A dogcart, or donkey cart, as it was called: the conventional mode of transportation for the Austens at the time, drawn by a single horse, with seating for two, sitting over two wheels. Larger versions could seat four, with passengers facing forward and backwards. The dogcart was soon upgraded to

It can't have been easy "following the fashion" in Austen's time. That's the name of the satirical caricature above by James Gillray from 1794. Gillray is mocking the high-waisted dresses of the time, with the aristocratic woman on the left (from St.

Shown above are the headstones for Jane Austen's mother and sister, who were both named Cassandra, at St. Nicholas Chawton. Cassandra (sister) lived to be 72; like Jane she never married. Jane herself is buried elsewhere, in Winchester Cathedral, which may have been her own choice.

These are the best-known images of Jane Austen...

Bath was Austen's home from 1801 to 1806, but she never liked the city. Still, she partially set Northanger Abbey and Persuasion there. The house that the Austens lived in for the longest while in Bath (1801-1804) was 4 Sydney Place (bottom photo). The Circus (up above) is

Below is a brass plaque by Jane Austen's grave inside Winchester Cathedral. Austen died in the city in 1817 while seeking medical treatment. She was 41. The most popular theory is that she suffered from Addison's disease, a rare disorder of the adrenal glands. When she

The house that Jane Austen is most associated with is in Chawton, East Hampshire, which is really a suburb of Alton these days. It is now Jane Austen's House Museum - website here. Down the road a bit are Chawton House, shown below, which was the home of

This is actually my favorite Austen novel. In her earlier writing, she continually emphasizes the need for Love, but by Mansfield Park she is more cynical about Love’s chances: “I pay very little regard,” says Mrs. Grant, “to what any young person says on the subject of marriage. If

Harris Bigg-Wither (21 years old at the time) proposed to Jane (who was almost 27). She accepted and changed her mind by the morning. Did this play a role in her plotting for Pride and Prejudice, Mansfield Park and Emma? Steventon was two and a half miles from the Bigg-Withers&

Would you marry this man? There’s a purely practical explanation for Austen not finding a husband: not enough men to go around. One academic study has suggested that at the time Austen was weighing the merits of a husband, as many as 70% of English women were not married.

Austen struggled to get published (as "A Lady") and it might be easy to assume that she was the only notable woman writer of the time. Ann Radcliffe’s novels of the 1790’s, especially The Mysteries of Udolpho (1794), which Austen satirizes in Northanger Abbey, and Mary

How ironic that Lydia in Pride and Prejudice declares: “Jane will be quite an old maid soon, I declare. She is almost three and twenty! Lord, how ashamed I should be of not being married before three and twenty!” If Harris Bigg-Wither ever read her novels, he would have been

* 1775 Jane Austen born in Steventon, Hampshire * 1795 begins work on Sense and Sensibility * 1796 Tom Lefroy incident * 1797 News comes of Tom Fowle’s death and she begins work on Pride and Prejudice * 1798 Begins Northanger Abbey; completed the following year * 1800 Family moves from Steventon to Bath * 1802

Jane Austen's local church for the later part of her life, from 1809 to 1817, while she and her mother and Cassandra were living in Chawton Cottage. The church is not to be confused with the St. Nicholas in Steventon where Austen grew up...

Below is Steventon Church, where the Austens worshipped. Jane Austen was born in Steventon, Hampshire, and the family lived there until the family moved to Bath in 1801 when Austen was 25. Her father planned to retire in Bath and he passed away there a few years later. The Steventon

The Rice portrait of Jane Austen by English society artist Ozias Humphry. This is said to be the only known painting of Austen, dating from around 1788 or 1789 when Austen would have been about 14. It was kept in the family after that and was put up for auction