
Today in Author Corner we are talking about one of the most prolific writers in English literature. She is a woman who has written some of the most revered stories in our history, concentrated on social standing and romance, with her books being recognised as ‘classics’ and ‘must reads’.
We are, of course, talking about the one and only Jane Austen.

The support of her family led Austen to develop and blossom as a professional writer. Her brother Henry, whom Jane was closest to out of all of her brothers, was Jane’s literary agent and helped her in terms of him having a large circle of London friends, which gave Jane a wider social outlook on the world and this was the influence for the realism and heady grasp on the social classes present in her novels.
Jane’s education was quite traditional in the way that her family raised their children. The girls, Jane and Cassandra, were moved to Oxford in 1783 to be educated by Mrs. Ann Cawley, but due to both girls catching Typhus (a bacterial virus causing symptoms including but not exclusive of back pain, delirium, headaches and vomiting), and Jane more so, Jane was consequently sent back home and home-schooled until early 1785, where the girls then journeyed to a boarding school. Unfortunately, however, it was only a year later that the girls returned home as the Austens could no longer afford to send their girls to school. The remainder of Jane’s education was acquired by reading books, and this was made a possibility due to Jane having access to both her father’s and her uncle’s personal libraries. Her father was encouraging of Jane’s flair for writing, and often gave her the materials for doing so. Therefore, Austen’s fans around the world probably have a lot to thank her father for!

Jane died on 18th July 1817, at the age of 41 years old, after suffering from an undiagnosed onset of Addison’s disease for over a year. However, it is largely recognised that Austen died of Hodgkin’s Lymphoma, a form of cancer originating from the white blood cells in the body called lymphocytes. Although ill, Jane continued to work on two novels, The Elliots and The Brothers (later being called Sanditon and published in 1817). Family until the end, both Henry and Cassandra arranged for Jane to be buried in the north aisle of the nave of Winchester Cathedral after she died, having being confined to her bed for four months before the illness took her.

Definitely deserving of her unfailing glory and celebration in literature, Austen’s stories and characters were a big risk or a woman to write about in the early 1800’s, analysing social structures and writing diverse characters, but it was indeed a big risk that paid off.
Jane Austen is a treasured storyteller whose work will continue to inspire authors and readers alike for many more years to come.