Jane Austen


Born
in Steventon Rectory, Hampshire, England
December 16, 1775

Died
July 18, 1817

Website

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Influences
Frances Burney, Mary Brunton, Samuel Johnson, Samuel Richardson, Mari ...more


Jane Austen was an English novelist known primarily for her six novels, which implicitly interpret, critique, and comment upon the English landed gentry at the end of the 18th century. Austen's plots often explore the dependence of women on marriage for the pursuit of favourable social standing and economic security. Her works are an implicit critique of the novels of sensibility of the second half of the 18th century and are part of the transition to 19th-century literary realism. Her deft use of social commentary, realism and biting irony have earned her acclaim among critics and scholars.

The anonymously published Sense and Sensibility (1811), Pride and Prejudice (1813), Mansfield Park (1814), and Emma (1816), were a modest success but br
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Average rating: 4.16 · 8,843,150 ratings · 330,165 reviews · 3,770 distinct worksSimilar authors
Pride and Prejudice

4.29 avg rating — 4,627,787 ratings — published 1813 — 10894 editions
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Sense and Sensibility

4.09 avg rating — 1,265,241 ratings — published 1811 — 7584 editions
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Emma

4.05 avg rating — 949,115 ratings — published 1815 — 8256 editions
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Persuasion

4.15 avg rating — 752,194 ratings — published 1817 — 7817 editions
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Northanger Abbey

3.85 avg rating — 438,686 ratings — published 1817 — 6099 editions
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Mansfield Park

3.86 avg rating — 371,421 ratings — published 1814 — 5110 editions
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Lady Susan

3.66 avg rating — 50,662 ratings — published 1871 — 2570 editions
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The Complete Novels

4.57 avg rating — 33,820 ratings — published 1981 — 75 editions
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Lady Susan / The Watsons / ...

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3.74 avg rating — 13,361 ratings — published 1817 — 107 editions
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Love and Freindship

3.52 avg rating — 9,272 ratings — published 1787 — 1064 editions
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More books by Jane Austen…

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Quotes by Jane Austen  (?)
Quotes are added by the Goodreads community and are not verified by Goodreads. (Learn more)

“The person, be it gentleman or lady, who has not pleasure in a good novel, must be intolerably stupid.”
Jane Austen, Northanger Abbey

“There is nothing I would not do for those who are really my friends. I have no notion of loving people by halves, it is not my nature.”
Jane Austen, Northanger Abbey

“I declare after all there is no enjoyment like reading! How much sooner one tires of any thing than of a book! -- When I have a house of my own, I shall be miserable if I have not an excellent library.”
Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice

Polls

September 2015 Revisit the Shelf, Reread Poll

1895, The Time Machine by H.G. Wells, 118 pages
 
  30 votes, 20.8%

1814, Mansfield Park by Jane Austen, 507 pages
 
  26 votes, 18.1%

 
  22 votes, 15.3%

1718, Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe, 320 pages
 
  19 votes, 13.2%

 
  19 votes, 13.2%

1902, Peter Pan by J.M. Barrie, 176 pages
 
  19 votes, 13.2%

1935, Jamaica Inn by Daphne du Maurier, 320 pages
 
  9 votes, 6.3%

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