Top 10 facts about Jane Austen

Jane Austen was born on this day 240 years ago

 

Jane Austen was born 240 years ago on yesterday in 1775.

1. She had six brothers and one sister. Neither Jane nor her sister Cassandra ever married.

2. Her brothers Charles and Frank bother served in the navy and became admirals.

3. In 1802, Jane accepted a marriage proposal from Harris Bigg-Wither but changed her mind the following day.

 



Early edition of Pride and Prejudice



4. When her first novel, Sense And Sensibility came out in 1811, the title page simply said “By a Lady”.

5. None of the novels published in her lifetime gave her name. Even Pride And Prejudice only said by: “The Author of Sense And Sensibility”.

6. The Oxford English Dictionary credits Jane Austen as the first recorded author of over 40 words including door-bell, double-bed, spongecake and dinner-party.

 

Mark Twain was not a fan of Jane Austen's work

7. Fans of Jane Austen have been called Janeites since 1896 and Austenites since 1903.

8. The novel that became Pride And Prejudice was originally titled First Impressions.

9. Mark Twain hated her novels, once saying that an ideal library is one “that does not contain a volume by Jane Austen”.

10. She misspelt the title of a story she wrote at the age of 14: Love And Freindship.