,

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
...more

Average rating: 4.18 · 8,924,261 ratings · 331,399 reviews · 2,995 distinct worksSimilar authors
Pride and Prejudice

4.30 avg rating — 4,797,747 ratings — published 1813 — 74 editions
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Sense and Sensibility

4.09 avg rating — 1,295,360 ratings — published 1811 — 2508 editions
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Emma

4.05 avg rating — 982,338 ratings — published 1815 — 5545 editions
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Persuasion

4.15 avg rating — 776,488 ratings — published 1817 — 2584 editions
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Northanger Abbey

3.85 avg rating — 453,429 ratings — published 1817 — 6238 editions
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Mansfield Park

3.86 avg rating — 379,583 ratings — published 1814 — 5174 editions
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Lady Susan

3.66 avg rating — 53,029 ratings — published 1871 — 2608 editions
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The Complete Novels

4.57 avg rating — 34,010 ratings — published 1981 — 64 editions
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Lady Susan / The Watsons / ...

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3.74 avg rating — 13,905 ratings — published 1817
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Love and Freindship

3.52 avg rating — 9,709 ratings — published 1787 — 183 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

Our April Strong Women read is Bad Girls Throughout History: 100 Remarkable Women Who Changed the World. As our fiction accompaniment option, let's read a novel by one of those "bad girls".

This poll closes at 11:59pm Eastern time on Sunday, April 2.

 
  2 votes, 100.0%

 
  0 votes, 0.0%

 
  0 votes, 0.0%

 
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