Jane Austen was born on December 16, 1775, at Steventon rectory in Hampshire, England. Her father, Reverend George Austen (1731-1805) was the rector at Steventon, and had married Cassandra Leigh Austen (1739-1827), a daughter of a patrician family, in 1764. Austen was the youngest daughter of the large, closely-knit family, with six brothers and one sister. She was particularly close to her sister, Cassandra, and her brother, Henry, who later became his sister’s literary agent.
When Austen was eight years old, she and Cassandra were sent to Oxford and then Southhampton to be educated. After an outbreak of typhus at the school, during which Jane nearly died, both girls returned home to...
