Intro to Pride and Prejudice

Jane Austen Biography

Jane Austen was a British author who lived and wrote during the 19th century. Born on 16 December 1775 (seventh of eight children)
Austen began writing as a teenager.
She went on to publish four major novels in her lifetime (including Pride and Prejudice),
Two more which were published after her death.
While many biographies of her exist (many of which were written based on letters and pieces of letters)
Not a lot is really known, certainly not with certainty, about much of her personal life.
Austen’s novels are known for their humor and witty observations of society in the early 19th century.
She wrote about the everyday lives of men and women, the societal concerns of the landed gentry, and issues of morality and social hypocrisy. The Gentry had to be :
- Moral
- Well Educated
While much of her work explores the complications of relationships, love and marriage, she herself remained single.
In 1816, Austen’s health began to deteriorate and she died on 18 July 1817, at the age of 41.
The exact cause of her ill health and death is not known, though it has been speculated that she may have suffered from Addison’s disease.
To this day, Austen’s work is still loved, read, taught, and regularly remade into TV and film adaptations.

Some of her famous works include

Social Class
- In Jane Austen’s time, English society was highly divided into a social hierarchy of wealth and class.
- At the top of the hierarchy was the royal family; beneath them were the aristocracy (earls, dukes, lords, etc.);
- then came the upper-class gentry (those who owned land and did not need to work for a living),
- after which would have been doctors, lawyers, clergy, etc.;
- and then at the bottom the lower and working classes.
- which class one belonged to determined much of what one could do, how they were treated, who they might marry, etc.
Gender, Power, Economics