Jane goes to school in Oxford, Southampton and Reading with her sister Cassandra; in 1783 she falls ill with typhus fever and nearly dies.
Period: to
Jane writes her teenage writings, including Love and Friendship (1790), Lesley Castle (1792) and Lady Susan (1794).
Jane writes Elinor and Marianne, an early version of Sense and Sensibility
Period: to
Jane writes First Impressions (later revised and published as Pride and Prejudice). Her father offers it to a publisher but it is rejected.
Tom Lefroy, a young lawyer, visits his relatives in Ashe, near Steventon. Jane and Tom dance and flirt.
Period: to
Jane writes Susan (later published as Northanger Abbey).
On Rev. Austen’s retirement, Jane and her father, mother and Cassandra leave Steventon and move to lodgings in Bath.
Jane accepts an offer of marriage from Harris Bigg-Wither, the rich brother of her friends, but the next day she changes her mind and declines the proposal.
Sense and Sensibility is published. Jane’s name does not appear on the book – instead it says ‘by a Lady’.
Pride and Prejudice is published, ‘by the author of Sense and Sensibility’.
Mansfield Park is published. Jane begins writing Emma.
Jane’s illness confines her to bed.
Northanger Abbey and Persuasion are published. For the first time, Jane Austen is identified as the author.
Jane dies at her lodgings in Winchester, aged 41 years old.
