Jane Austen: Her Lack Of Formal Education Did Not Prevent Her Brilliance

Considered one of the greatest of the British novelists, Jane Austen's insightful, witty, and satirical style has garnered her many years after her death a loyal and devoted literary following to her works.
Born on December 16 1775 she was educated almost entirely at home informally and when she reached maturity never married or left her family, which included 6 brothers and 1 sister. As a child she used to write novels for the entertainment of her parents and siblings as early as age 15. The first of her productive periods occured between 1796-1798 when she wrote her first three books, Sense and Sensibility, Pride and Prejudice, and Northanger Abbey. They were not successful at first. These efforts took more than 15 years to find publishers.
Her second productive period as a writer occurs after a 12 year drought with the publication of Sense and sensibility in 1811 after which she quickly produces three more including Mansfield Park, Emma, and Persuasion.
All 6 of her novels to some degree deal with the search for love and romantic entanglements and are occupied with heroines and characters who go on a journey of discovery and become transformed through their life lessons and learning experiences. All of her works are presented in the formal setting of the day to day life of upper middle class England with which she was familiar and are regarded as intelligent insights into the patterns and motives of human behavior.
By 1816, she bagan to experience ill health and had to give up writing. Her family was also at this time suffering some financial setbacks when her favorite brother Henry's business went bankrupt. With her health worsening she made out her will leaving everything to her only sister and closest confidante Cassandra. She died on a Friday, July 18th, 1817 of what is believed to have been Addison's disease. She was 41.