English 1010
Research Paper
12-17-10
“The person, be it gentleman or lady, who has not pleasure in a good novel, must be intolerably stupid”-Jane Austen. Jane Austen has the power to say this because she is known as one of the best-loved English novelists (World Book). If a person does not find enjoyment from reading one of her books, they must not truly have read and understood the novel thoroughly. Austen’s work only recently became popular due to reproductions of her work in bookstore and cinema releases of her novels. Readers connect easily with Austen’s work because she wrote about romantic situations, filled with drama, that most people have endured before. These questions arise though, why did Austen write about such things? Was Jane Austen presented with these same romantic situations in her lifetime? Austen lived a very successful life from the beginning to the end and her name lives on.
Jane Austen, born December 16th, 1775, was the seventh child of Reverend George of the Steventon rectory Austen and Cassandra Austen of the Leigh family. Austen was born in Steventon, Hampshire, England under the reign of King George III, which played a role in the background of her novels she would later write. She was born into a family where the majority of the children were boys. Austen had one older sister named Cassandra, after her mother. Being the only daughters Jane and Cassandra formed a close relationship. Austen’s siblings were James, Edward, Henry, Cassandra, Francis, George, and her younger brother Charles. Jane’s father, Reverend George Austen was the Steventon Parish priest and he also worked as a farmer to help earn more money for his growing family. Reverend Austen was a scholar who encouraged the love of learning in his children (Southam). The Austen’s were a very close-knit family and Jane formed a very strong bond with her father. Because Reverend Austen was a clergyman and was neither rich nor poor, the Austen family lived