148116242X

9781481162425

08 Dec 2012

356

0.52

22.9 x 15.2 x 2.0

1190

Though the domain of Jane Austen-s novels was as circumscribed as her life, her caustic wit and keen observation made her the equal of the greatest novelists in any language. Born the seventh child of the rector of Steventon, Hampshire, on December 16, 1775, she was educated mainly at home. At an early age she began writing sketches and satires of popular novels for her family-s entertainment. As a clergyman-s daughter from a well-connected family, she had an ample opportunity to study the habits of the middle class, the gentry, and the aristocracy. At twenty-one, she began a novel called "The