Jane Austen is one of the most-beloved and well-known authors of all time. Her classic 1813 novel Pride and Prejudice has inspired numerous retellings, spinoffs, and adaptations, and the original text is still regarded as one of the greatest love stories ever told, alongside works like Romeo and Juliet. Austen, however, hardly benefitted from her success during her lifetime: None of her books were published under her name until after she died in 1817, impoverished, at the age of 41.
Yet, her legacy is as undeniable as it is enduring. After Austen's works eventually found their audience, they became a staple in arts and culture. She's credited with shifting literary style from the highly dramatized sentimental novels of the early 18th century to the more realistic fiction that portrayed everyday people and settings. Her books have been in continuous publication since 1833 and remain popular among literary scholars and casual readers alike. Her clever approach to social satire, richly layered women characters, and relatable relationship dynamics have a timeless quality that continues to draw in new fans over 200 years after her death.
Who was Jane Austen?
Jane Austen was born on December 16, 1775, in Hampshire, England. Her father George Austen was an Anglican reverend and scholar, and her mother, Cassandra Leigh Austen, was known for her wit and storytelling prowess. Jane was the seventh of eight children, with six brothers and one older sister.
In truth, there is little known for certain about Austen’s life beyond the novels, novellas, plays, and poems she wrote. While Austen was a prolific letter writer, her closest friend and confidante, her sister Cassandra, destroyed or heavily censored the majority of Austen’s letters to her family for unknown reasons. As Austen's writing gained in popularity after her death, the Austen family made efforts to represent Jane as modest, demure, respected, and focused primarily on living a quiet life centered around her family. But scholars believe Austen to be much more like the protagonists of her work: bold, clever, daring, and in possession of a fiery wit all her own.
Austen began writing as a child to entertain her family. Her earliest written works originated at age 11, when she wrote poems, stories, and plays to be read aloud or acted out in the rectory barn of her father's church. While Austen spent some of her early years at school, her formal education ended in 1786 due to her family's inability to pay tuition. Her writing skills were largely shaped by reading, thanks to access to her father's library and the libraries of family friends.
Sense and Sensibility, released in 1811, was Austen’s first published work. The byline printed on the novel was simply "by a Lady." A woman writing under her own name was considered gauche at the time, since publishing a novel under her legal name would have signaled a taste for fame and any "respectable lady" should be focused solely on becoming a good wife and mother. Austen’s subsequent books, Pride and Prejudice (1813), Mansfield Park (1814), and Emma (1815), were all anonymously credited to "the author of Sense and Sensibility." Austen's books gained some popularity during her life and were considered an entertaining topic of conversation among high society, although she saw very little financial return for her work.
The Austen family struggled with money throughout Jane's life. She never married, nor did her close, older sister Cassandra. After the death of their father in 1805, the sisters moved frequently between the homes of family members and friends, relying on loved ones for financial support. Jane Austen grew ill in 1816 with what most biographers now believe to be Addison's Disease, an endocrine disorder that causes chronic pain, weakness, and skin discoloration. She died on July 18, 1817, at the age of 41.
Austen's brother Henry, who also served as her agent, assisted in posthumously publishing the novels Persuasion and Northanger Abbey later in 1817. These works included a biographical note on Jane written by Henry, which marked the first time she was publicly identified as the author of her writing.
What are the major themes in Austen’s work?
Jane Austen was a major influence on British literature’s shift from the "sentimental novels" of the 18th and early 19th century—known for their heightened emotions and exaggerated melodrama—toward "literary realism," which sought to truthfully represent real life with a balance of emotion and rationalism. Her works showcased life as she saw it in the Georgian/Regency-era English countryside.
Austen's books feature deeply complex, layered women protagonists who often go against norms for "respectability," while also confronting the reality that their lives were limited to opportunities presented by marriage and inherited wealth. Characters like Elizabeth Bennet, Elinor Dashwood, and Anne Elliot are clever, quick-witted, and frustrated by the societal expectations enforced upon them. Many of her characters also face poverty and dramatic changes in social status. Austen's novels frequently satirize the balls and courting behaviors of high society, and they explore class, manners, gender roles, and romantic and familial relationships. An avid reader, Austen also playfully mocked popular literary genres of the time, including sentimental novels and Gothic fiction.
Known for her signature wit, Austen had a gift for dialogue and banter. Her protagonists are often the most-grounded characters in her novels, surrounded by over-the-top characters obsessed with things like balls, flirtation, fashion, and social standing—which creates ripe opportunities for comedy.
What are Jane Austen’s most famous works?
While there are many short works and incomplete stories written by Jane Austen, she is best known for her six novels, four of which were published during her lifetime and two of which were published posthumously.
Austen's first published novel showcases a central theme present in much of her work: The plight of women in early 19th-century English society, whose fates were shaped entirely by birth and marriage, passed from the protection of their fathers into the care of their husbands. Elinor and Marianne Dashwood are sisters left destitute after the death of their father. As they enter society with a pressing need to find suitable romantic matches, Elinor and Marianne encounter an array of distasteful, disappointing, and (somewhat rarely) desirable men. It's a perfect showcase of Austen's social satire, biting wit, and dynamic women characters. Award-winning actress Rosamund Pike (a professed Austen fan who also notably portrayed Jane Bennet in the 2005 film adaptation of Pride and Prejudice) brings great appreciation and intimate understanding of the author's work to her narration.
Pride and Prejudice is perhaps Austen's most iconic work, inspiring numerous stage and screen adaptations, from the classic 1995 BBC miniseries starring Jennifer Ehle and Colin Firth, to the beloved contemporary retelling Bridget Jones's Diary. It's a familiar tale of messy families, comedic misunderstandings, and a good, old-fashioned enemies-to-lovers romance. Elizabeth Bennet is the second of five daughters born to a wealthy country gentleman whose fortune can only be passed on to a male heir. As such, at least one of the Bennet sisters must find a wealthy husband to protect their family from poverty upon their father's death. Elizabeth's kind-hearted older sister Jane is drawn toward new-in-town Mr. Bingley, a handsome bachelor. Unfortunately, smart and hard-headed Elizabeth immediately dislikes Bingley's best friend, Mr. Darcy, who she finds snobbish and rude. But as Elizabeth and Darcy are forced together by the budding love between Jane and Bingley, their initial first impressions make way for something more.
In this new Audible Original version of Pride and Prejudice, you can experience this classic love story in a magical way: narrated by a full cast that includes Marisa Abela, Harris Dickinson, Glenn Close, Marianne Jean-Baptiste, and Bill Nighy. Plus, there's an original score by Grammy-nominated musician Morgan Kibby. Prefer to stick to the original novel? Tune into this edition of Austen's Pride and Prejudice, again gloriously performed by Rosamund Pike.
Unlike Austen's first two novels, Mansfield Park focuses less on humor and more on social, familial, and religious obligations during the early 19th century. Fanny Price is sent to live with her wealthy aunt's family at the age of 10 due to her parents' financial troubles. She's mistreated by three of her four older cousins, but she grows close to Edmund, the only cousin who treats her kindly. As Fanny grows older, she watches the romantic entanglements of her cousins wax and wane, all while harboring a secret love for Edmund, who seeks to one day become a clergyman. It's a nuanced story about morality and class, narrated beautifully by acclaimed stage actress Frances Barber.
Returning to her signature comedy-of-errors style in Emma, Austen explores the messy small-town dramas of British countryside high society. Rich, witty, headstrong Emma Woodhouse sees no need to acquire a husband for herself, but she's found a passion for matchmaking others in her social circle. She decides to make her new friend Harriet her next project, setting off on a raucous adventure through flirtations, misunderstandings, rejected proposals, and unexpected connections. You can experience Austen's unforgettable cast of characters in the full-cast Audible Original starring another beloved Emma: Oscar-winning actress Emma Thompson, who also wrote and starred in the 1995 film adaptation of Sense and Sensibility.
The last work completed in her lifetime, Persuasion follows one of Austen's more mature heroines, 27-year-old Anne Elliot. Eight years prior to the start of the novel, Anne fell in love with young naval officer Frederick Wentworth and accepted his proposal. But Anne's family and friends talked her into changing her mind, as they deemed Wentworth too low-class for Anne, the daughter of a baronet. Now Anne's family has fallen upon hard times, and they are forced to move to Bath and rent their estate to an admiral and his wife. The wife's brother, as it turns out, is the now-respected Captain Wentworth, recently returned from the Napoleonic Wars. Forced to confront her past rejection of Wentworth, Anne must maneuver their reversed social positions, while determining if it's too late to rekindle their lost love. This beloved tale finds new life in audio, narrated by a full cast headed by Academy Award nominee Florence Pugh.
While known for satirizing popular literary genres of her time, Northanger Abbey is a departure from Austen's other novels in its comedic approach to sensationalized Gothic fiction. It was published at the same time as Persuasion after Austen's death, but she likely wrote the story much earlier, and coming-of-age is a central theme. Seventeen-year-old Catherine Morland is an avid reader of Gothic novels, so when she travels to Bath for a social season and stays for a time at the eerie Northanger Abbey, she naturally becomes curious about a forbidden section of the house and a related death that occurred nine years prior. Amid Catherine's prying into the mystery, she also becomes swept up in familiar dramas of balls, courting, and social games. This full-cast audiobook is narrated by Emma Thompson, alongside other notable actors, including Yellowjackets' Ella Purnell and War Horse's Jeremy Irvine.
The best books about Jane Austen
If you'd like to learn more about Jane Austen's life, literature, and legacy, here are a few excellent biographical audiobooks to explore.
A lecture in The Great Courses series, this listen on the life of Jane Austen is written and narrated by literary professor and prominent Austen scholar Devoney Looser. Most of Jane Austen's private life has been lost to history, but Looser pieces together what we do know of Austen's world from her writings and historical information about the time and society in which she lived. The author's passion for and knowledge about her subject comes across in her vibrant narration, making The Life and Works of Jane Austen an informative and entertaining listen.
We can't travel back in time to see what Jane Austen was really like, but historian Lucy Worsley realized she can travel to some of the places where Austen lived. Worsley traveled around England to the many homes in which Austen lived or stayed with friends and family, as well as the schools she attended and places she visited on holiday, to see if these locales can provide insights into her life that can't be found elsewhere. By examining the material realities of Austen's life—which were often bleak and reflected her financial troubles and limited opportunities as an unmarried woman—Worsley paints a new portrait of the beloved author. The audiobook, narrated by Worsley herself, features a guided tour of the best spots Austen fans can visit today.
Apologies to the Austen family, but their depiction of Jane as a demure, maiden aunt must be debunked. Austen scholar Devoney Looser (who, fun fact, also competes in roller derby under the name “Stone Cold Jane Austen”) dives into the life and works of Jane Austen to uncover her true radical, fiery, spirited nature. From Austen's novels and juvenile writings to her connections to abolitionist and women's suffrage movements, as well as her lasting impact on her culture, Looser finds plenty of evidence to prove Austen was as remarkable as the heroines she wrote.
Jane Austen may have been a game changer in the world of women writers, but she wasn't the first woman to dare to share her stories with the world and her work was shaped by the women who came before her. Rare books dealer Rebecca Romney dove deep into the archives to find references to other women writers in Austen's works and letters, and she found that many of the authors who influenced Austen the most have fallen into obscurity. By tracking down writings by those authors and putting them in conversation with Austen's novels, Romney paints a fuller picture of women's contributions to literary history.
The gaps in the record of Jane Austen's life can leave fans with many questions, as do her nuanced novels that leave much to be interpreted by the reader. Two centuries after her death, English professor and literary editor John Mullan tackles some of the biggest lingering questions about Austen's work. These inquiries include: What are the right and wrong ways to propose marriage? Why is the weather important? And is there any sex in Austen? It's a fascinating work of literary criticism, and the newly released edition—celebrating 250 years since Austen's birth—is narrated engagingly by actor Charles Armstrong.
Susie Dumond is the author of Queerly Beloved, Looking for a Sign, and Bed and Breakup. She is also a senior contributor at Book Riot and a bookseller.
