Jane Austen

Austen wrote major novels before the age of 22, but she was not published until she was 35. The anonymously published Sense and Sensibility (1811), Pride and Prejudice (1813), Mansfield Park (1814), and Emma (1816) were moderate successes, but they did not bring her public fame in her lifetime. (She was privately known to be the author of these novels, including by notable people such as the Prince Regent.) She wrote two other novels—Northanger Abbey and Persuasion, both published posthumously in 1817—and began another, eventually titled Sanditon, but it was left unfinished on her death. She also left behind three volumes of juvenile writings in manuscript, the short epistolary novel Lady Susan, and the unfinished novel The Watsons. Since her death Austen's novels have rarely been out of print. A significant transition in her reputation occurred in 1833, when they were republished in Richard Bentley's Standard Novels series (illustrated by Ferdinand Pickering and sold as a set). They gradually gained wide acclaim and popular readership. In 1869 her nephew published A Memoir of Jane Austen. Her work has inspired a large number of critical essays and has been included in many literary anthologies. Her novels have been adapted in numerous films, including Pride and Prejudice (1940), Sense and Sensibility (1995), Pride & Prejudice (2005), Emma (2020), and an adaptation of Lady Susan, Love & Friendship (2016), as well as the film Persuasion and the miniseries Pride and Prejudice, both released in 1995 by the BBC.