Library News

Born on December 16, 1775, Jane Austen was an English novelist who published four novels in her lifetime: Sense and Sensibility, Pride and Prejudice, Mansfield Park, and Emma. Two more novels—Persuasion and Northanger Abbey—were published after her death.

Austen published anonymously during her life. While she achieved some financial success, helping to support herself and her also unmarried sister, Cassandra, she still relied on the goodwill of wealthier male relatives. She died in 1817 at the age of 41, and only after her death was her name publicly associated with her books.

She wrote what we might now call romantic comedies, but she transformed fiction by focusing on everyday people in everyday situations. Her novels feature intelligent, strong-willed heroines in character-driven stories full of wit, humor, and social commentary. Austen’s work responded to—and often critiqued—the sentimental novels of the mid-1700s, which aimed to provoke strong emotional reactions through exaggerated feeling.

Instead, Austen grounded her stories in the realities of daily life and the social structures that shaped women’s futures, particularly the pressure to secure stability through marriage. She examined and critiqued these expectations through dialogue, inner thoughts, and gentle mockery of characters who could not see beyond the rules governing their world. Wit and irony run throughout her novels, and she is often credited as the first woman to write comic fiction.

Austen’s father, George, came from a once-wealthy family that had fallen on hard times. He was granted a living as a clergyman by a more affluent relative. This background meant that Jane experienced both frugality and proximity to the upper classes—an experience reflected in her wide range of characters, from the extremely wealthy to those with very little.

Jane Austen’s novels have been published continuously since her death in 1817, and countless book and film adaptations have followed, beginning as early as 1913. Her fandom has endured for over two centuries and shows no signs of slowing down.

Authors continue to write Jane Austen fan fiction, biographies, literary critiques, and social science studies. More playful nonfiction also abounds, including cookbooks inspired by her novels and guides to the plants and places she mentioned. You’ll find a brief selection below, and many more by searching “Jane Austen” in our library catalog.

Fiction Inspired by Jane Austen

• The Jane Austen Project  by Kathleen Flynn is part of a sub-genre of fiction based on Jane Austen herself—this time, with time travel.
• Jane Austen Book Club  by Karen Joy Fowler is one of many novels that explore the impact of Austen’s books on the lives of her readers.
• Death Comes to Pemberley  by P. D. James is a murder mystery based on the characters from Pride and Prejudice.
• Pride and Prejudice and Zombies  by Seth Grahame-Smith is a humorous horror adaptation.
• Eligible: A Novel  by Curtis Sittenfeld is a modern take on Pride and Prejudice by one of last year’s Off the Page authors.
• Ghosted  by Amanda Quain is a modern YA adaptation of Northanger Abbey.
• By the Book  by Julia Sonneborn is a modern adaptation of Persuasion.
• The Code for Love and Heartbreak  by Jillian Cantor is a modern YA interpretation of Emma.

Nonfiction

• The Novel Life of Jane Austen: A Graphic Biography  by Janine Barchas.
• Performing Jane: A Cultural History of Jane Austen Fandom  by Sarah Glosson.
• Jane Austen, Game Theorist  by Michael Suk-Young Chwe.
• Jane Austen’s Garden: A Botanical Tour of the Classic Novels  by Molly Williams.

Movies

• Clueless  (based on Emma).
• Bride and Prejudice  (a Bollywood take on Pride and Prejudice).
• Bridget Jones’ Diary  (based on the book by Helen Fielding, inspired by Pride and Prejudice).

By Caitlin M., Customer Service Representative