Jane Austen (16 December 1775 – 18 July 1817) was an English novelist known primarily for her six major novels, which interpret, critique and comment upon the British landed gentry at the end of the 18th century. Jane Austen’s fascination with words and with the world of stories began quite early. In the 1790s, during her adolescence, she started writing her own novels, the first one being Love and Friendship, a parody of romantic fiction organized as a series of love letters. Austen’s plots often explore the dependence of women on marriage in the pursuit of favourable social standing and economic security.
Between 1811 and 1816, Jane started to anonymously publish her works. Sense and Sensibility, Pride and Prejudice, Mansfield Park and Emma were all published during this time. Jane started working on Persuasion, her last completed novel, soon after she finished Emma. Written in her unique and distinctive style, it subtly exposes the rapidly changing and expanding social environment of the nineteenth century England.