Jane Austen, an English novelist in the 18th century, is known for her six major novels, of which, Pride and Prejudice is the most well-known. Born on December 16, 1775,  she is the seventh child of George Austen, a country clergyman, and his wife, Cassandra. Jane was born a month later than her parents expected. Her family had moved to Steventon in Hampshire in 1768. She and her siblings were born there. Jane’s father provided for his family by farming while teaching three to four boys at a time, who would also board at his home. Jane and her sister, Cassandra, were sent to Oxford for their education. Both were sent back home in the autumn when they caught typhus, and Jane was then homeschooled. She later attended boarding school with her sister at the Reading Abbey Girls School but soon returned home as the school fees were too high for the two girls. Jane was guided by her father and her brothers for the remainder of her education. Reading and private theatricals were also part of her learning. Jane Austen’s literary passion began with writing comic stories as a child. She was fond of writing poems and stories for herself and her family to read.  She began writing these as early as eleven years old. Jane tried her very first dramatic writing when she was twelve years old. During her teenage years, she also wrote three short plays. Between 1787 and 1793 she compiled 29 works, bound in three notebooks, now called “Juvenilia”.  One of these works is what she called “Love and Friendship”, which is a satirical novel written in letters. It was written when she was fourteen years old. Austen also wrote a thirty-four-page manuscript with her sister, Cassandra’s watercolor miniature entitled “The History of England”.  Austen began writing longer and more sophisticated works by the time she was eighteen years old. In 1795, Tom Lefroy, a politician, and a judge was introduced to Jane at a social neighborhood gathering. Austen wrote letters to her sister, Cassandra about him and it was evident that she was genuinely attracted to Lefroy. However, the family of Lefroy intervened and sent him away. After that, every time Lefroy visited Hampshire, he was always kept away from Austen, and she never saw him again. Sometime later, Austen’s father decided that the family should move to Sydney Place in Bath, following his decision to retire from the ministry. Jane seemed to have had less time spent writing while in Bath due to her social life and frequent travels in England during this time. In 1802, Austen received her only known marriage proposal from Harris Bigg-Wither which she accepted for practical reasons but later withdrew her acceptance.  Austen’s father died early in 1805 and his sudden death left their family in an unsecured financial situation. They lived in rentals in Bath but later moved to Sussex Coast, where they resided at Stanford Cottage. They moved to Southampton and shared the same house with one of her siblings’ wives. In 1809, her father’s brother, Edward, offered that they move to a large cottage in Chawton village. There the family had a quieter life, where they made themselves busy working and also teaching students to read and write. Jane was determined to be a published author so she took a financial risk and published Sense and Sensibility on a commission basis. In this book, she identified herself as the author with “a Lady” written on the title page of the book. The novel was well-received by the public and gained praise and favorable reviews, it sold out in less than two years. At the age of 20, Austen began writing “Pride and Prejudice”, which she initially called “First Impressions”. As she continued to write, she decided to revise the title to avoid duplicating a title of a book published in 1800. “The author of Sense and Sensibility” was how she was referred to as the author. “Pride and Prejudice” was so well-received that it sold out in less than a year and the publisher printed a second edition in 1813, and the third edition in 1817. To date, there are at least 17 films and TV series adaptations of “Pride and Prejudice”, not including sequels. Austen’s third published novel, “Mansfield Park” was announced as “a new novel by the author of Sense and Sensibility and Pride and Prejudice”. Its first edition was sold out within six months; however, some readers were disappointed that it lacked the humor of her previous novel, Pride and Prejudice. This novel was not reviewed by critics in her time but in her eagerness to know how her work was being received, she collected reviews from her friends and family members in a list she called “Opinions of Mansfield Park”. Their views of the novel were just as divided as modern readers are today. Emma, her fourth and last novel published during her lifetime was published with a new publisher – John Murray, the prominent publisher of The Quarterly Review as well as other works of some leading authors of their day. Emma had the largest first print edition among her four novels published at 2000 copies. It was also published anonymously, with the title page showing “by the Author of ‘Pride and Prejudice,’ etc, etc.” as the author. It was first available for sale in December of 1815 and by October 1816, it only had 1,248 copies sold—slightly less than two-thirds of the initial print run. The most frequent feedback is that the plot lacked “incident” and that many readers expected more action. According to a note left by her sister, Cassandra, “Northanger Abbey” may have been inspired by Jane Austen’s visit to Bath in her youth. It was first titled Susan but was then renamed Northanger Abbey when it was published. Austen changed the name of the heroine from Susan to Catherine as another novel called Susan was published in 1809. She also wrote a preface to explain to the readers that it had been finished thirteen years earlier. Northanger Abbey was praised by critics and was also well-received by the public. Persuasion is Austen’s last completed novel and was published posthumously along with Northanger Abbey in 1817. According to her sister, Cassandra, the novel has gone through revisions by Jane Austen by writing two new chapters, as she was unhappy with the first draft. In Austen’s letter to her niece, Fanny Knight, she mentioned “..I have something ready for publication which may perhaps appear about twelve months hence. It is short, about the length of Catherine [Northanger Abbey].” That “something” was Persuasion. Jane Austen died four months after. The novel has gained popularity, having numerous adaptations on television, theater, radio, and film including a Netflix film of the same title starring Dakota Johnson and Cosmo Jarvis. Her first four novels were published anonymously. Some of Austen’s novels were also translated into French and were pirated and reproduced in France without her consent. Her novel “Persuasion” was published in 1821 as “La Famille Elliot ou L'Ancienne Inclination”, the first novel in which she was credited as an author in France. The Prince Regent of England admired Austen’s works and kept a set at each of his residences. James Stanier Clarke, the Prince Regent’s librarian, invited Austen to visit the Prince’s London residence. Austen was hinted by Clarke that she should dedicate her forthcoming novel, “Emma” to the Prince, which Austen could hardly refuse. Austen wrote “Plan of a Novel, according to Hints from Various Quarters”, a novel that she wrote derived mostly from the librarian’s suggestions for a perfect novel.  Austen was quite annoyed with the librarian’s suggestions. So she wrote “Plan of a Novel” which parodies Clarke, the librarian, and served as her revenge for all the undesirable letters she received from him. As an author, Austen chose to be anonymous as it was not entirely acceptable for a woman of her status to profit from publishing at that time. In her will, she left her unpublished and published novel copyrights to her sister Cassandra.  Their brother, Henry helped in negotiations with publisher John Murray in publishing her remaining works in a four-volume set. It included a “Biographical Notice of the Author,” which Henry wrote and revealed for the first time in print that Jane Austen was the author of Sense and Sensibility, Pride and Prejudice, Mansfield Park, and Emma. In 1816 Jane started feeling unwell but continued to work despite her illness. She experienced difficulty in walking and a lack of energy as the illness progressed until she had to be confined. She was brought to Manchester for treatment but died at 41 years of age. Addison’s Disease was apparently the cause of her death. She was buried in the north aisle of the nave of Winchester Cathedral. Even on her gravestone, it was not mentioned that she was an author. Richard Bentley, an English publisher, purchased the remaining copyrights of Austen’s novels and released them in 1833. Austen’s work also received criticism. Philarete Chasles, a known French critic and man of letters was the first to criticize Austen’s work in an 1842 essay. According to him, Austen’s works were boring and lacked substance. Time and preference have seemingly disagreed with his assessment of her works since two hundred years later, we continue to enjoy Austen’s writing as readers and in other forms of performance through TV, theater, and film adaptations. As a literary medium, a novel is an invented prose narrative of significant length and complexity that deals imaginatively with human experience. Its origins in English are placed in the 18th century. Novel writing is not for everyone. It takes creativity, passion for writing, and imagination. Most great works of literary fiction have one thing in common: rich, compelling characters. Great characters draw readers' attention, giving them someone to love, hate, or identify with as the story builds in their minds. Most people don't write novels because it is extremely difficult unlike other forms of art which can be more immediate in their process and delivery. Forcing yourself to sit down, brainstorm, write, edit, rewrite and repeat is quite challenging. A good novel can accommodate an almost infinite number of elements. Some of the novel's typical elements are the story or plot, the characters, the setting, the narrative method and point of view, and the scope or dimension. Novel genres are limited only by an author’s creativity and imagination. This gives authors a boundless creative landscape through which to express themselves. The novel is propelled through its many pages by a literary device known as the story or plot. This is frequently formulated by the writer in very simple terms. For example, Charles Dickens’s A Christmas Carol might have been conceived as “a misanthrope is reformed through certain magical visitations on Christmas Eve,” or Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice as “a young couple destined to be married must first overcome the barriers of pride and prejudice,” or Fyodor Dostoyevsky’s Crime and Punishment as “a young man commits a crime and is slowly pursued in the direction of his punishment.”The detailed working out of the nuclear idea calls for much originality since the plot of one novel is expected to be somewhat different from other novels. In dramatic fiction, there are very few basic human situations for the novelist to draw upon. Melodramatic plots, on the other hand, rely on coincidence or improbability, and are sometimes found in even the most elevated fiction; E.M. Forster’s Howards End is an example of a classic British novel with such a great melodramatic plot. The writer of this type of novel is always faced with the trouble of whether it is more critical to represent the formlessness of real life (in which there are no beginnings and no ends and very few simple motives for action) or to construct an artifact as well balanced and economical as a table or chair; since he is an artist, the claims of art, or artifice, frequently prevail.One of the most important elements of a great novel is the characters. The scene, or setting, is also vital to a great novel. The behavior of fictional characters depends on their environment or setting. Most novels have one scene or setting, where for example the events take place in a city, town, or in a specific place. In Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte, the settings are Wuthering Heights and Thrushcross Grange, which are four miles apart and separated by the heath which is essential to the plot and storyline.For a good setting, it should be full of immersive details about the time period, location, immediate surroundings, time of day, and sensory details—what the characters see, hear, smell, and touch. The setting, as we all know,  initiates the main backdrop and mood for a great story. The setting can be referred to as a story world to include a context (especially society) beyond the immediate surroundings of the story.