TheJaneAuthor Austen Jane Austen was born in 1775, in Hampshire, England, to an Anglican priest and his wife. She and her six siblings1 grew up in a well-respected and loving family, who encouraged learning and creative thinking. Jane and her elder sister, Cassandra, even had the chance to study at a boarding school2, from where, however, they had to leave a few years later because of some financial and health problems. Jane had always been fascinated by and encouraged to write works of her imagination and, together with her brothers and sisters, she often put on plays. The three volumes of Juvenilia now include all the works of her youth, and already show her love for irony, parody and the observation of society in several works of different lengths and genres letters, short stories, plays, history essays3 and verses. Jane spent much of her early adulthood at home, helping in its management, going to church, playing the piano and socialising with neighbours. Meanwhile, she continued to write, and by the end of the 18th century she had already completed three of her major future works, though with different titles: Elinor and Marianne (which would then become Sense and Sensibility), Impressions (the future Pride and Prejudice) and Susan (Northanger Abbey). In 1805, her father died and she and her sisters were forced to move from house to house, staying with relatives, until finally they were able to settle at one of her brother s cottages in Hampshire. At about that time, she started publishing her works under a pseudonym: Sense and Sensibility, Pride and Prejudice, Mansfield Park and Emma. The first novel tells the life and love stories of two sisters and deals with the difficult task of balancing sense and sensibility in one s life. Pride and Prejudice examines the behaviour of men and women of different social classes who meet up. Mansfield Park s protagonist 1. siblings: brothers and sisters. 2. boarding school: a school where children can live during the school year. 3. essay: short piece of writing on a particular subject. 4