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| Jane Austen |
16 December 2025 is the 250th anniversary of Jane Austen's birth.
This has been a year of wonders for Austen fans, with lots of exhibitions dedicated to her life and work. The BBC iplayer is replete with several adaptations of her novels, so we have been really spoilt for choice.
Here I will do a very brief recap of her life, and then explore some of my own personal Austen highlights of this year.
Jane was born at Steventon Rectory, Hampshire, on 16 December 1775. She was the second daughter of clergyman George Austen and Cassandra Leigh - a respectable middle-class family.
When Jane Austen was a young girl, she wrote short plays and stories, greatly encouraged by her family. Between 1795 and 1799 Jane wrote early versions of three novels: First Impressions, Elinor and Marianne and Susan (later revised and published as Pride & Prejudice, Sense and Sensibility and Northanger Abbey).
But in 1800 Jane fainted away when told the news the family was moving to Bath for George’s retirement. Their Bath stay was not one of Jane’s most creative periods - a new novel, The Watsons, was never completed.
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| Jane Austen's Pelisse Coat. |
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| Letter from Jane Austen to brother Frank on their father's death. |
George Austen’s death in 1805 left Jane, her mother and sister Cassandra with little ready money.
After four years with no permanent address, Jane’s life changed for the better when her brother Edward Austen-Knight offered Chawton Cottage in Hampshire to his mother and sisters as a home.
Jane began writing steadily again. Sense and Sensibility (1811), Pride & Prejudice (1813), Mansfield Park (1814), and Emma (1816), were published during her lifetime.
Her books were published anonymously, but her brother Henry was incapable of keeping a secret and her identity soon leaked out. After a long illness, Austen died on 18 July 1817, and was buried in Winchester Cathedral. Her novels Persuasion and Northanger Abbey were published together posthumously the following year, along with a Biographical Notice of the Author by her brother Henry.
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| Chawton Cottage - Jane Austen's House. |
I was very privileged to visit several Austen exhibitions this year. In June, I was excited to see Jane's pelisse-coat on display at Winchester City Museum – I had previously seen a copy, but never the original. That same week, we visited the house in College Street where Jane spent the last few weeks of her life. Of course, while in Hampshire, I took the opportunity to visit Chawton Cottage and Chawton House once more. I always love to visit Jane's writing desk at the Cottage, and the Great House had a new exhibition, Sisters of the Pen.
In September, we visited Harewood House to see its exhibition on Austen and Turner. And a few days later, I visited No 1 Royal Crescent in Bath, which also had an Austen exhibition to celebrate her bicentenary. Finally, I explored Bath Abbey's exhibition on Austens and the Abbey.
And to round off the year, we have news of a new Jane Austen spin-off to air next year – The Other Bennet Sister.
I feel very lucky that I have been able to see so many of these wonderful exhibitions this year.
What an impact Jane's work has had, and continues to have, on writers' imaginations.
All photos are my own. Image of Jane Austen from my own collection.
The letter from Jane Austen to Frank about their father's death (image above), dated 22 January 1805, was on display at No 1 Royal Crescent's exhibition, and was on loan from the British Library.
