Birth of Jane Austen

Jane Austen was born on 16 December 1775 in Steventon. An English novelist, Jane Austen wrote sharp, witty portraits of provincial gentry life and the pressures women faced around marriage and money. Her major novels include Sense and Sensibility, Pride and Prejudice, Mansfield Park and Emma, and Northanger Abbey and Persuasion appeared after her death. She published anonymously during her lifetime, and her fame grew gradually through the nineteenth century. Her mastery of irony and of narration that slips into a character's thoughts influenced the development of the modern novel. She lived mostly in Hampshire and died in Winchester, and her books remain widely read and adapted.

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