Northanger Abbey

Jane Austen, born December 16, 1775, was the seventh child of a rector in Steventon, Hampshire. Largely educated at home, she began writing sketches and satires for her family’s amusement at an early age. As a clergyman’s daughter from a well-connected family, she had ample opportunity to observe the habits of the middle class, the gentry, and the aristocracy.

At 21, she began a novel titled “The First Impressions,” which would later become Pride and Prejudice. In 1801, her family moved to Bath. Two years later, she sold the manuscript for the early version of Northanger Abbey to a London publisher. However, her first novel to be published was Sense and Sensibility in 1811, released at her own expense. This was followed by Pride and Prejudice (1813), Mansfield Park (1814), and Emma (1815).

After her father’s death in 1805, her family moved to Southampton and then to Chawton Cottage in Hampshire. Despite this relative seclusion, Austen remained connected to the wider world through her brothers, who had achieved success as a country gentleman, a London banker, and naval officers.

Though her novels were published anonymously, she garnered a devoted readership, including the Prince Regent and Sir Walter Scott. In 1816, with declining health, Austen wrote Persuasion and revised Northanger Abbey. Her final work, Sanditon, remained unfinished at her death on July 18, 1817. She was buried in Winchester Cathedral. Her identity as the author of these novels was revealed posthumously by her brother Henry, who oversaw the publication of Northanger Abbey and Persuasion in 1818.

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