British novelist. Her father, a Protestant clergyman, was the rector of the parish of Steventon. The seventh of eight siblings, her father personally oversaw her education.

In 1801, the Austens moved to Bath, and after the death of the head of the family in 1805, they relocated first to Southampton and then to Chawton, a village in Hampshire, where the writer composed most of her novels. Her life was uneventful, with hardly anything disturbing the calm of her middle-class and provincial existence; only occasionally did she travel to London. She never married.

Her style of writing is also peaceful, serene, and balanced, characterized by the meticulous and subtle irony with which she describes the environment around her, that of the rural upper class in southern England. The narrative intrigue is often of little importance, so the interest in her works lies in the different psychological nuances of her characters, interpreted with great acuity, and in the kind, yet not devoid of malicious irony, description of the social environment in which she places her characters, which is none other than her own, that of the well-off bourgeoisie.

The six novels she wrote can be grouped into two different periods. During the first, a series of titles emerged, some of which took more than fifteen years to be published. This was the case with "Pride and Prejudice," considered her best novel, which she began writing in 1796, though it was not published until 1813. In it, Austen tells the story of the five Bennet sisters and the tribulations of their respective love affairs.

Also from this period are "Sense and Sensibility" (1811), once again centered on the story of two sisters and their romantic affairs, characterised by its realism, and "Northanger Abbey" (1818), a sort of parody of the Gothic novel, which was very popular in the late 18th century.

Her second creative period began in 1811, marking her recovery after twelve years of creative sterility. "Mansfield Park" (1814), "Emma" (1816), and "Persuasion" (published posthumously) belong to this period, and all of them narrate the romantic entanglements of their three heroines, treated with grace and depth. After her death, several incomplete novels appeared, such as "The Watsons," "Fragments of a Novel," "Plan of a Novel," and her correspondence, published under the title "Letters."

Jane Austen's novels were well-received from the start, at a time when romantic themes seemed exhausted. These are stories where incisive observation and meticulous details dominate, in a plot that manages to give strength to seemingly trivial and everyday events, and that even for the secondary characters, rescues a certain sense of universality that made them so appealing to readers, and for which the writer became one of the great contributors to British literature.

Two hundred years after her death, we can trace in Austen's work a keen irony and a rather x-ray-like view of a society full of hypocrisy, focused on appearances and despair. The women in Austen's works suffer, rebel, and refuse to accept the fate dictated by the men who rule their lives. Or, if they are submissive or obey orders without question, there comes a moment when they rise against all odds and take revenge or side with other women to prevent them from suffering the same fate.

Jane's women are formidable, sharp-tongued, and possess a survival instinct that they will use despite everything and against all expectations. They are vengeful, resentful, and also creative, fun, loyal friends, and kind-hearted. They aspire to more, which is why they remain relevant today.