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 som