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Jane Austen was born in Steventon. Her father, George Austen was a clergyman who had seven children. Jane was the second daughter, but the seventh child. She always remained extremely close to her older sister, Cassandra.
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Jane and Cassandra leave home in pursuit of formal education for a boarding school in Oxford. However, the school is moved to Southampton where Typhoid fever infects many children. So, the girls go back home. They soon continue their education in 1785.
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The family's money runs out and Austen returns to Steventon from boarding school. The rest of her education is completed at home from her father's voluminous library. Austen lives with her parents and sister for the rest of her life.
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Jane begins to write stories and novels
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Before the year 1796, Jane read her novel Elinor and Marianne to her family. This novel is modernly known as Sense and Sensibility,
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Austen meets Tom LeFroy, an Irish law student who is the nephew of her neighbor. Austen and LeFroy spend time together during his month-long visit to Steventon. He leaves in January 1796 and soon becomes engaged to someone else, ending whatever relationship they had.
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Austen completes the first draft of First Impressions, the novel that later becomes Pride and Prejudice.
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Jane begins to write Nothanger Abbey, and also finishing the early revisions of Elinor and Marianne.
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Austen moves with her parents to the resort town of Bath, England, after her father's retirement from clergy.
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Just before her 27th birthday, Jane Austen receives her only marriage proposal. A recent Oxford grad named Harris Bigg-Wither proposes to Austen while she is visiting his sisters. Realizing that the marriage would be good for her family's circumstances, Austen accepts. The next morning, however, she changes her mind and withdraws her acceptance. Bigg-Wither marries two years later; Austen never does.
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Austen sells a novel called Susan to a publisher for £10. But the book is never published, and Austen's family later buys back the rights to the work.
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Jane's dad dies unexpectedly and the family has to rent a home.
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Jane and Cassandra Austen and their mother move into Chawton Cottage, a home on an estate owned by their brother Edward.
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Austen publishes Sense and Sensibility, whose author is identified on the cover only as "a Lady." Austen's name is not attached to any of the novels she publishes during her lifetime.
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Pride and Prejudice is published.
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Mansfield Park is published.
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Jane Austen dies at the age of 41. She is buried in Winchester Cathedral.
