Jane Austen is an English writer lived in the 18-19^th-centuries in Hampshire, she was the first who gave the novel its distinctly modern character through her treatment of ordinary people in everyday life. She is well famous for her four novels: Sense & Sensibility (1811 ), Pride & Prejudice (1813), Mansfield Park (1814) and Emma (1815) where she vividly depicted English middle-class life during the early 19th century.

Did you know ? 

• Jane was the first who gave the novel its  modern character through her treatment of ordinary people in everyday life.
• There is 10-day Jane Austen Festival in Bath city.During the Festival you can attend talks on her works or dress up in Regency costume to take part in parade and various balls in the Assembly Rooms and Pump Room.

Jane spent most of her life in Hampshire, Southern England, but to Chawton village where she wrote all her major novels  she moved only in 1809 and lived there for the last 8 years of her life. Small village just within 20 miles of the place where she was born. 

Now Chawton house is a museum, that displays Jane Austen’s letters and furniture. These letters are full of gossip, interest in the wellbeing of friends and family. You will also notice how small Jane herself was: both her bed and a robe of hers that is on the display might be more suited to today’s average 12 y.o.

Jane Austin found her rest in Winchester Cathedral, 16 miles from Chawton. She had gone to Winchester to be close to a doctor during her last illness. She died at the age 41. Jane much admired the cathedral and a friend seems to have pulled strings to get permission for her to be buried there. Now there you can see a memorial window and a statue of her sitting, quill pen in hand, head bent in concentration, at a replica of tiny table in the cottage in Chawton.