Penguin Complete Novels of Jane Austen

Jane Austen was born on 16 December 1775, at Steventon near Basingstoke, the seventh child of the rector of the parish. She lived with her family at Steventon until they moved to Bath when her father retired in 1801. After his death in 1805, she moved around with her mother; in 1809 they settled in Chawton, near Alton, Hampshire. Here she remained, except for a few visits to London, until in May 1817 she moved to Winchester to be near her doctor. There she died on 8 July 1817. Jane Austen was extremely modest about her own genius, describing her work to her nephew Edward as 'that little bit (two inches wide) of ivory, in which I work with so fine a brush as produces little effect after much labour'. As a girl she wrote stories, including burlesques of popular romances. Her works were only published after much revision, four novels being published during her lifetime. They are Sense and Sensibility (1811), Pride and Prejudice (1813), Mansfield Park (1814), and Emma (1816). Two other novels, Northanger Abbey and Persuasion, were published posthumously in 1818 with a biographical notice by her brother, Henry Austen, the first formal announcement of her authorship. Persuasion was written in a race against failing health in 1815-16. She also left two earlier compositions, a short epistolary novel, Lady Susan, and an unfinished novel, The Watsons. At the time of her death she was working on a new novel, Sanditon, a fragmentary draft of which survives. Jane Austen lived in a relatively self-contained world, but as Lord David Cecil suggests in his book, A Portrait of Jane Austen, this did not distract from her particular creative genius: 'Her genius was twofold. Along with her comedy sense she possessed a subtle insight into the moral nature of man. The union of the two is the distinguishing characteristic of her achievement, and it makes these lively unpretentious comedies of social and domestic life the vehicle of profound and illuminating comments on the human drama.' This volume contains Jane Austen's seven completed novels; all her works are published in Penguin Classics.Austen, Jane is the author of 'Penguin Complete Novels of Jane Austen' with ISBN 9780140106497 and ISBN 0140106499.