HBICs of history » J a n e   A u s t e n

Jane was an English novelist whose works earned her a place as one of the most widely read writers in English literature. Her realism and biting social commentary have gained her historical importance among scholars and critics.  Her plots, though fundamentally comic, highlight the dependence of women on marriage to secure social standing and economic security.Her work brought her little personal fame and only a few positive reviews during her lifetime, but the publication in 1869 of her nephew’s A Memoir of Jane Austen introduced her to a wider public, and by the 1940s she had become widely accepted in academia as a great English writer. The second half of the 20th century saw a proliferation of Austen scholarship and the emergence of a Janeite fan culture.

Jane wrote six novels –  Pride and Prejudice, Sense and sensibility, Emma, Mansfield Park, Northanger Abbey and Persuasion.