Jane Austen, the daughter of a clergyman, was born in Hampshire in 1775, and later lived in Bath and the village of Chawton. As a child and teenager, she wrote brilliantly witty stories for her family's amusement, as well as a novella, Lady Susan. Her first published novel was Sense and Sensibility, which appeared in 1811 and was soon followed by Pride and Prejudice, Mansfield Park and Emma. Austen died in 1817, and Persuasion and Northanger Abbey were published posthumously in 1818.

“The wit of Jane Austen has for partner the perfection of her taste.” —Virginia Woolf“Nobody has ever been slyer with characters than Austen.” —Marlon James, “My 10 Favorite Books,” in T: The New York Times Style Magazine