Happy Birthday to Jane Austen!

Jane Austen was born on December 16th, 1775, in Steventon, Hampshire, England. She was the sixth child. Her life is marked by the ordinariness of it--which may explain why she was able to write so brilliantly about the every-day life of the country gentry in Regency England. At age 26 she moved to Bath with her family where she lived for 5 years.
At the death of her father, she then moved back to Hampshire to the village of Chawton where most of her well known novels were written. Jane Austen was first published in 1811. The book, "Sense and Sensibility", was written in 1797/8. She then embarked on the writing of "First Impressions" which later became, "Pride and Prejudice" and was published two years later. "Northanger Abbey" was completed in 1799 but not published until after her death, along with "Persuasion". However, "Mansfield Park" (1814), and "Emma", (1816) were published before her death even though they were written after "Northanger Abbey" and "Persuasion". At the time of her death, she was working on her next novel, "Sanditon". A lesser known work "Lady Susan" is a small work written in a series of 36 letters, but it tells a great story!

She died at Winchester while on a visit, and is buried in Winchester Cathedral.

If you love watching movies of her works, here is a list of some of the movies made of her books or abour her, some are pure interpretations and others are variations on the books or themes, but give credit to her for the source:

Becoming Jane
Bride and Prejudice (Bollywood)
Bridget Jones’s Diary
Clueless
Cold Comfort Farm
Emma(Gwenyth Paltrow)
Emma A&E
I Have Found It (Bollywood's version of S&S)
Jane Austen’s Biography

Jane Austen Book Club
Mansfield Park -(PBS and theatrical)

Miss Austen Regrets
Northanger Abbey-PBS
Persuasion (both PBS and theatrical)
Pride and Prejudice (A&E) THE BEST!
Pride and Prejudice 2005
Pride and Prejudice- A latter-day story
Pride and Prejudice(Masterpiece Theater 1985)
Pride and Prejudice 1940
Sense and Sensibility A&E version

Sense and Sensibility (Emma Thompson version)

Let me know if I have missed any! We can never get enough Jane Austen now can we!!!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!