Jane Austen

             Jane Austen was born on December 16,1774, in the tiny village of Steventon, where her father, the Reverend George Austen, served as the town rector. Her mother, Cassandra Leigh Austen, was the daughter of a rector herself, and Jane was the seventh of eight children. She had an older brother, George, who suffered from epilepsy and did not live with the family. Wealthy, childless relatives who were very involved with the boy throughout his childhood adopted the Austen's third son, Edward. The remaining six children, however, lived with their parents in the plain, comfortable village rector. Jane's closest relationship within her family was to her adored older sister, Cassandra. Three years apart in age and the only girls among the eight children, the two were close friends from childhood onward. Cassandra was once engaged to a young man who died of yellow fever. Similarly, Jane was very involved with a clergyman who died before they could become engaged. Neither of the !
             sisters ever married, and the two lived together with their mother until Jane's death in 1817. In 1801, George Austen, Jane's father, retired as rector of Steventon and moved with his wife and two daughters to Bath, where he died in 1805. The family's years in the city were difficult ones. In addition to Mr. Austen's death, Mrs. Austen suffered a serious illness. Following her husband's recent death, Mrs. Austen moved with her daughters to Southampton. In 1809, Jane's brother Edward, who had inherited the estates of the wealthy relatives who had adopted him years before, offered his mother and sisters a permanent residence at one of his properties, a house in the town of Chawton. It was there that Jane Austen would live until her death, from what is believed to have been Addison's disease, at the age of forty-one.
             George Austen, Jane's father, was a scholarly man, and the household included a large lib...

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