On the two-hundredth anniversary of Jane Austen's death, I pay tribute to one of my favourite authors.
Pride and Prejudice was the second classic novel I read.
Jane Eyre being the first during a rainy summer at the cottage in Muskoka when I was a young girl.
I am currently reading
Jane Austen at Home by Lucy Worsley. This is not a review of the biography, but I am enjoying all the
wonderful descriptions of houses, means of travel, food and the people
who surrounded and influenced Jane's writing.
Although she wrote from a young age, Jane Austen did not publish her work until later in her short life and she never made a fortune. Being a single woman, she had to rely on male relatives to act on her behalf. The sums of money she made from her published novels allowed her some freedom.
Chawton Cottage was owned by her brother, Edward. This was where Jane lived during the published phase of her life. Now that she was in her thirties and a successful author, she was allowed to travel without a chaperone to London to see her publisher.
It has often been said that Jane Austen lived a life without incident, but she was a keen observer of the times she lived in. Her legacy has grown since her death and will continue to survive for many more centuries.
