st chapter of a novel. When her nephew first introduced it to the public in the extended second edition of his Memoir of Jane Austen in 1871, he gave it the title The Watsons, “for the sake of having a title by which to designate it.” In 2011, it was again auctioned at Sotheby’s London. and sold for almost £1,000,000 (£850,000, hammer price, about $1.15M USD). It was bought by the Bodleian Library at the University of Oxford, with funds from a variety of sources, including the National Heritage Memorial Fund.

Jane Austen: Death & Legacy

42. When and how did Jane Austen die?

Jane Austen passed away on July 18, 1817. It’s believed that Jane Austen might have died from Addison’s disease or Hodgkin’s Lymphoma.

43. There is controversy surrounding Jane Austen’s death

In 2017, some theories emerged when scholars at the British Library in London alleged that Jane Austen may have been poisoned by arsenic. These assumptions are based on the suspicious symptoms Jane Austen suffered from, such as poor eyesight and abnormal skin color. It’s probably safe to say no one was out to get Jane Austen and that this isn’t necessarily an assassination attempt but it could have perhaps been due to consuming contaminated water or mixed medications.

44. Jane Austen mentioned only 3 people in her will

Despite having quite a big family, only her sister Cassandra Austen and her brother Henry Thomas Austen were mentioned in Jane Austen’s will. Interestingly, Madame Bigeon, the secretary of Henry’s wife was the third person to be mentioned. You can actually read Jane Austen’s will on The National Archives UK site.

Final Thoughts on Jane Austen

Jane Austen personified the strong-willed, headstrong heroines of her books in many ways. Her characters arrived from all different circumstances and origins, but they also all wanted the same thing in real love. It’s ironic that such a thing escaped the great Jane Austen herself, but perhaps her stories wouldn’t have been the same otherwise.

There’s no questioning the icon status of Jane Austen. From required readings in schools, reproductions of her classic works in bookstores, as well as television and film adaptations of her novels, the romantic period that Jane Austen created in the minds of her readers have resonated for decades and will continue to last for decades to come.

Want to read more facts about literary superstars? Check out more lists at Content Bash, like Oscar Wilde, Mary Shelley, Charlotte Brontë, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Bram Stoker, and Philip K. Dick.

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