Interesting Facts About Jane Austen

Here are some things you may not know about Jane Austen.

The work of English novelist Jane Austen continues to flourish more than 200 years after her death. Her take on love’s many entanglements and strong female characters continue to resonate with people today. Her books, like Pride and Prejudice and Emma,  continue to have an impact on the world. Austen’s books are insightful and continue to be analysed. Here are some interesting facts about Jane Austen you may not know about.

Jane Austen’s father helped her to succeed

Jane Austen was born on December 16, 1775, in Steventon, Hampshire, England. Her father was a rector named George Austen and her mother was Cassandra Austen. She was one of eight children and the second youngest. The vast library in her home is the reason many speculate Austen loved words and writing. George provided her with many writing tools to encourage her interests. He even sent his daughters to boarding school where they could get a good education. It is even said that George had taken her book First Impressions, which would late be called Pride and Prejudice, to a publisher in London in the hopes of getting it published.

Jane Austen’s works were not published under her name

Austen’s published work never had her name on them. They were anonymous. Austen may have chosen anonymity because she was living during a time female novelists were not exactly fussed about. She would even avoid talking about her work by concealing what she was writing if she was interrupted. It was only in 1817 when she passed away when she was identified in print thanks to her brother Henry.

Jane Austen took a longtime off

Much of Austen’s writing outside of her novels was destroyed reportedly by her sister Cassandra to hide some of Jane’s opinions from the public.  However, what is known is that Austen’s writing habits seem to have been disrupted when her family relocated to Bath following her father’s death in 1805. Three of her novels were completed by 1801. However, she only seemed to have resumed her work 10 years later.

Jane Austen edited her manuscripts with straight pins

Jane Austen was living during a time when writer’s had no access to typewriters and computers. She had to edit her manuscripts with straight pins. It is a practice that was first popular in the 17th century. She used the pins to fasten revisions to pages that needed to be reworked or corrected.