The following chronology offers an overview of Austen's life and career. The topics presented here are discussed in greater detail in the critical essay that follows.

1775: Jane Austen is born on 16 December at Steventon, Hampshire, near Basingstoke, to the Reverend George Austen, Rector of Steventon (1731‐1805) and Cassandra Leigh Austen (1739‐1827), who had married in 1764. The Austens lived in Deane, Hampshire, where their first three children were born, then moved to Steventon and had five more children. Jane is the seventh of eight children: James (1765‐1819), George (1766‐1838), Edward (1768‐1852), Henry (1771‐1850), Cassandra Elizabeth (1773‐1845), Francis [Frank] (1774‐1865), and Charles John (1779‐1852). The Austens were Tories in the country village of Steventon, and associated with the local gentry. George Austen earned a respectable but not large income of £600 a year from the Deane and Steventon livings, which he supplemented by taking in boarding pupils from neighboring families from 1773 until 1796. Before 1773, the family experienced financial problems that were eased by a loan from Mrs. Austen's wealthy brother, James Leigh Perrot (1735‐1817).

Richard Brinsley Sheridan's play, The Rivals, one of the most enduring late eighteenth‐century comic dramas, and one that Jane Austen came to know well, is performed in London. The actress Sarah Siddons (1755‐1831) makes her theatrical debut at the Drury Lane Theatre.

1777: Philadelphia Austen Hancock (George Austen's sister) and her daughter Eliza travel on the European continent, then settle in Paris in 1779.

1778: The Franco‐American Alliance is formed. Britain declares war on France.

Frances Burney's Evelina is published, as well as Anna Laetitia Barbauld's Lessons for Children. Two key Enlightenment thinkers and writers in Europe—Jean‐Jacques Rousseau, Swiss philosopher and political theorist, and François Arouet (Voltaire), French philosopher and polymath—die.

1779: James Austen (age fourteen), the eldest Austen child, enters St. John's College, Oxford, on a “Founder's Kin” scholarship, as his father had done before him.

1780: The Gordon Riots occur in London in June. This action begins as an anti‐Catholic demonstration and develops into ten days of rioting; 700 people die; 450 arrests are made, which result in twenty‐five executions.

1781: Austen cousin Eliza Hancock marries Jean‐François Capot de Feuillide (1750‐1794) in France. Her husband is a captain in the Queen's Regiment of Dragoons and calls himself the Comte de Feuillide.

German philosopher Immanuel Kant's Critique of Pure Reason and Jean‐Jacques Rousseau's Confessions are published. Friedrich Schiller's play The Robbers is performed.

1782: The Austens perform the first of their home theatricals, encouraged by James Austen. Amateur theatricals at Steventon became a tradition and were performed in the dining room or the nearby barn. Eliza de Feuillide influenced these activities.

1783: Jane and Cassandra Austen are sent to school with their cousin Jane Cooper (age twelve), to be taught by Ann Cawley (Mrs. Cooper's aunt) at a boarding school at Oxford in the spring. In the summer the school moves to Southampton. The girls are brought home after an infectious disease (probably typhus) breaks out. After the girls return home, Jane Cooper's mother contracts the illness and dies in October.

Edward Austen, the third son, is adopted by Thomas Knight II (1735‐1794) and his wife Catherine, née Knatchbull, (1753‐1812) of Godsmersham, Kent, about eight miles southwest of Canterbury.

The Reverend George Lefroy (1745‐1806) and his wife Anne, née Brydges, (1749‐1804) take up residence at Ashe, next to Steventon, when Lefroy becomes rector, and the Lefroys become close friends of the Austens. “Madam Lefroy” becomes a trusted advisor to Jane Austen.

William Pitt (1759‐1806) becomes Prime Minister.

Britain recognizes American independence when the Peace of Versailles ends the war.

1784: Eliza de Feuillide accompanies her husband to France.

William Pitt is reelected Prime Minister and passes the India Act, establishing political control over British territories in India.

Samuel Johnson, English essayist, dictionary‐maker, poet, and playwright, and Denis Diderot, a leader of the French Enlightenment philosophes, die.

1785‐87: Jane and Cassandra Austen and Jane Cooper attend the Abbey House School in Reading, Berkshire, where they board.

1786: Austen probably begins to write her juvenilia sometime in 1786 or 1787.

Edward Austen goes on the Grand Tour to Switzerland and Italy, then spends a year in Dresden financed by his adoptive parents, the Knights. He returns in 1788.

Frank Austen (almost twelve) enters the Royal Naval Academy, Portsmouth. His experience figures prominently in the portrayal of Fanny Price's naval brother in Mansfield Park.

James Austen (age twenty‐one) leaves to spend a year in France and may also have traveled to Spain and Holland.

Jane and Cassandra Austen leave the Abbey School in Reading and return home to Steventon in December.

Eliza de Feuillide returns from France to London where her son, Hastings, is born. He is named for Warren Hastings.

1787: James Austen returns from Europe and is ordained deacon at Oxford.

A major public campaign to abolish the slave trade begins in Britain. The Somerset case in 1772 had effectively outlawed slavery in England when Lord Mansfield (1705‐1793), lord chief justice, ruled that slaves could not be sold abroad by their masters.

1787‐90: These dates are speculative, but the following juvenile writings from Volume the First probably date from this period: “Frederic and Elfrida,” “Jack and Alice,” “Edgar and Emma,” “Henry and Eliza,” “Mr. Harley,” “Sir William Mountague,” “Mr. Clifford,” “The Beautifull Cassandra,” “Amelia Webster,” “The Visit,” and “The Mystery.”

1788: Henry Austen (age seventeen) enters St. John's College, Oxford, as his father and his older brother James had done.

Eliza de Feuillide and Philadelphia Hancock return to France.

Edward Austen returns from Europe and takes up permanent residence with the Knight family at Godsmersham.

In December, Frank Austen finishes his studies in Portsmouth and sails for the East Indies on board HMS Perseverance.

King George III has his first attack of “madness,” creating a Regency crisis.

In May, there is a motion in Parliament to abolish the slave trade.

1789: James Austen begins to publish a weekly magazine at Oxford, The Loiterer. His brother Henry participates in this venture, and the two of them are the primary writers.

James Austen is ordained as a priest at Oxford.

George Austen lets Deane parsonage to the recently widowed Martha Craven Lloyd (1728‐1805) and her daughters, Martha (1765‐1843) and Mary (1771‐1843), who soon become close friends with Jane and Cassandra Austen.

King George III recovers and the Regency crisis ends. The Bastille falls in Paris on 14 July and the Declaration of the Rights of Man is signed, beginning the French Revolution.

1790: Jane Austen writes Love and Freindship [sic], the key piece in Volume the Second of her juvenile writings.

James and Henry Austen cease publication of the magazine The Loiterer when James leaves Oxford to become curate at Overton near Steventon.

Philadelphia Hancock and Eliza de Feuillide return to England from revolutionary France.

Mary Wollstonecraft's Vindication of the Rights of Men are published. Burke's Reflections inaugurates a war of ideas.

1791: Charles Austen (age twelve and the youngest Austen son) enters the Royal Naval Academy at Portsmouth, which his brother Frank attended.

Jane Austen writes The History of England.

James Austen becomes vicar of Sherborne, St. John, Hampshire, just north of Basingstoke.

Edward Austen marries Elizabeth Bridges (1773‐1808) of Goodnestone Park, about seven miles east of Canterbury, and they live at Rowling House nearby.

Frank Austen remains in the East Indies, but changes ships and becomes midshipman on HMS Minerva.

1791‐92: The dates are speculative, but Jane Austen probably composes “A Collection of Letters” and the play Sir Charles Grandison (based on Samuel Richardson's 1751 novel of the same title) in these years.

1792: Jane Austen writes “Lesley Castle,” “The Three Sisters,” “Evelyn,” and “Catharine,” all from Volume the Second.

Philadelphia Hancock dies of breast cancer on February 26.

James Austen marries Anne Mathew (1759‐1795), granddaughter of the Duke of Ancaster.

Jane Austen attends her first balls (she is sixteen).

Cassandra Austen becomes engaged to marry the Reverend Thomas Fowle (1765‐1797), of the Fowle family of Kintbury. Tom's father Thomas Fowle and George Austen had been friends since their undergraduate days at Oxford, and a third Lloyd daughter, Elizabeth, is married to Tom's brother, the Reverend Fulwar Craven Fowle.

Britain experiences the beginnings of increasingly repressive legislation against “Jacobins,” including a proclamation against seditious writings.

Mary Wollstonecraft's Vindication of the Rights of Woman appears.

1793: Most of Jane Austen's juvenile writings, Volume the First, Volume the Second, and Volume the Third, have been composed and are fair‐copied.¹

The collected “Scraps” are possibly composed or revised—including “The Female Philosopher,” “The First Act of a Comedy,” “A Letter from a Young Lady,” “A Tour through Wales,” and “A Tale,” all in Volume the Second.

Edward Austen's first child and Jane Austen's oldest niece, Fanny, is born at Rowling.

Henry Austen becomes a lieutenant in the Oxfordshire Militia.

James Austen's first child, Anna, is born at Deane.

Jane Austen writes the final pieces collected as the Juvenilia and dedicates them to her second niece Anna as “Detached Pieces”: “A Fragment,” “A Beautiful Description of the Different Effects of Sensibility on Different Minds,” and “The Generous Curate.” She also writes “Ode to Pity.” These pieces, which appear in Volume the First, complete the writings collected as the juvenilia.

After six years, Frank Austen returns from the East Indies.

King Louis XVI of France is tried and guillotined in Paris on 21 January. France declares war on Holland and Great Britain in January and on Spain in February. The Terror ensues in France, the Committee of Public Safety under Robespierre comes to power, Jean‐Paul Marat is murdered, and in October Queen Marie Antoinette is executed.

Sedition trials in England and Scotland lead to harsh sentences and exile to Botany Bay, Australia.

1793‐95: This is probably the period during which Jane Austen writes the untitled epistolary novel published as Lady Susan by her nephew James Edward Austen‐Leigh as an appendix to the 1871 edition of his A Memoir of Jane Austen.

1794: Jane Austen possibly begins to write Elinor and Marianne, the epistolary first version of Sense and Sensibility.

Eliza de Feuillide's husband is found guilty of attempting to bribe a witness during the trial of an aristocratic friend charged with conspiracy against the French republic, and he is guillotined in Paris on February 22.

Charles Austen (fifteen) leaves the Royal Naval Academy in Portsmouth and serves as midshipman to Captain Thomas Williams (1761‐1841), husband of his cousin Jane Cooper, on HMS Daedelus.

Thomas Knight II, Edward Austen's adoptive father, dies and leaves his large estates to his widow, to be inherited by Edward after her death.

The law of habeas corpus is suspended in 1794 with the Habeas Corpus Suspension Act and again in 1798, prompted by increased anxiety among the aristocratic classes.²

Georges‐Jacques Danton (April) and Maximilien‐François‐Marie‐Isadore de Robespierre (July) are executed. The Terror ends in France and is followed by the Directorate.

1795: Jane Austen probably composes most of Elinor and Marianne.

The Reverend Thomas Fowle, Cassandra Austen's betrothed, becomes involved with the West Indian campaign when he joins Lord Craven as his private chaplain.

James Austen's wife Anne dies, and Jane Austen's niece Anna, still a toddler, comes to live with the Austens at Steventon.

Tom Lefroy visits his uncle George Lefroy at Ashe Rectory on his way from Ireland to study law in London. His and Jane Austen's mutual attraction is serious enough that his family sends him away to forestall an inconvenient commitment. Lefroy later settled in Ireland, married and had a family, and became Lord Chief Justice of Ireland.

The Seditious Meetings Act and the Treasonable Practices Act pass after George III's coach is attacked on the way to Parliament.³

Napoleon Bonaparte becomes commander of the French armed forces.

1796: Austen's surviving letters begin on 9 January. She completes Elinor and Marianne and beginsFirst Impressions, an early version of Pride and Prejudice, and she probably also works on Sir Charles Grandison.

Charles Austen is involved in a battle when three French ships are intercepted in British waters.

1797: James Austen marries Mary Lloyd, his second wife, and his young daughter Anna returns from Steventon to live with her father and step‐mother at Deane.

Edward Austen's adoptive mother, Mrs. Knight, moves to Canterbury and makes Edward the immediate inheritor of the Knight properties in Kent and Hampshire. Edward and his family move to Godsmersham in Kent.

First Impressions, the first version of Pride and Prejudice, is offered to London publisher Thomas Cadell by George Austen and declined by return of post. Austen works on Sense and Sensibility, the new title for Elinor and Marianne.

Mrs. Austen, Jane, and Cassandra stay with Mrs. Austen's brother and his wife, James and Jane Leigh‐Perrot, in Jane Austen's first known visit to Bath.

Henry Austen marries his cousin, the widow Eliza de Feuillide, in London.

1798: Jane Austen is courted by Samuel Blackall, whom she discourages.

Austen completes Sense and Sensibility and begins Susan, which was published posthumously and given the title Northanger Abbey by Henry Austen.

The mechanization of paper manufacture reduces printing costs. Iron printing presses are introduced.

Mrs. Inchbald's version of Lovers' Vows (August von Kotzebue's Natural Son) is performed at the Theatre Royal, Covent‐Garden, and published in London. This is the play whose attempted staging forms a key episode in Mansfield Park.

Samuel Taylor Coleridge writes Fears in Solitude, France, an Ode, and Frost at Midnight. Thomas Malthus's Principles of Population, Mary Wollstonecraft's Maria, or the Wrongs of Woman, and William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge's Lyrical Ballads appear. Wordsworth begins to write The Prelude. Mary Hays's Appeal to the Men of Great Britain in Behalf of the Women, and Friedrich Schiller's Wallenstein trilogy are published.

1799: Jane Austen visits Bath with her mother and Edward and his wife. Susan is probably completed by the end of the year. The family also visits the Leighs at Adlestrop, the Coopers at Harpsden, another of Mrs. Austen's cousins in Surrey, and then spends the rest of the year in Steventon.

Mrs. Leigh‐Perrot, Jane Austen's aunt, is accused of stealing a one‐pound card of lace from a shop in Bath and is sent to Ilchester Gaol. This episode is a family embarrassment. Such a theft (over twelve pence) was considered grand larceny and would have been punishable by death or deportation to Australia.

1800: George Austen retires from his position as Rector of Steventon and leaves his eldest son, James, in charge.

Food shortages spark nationwide food riots.

1801: The Austens move to Bath. At some point between 1801 and 1804 Jane Austen may have had a romance, but no firm evidence survives.

Henry Austen gives up his commission in the Oxfordshire Militia and becomes a banker and army agent in London.

William Pitt resigns as Prime Minister when King George III refuses to agree to Catholic Emancipation, and Henry Addington becomes Prime Minister.

1802: Harris Bigg‐Wither (1781‐1833) proposes marriage to Jane Austen. She accepts in the evening, then declines the next morning.

Sometime late in 1802 or early in 1803, Jane Austen revises and makes a fair copy of Susan.

The Peace of Amiens is signed with France on 25 March, concluding the war. Napoleon Bonaparte is made First Consul for life.

The Health and Morals of Apprentices Act spearheads safety regulation and reform in British factories.

1803: Richard Crosby and Co. purchases the copyright to Susan for £10 through a business associate of Henry Austen, but they do not publish it despite a promise to do so by 1804.

Henry and Eliza Austen travel to France to try to reclaim some of the Comte de Feuillide's property, and they narrowly escape detainment. Napoleon had broken the Peace of Amiens, and the war with France resumes in May.

Frank and Charles Austen return to active naval service. Frank is stationed at Ramsgate and given the charge of organizing the coastal defense forces (the “Sea Fencibles”).

Battles resume between France and England, beginning the Napoleonic wars.

1804: Jane Austen begins writing The Watsons this year, but never completes it.

Frank Austen returns to sea as captain of HMS Leopard, flagship of Rear Admiral Thomas Louis, and is stationed off Boulogne as part of the blockade of Napoleon's fleet.

Charles Austen is promoted to command HMS Indian and sent to patrol the Atlantic coast of America to prevent American trade with France. Charles remains headquartered in Bermuda until around 1810.

Anne Brydges Lefroy dies after a riding accident on 16 December, Jane Austen's birthday.

Napoleon Bonaparte becomes Emperor in France in May.

Spain declares war on England.

1805: George Austen dies on 21 January in Bath. Jane Austen abandons The Watsons and makes a fair copy of Lady Susan, adding the narrated conclusion.

Frank Austen is commanding HMS Canopus in the Mediterranean and participates in the chase of Admiral Villeneuve's fleet to the West Indies and back. Frank is sent to Malta.

Martha Craven Lloyd dies at Ibthorpe, and her daughter Martha Lloyd comes to live permanently with the Austens.

Jane Austen composes “Lines Supposed to Have Been Sent to an Uncivil Dressmaker.”

1806: Frank Austen marries Mary Gibson at Ramsgate, Kent in July and arranges to set up house with his mother, his sisters, and Martha Lloyd.

Jane Austen writes “Lines to Martha Lloyd” and verses on the marriage of her brother Frank Austen.

1807: Frank Austen is put in command of HMS St. Albans, with duties to travel to South Africa, China, and the East Indies. In June, he departs for the Cape of Good Hope.

Jane Austen writes “On Sir Home Popham's Sentence, April, 1807” and possibly composes “Verses to Rhyme with ‘Rose.’”

Charles Austen marries Fanny Palmer (1790‐1814) in Bermuda.

The slave trade is abolished in Britain.⁴ France invades Spain and Portugal.

1808: Edward Austen's wife, Elizabeth, dies in October at Godsmersham. Later that month, Edward offers his mother and sisters a choice of houses, and they choose Chawton Cottage in Hampshire.

Jane Austen writes “To Miss Bigg with Some Pockethandkerchiefs” and, on the anniversary of Anne Brydges Lefroy's death, “To the Memory of Mrs. Lefroy.”

1809: Jane Austen uses a pseudonym to Richard Crosby to inquire about the status of Susan and to offer to send a second copy. Crosby responds that he has no current plans to publish the work, but will not give up the copyright unless it is purchased from him.

Mrs. Austen, Cassandra, and Jane settle with Martha Lloyd at Chawton Cottage on 7 July.

Jane Austen writes a verse letter to celebrate the birth of Frank Austen's first son. She also makes some revisions to Volume the Third and begins to revise Sense and Sensibility, a process that continues into the next year.

1810: Jane Austen continues to revise Sense and Sensibility, and it is accepted for publication on commission late this year or early in 1811 by Thomas Egerton.

Frank Austen returns from China.

Jane Austen possibly composes “Mock Panegyric on a Young Friend.”

George III suffers a mental breakdown.

1811: Jane Austen stays with Henry and Eliza Austen in London to correct the proofs of Sense and Sensibility.

Jane Austen writes a number of poems: “Lines on Maria Beckford,” “On the Weald of Kent Canal Bill,” “I am in a Dilemma,” “On a Headache,” “Mr. Gell and Miss Gill.”

Charles Austen returns to England with his wife, Fanny, and two children, and the family sees him for the first time in seven years and meets his family. He is given command of the guardship HMS Namur, and he and his family live on board, off Sheerness.

Jane Austen makes substantial revisions to First Impressions and retitles it Pride and Prejudice, and she begins work on Mansfield Park. Thomas Egerton publishes Sense and Sensibility in November in three volumes for the price of fifteen shillings; the title page says “By a Lady,” and about 750 copies are printed. None of Jane Austen's works appears under her name during her lifetime.

The Regency Act appoints the Prince of Wales to the Regency. (He rules as Regent until 1820, when George III dies, and then becomes George IV.)

Luddites (organized machine‐breakers) stage actions in Nottinghamshire and Yorkshire. Machine‐breaking becomes punishable by death.

Nationwide food riots break out in response to economic depression.

1812: Edward Austen's adoptive mother, Mrs. Knight, dies on 14 October, and Edward officially takes the name Knight.

Jane Austen possibly composes “A Middle‐Aged Flirt.”

Jane Austen sells Thomas Egerton the copyright to Pride and Prejudice for £110. She corrects the proofs in December 1812 and January 1813.

England is at war with America (the War of 1812). Napoleon invades Russia in June and retreats from Moscow in October.

The main streets of London are lit by gas.

1813: Pride and Prejudice is published on 28 January, with a title page that says “By the Author of Sense and Sensibility.” About one thousand copies are printed, at eighteen shillings a copy. Sense and Sensibility and Pride and Prejudice receive second printings in October. When the first edition of Sense and Sensibility sells out, Jane Austen receives £140 in profit.

Jane Austen stays with Henry Austen in London through his wife Eliza's final illness and death in April.

Jane Austen completes Mansfield Park.

In November, Jane Austen returns to London to stay with Henry Austen. During this visit, they probably negotiate the publication terms for Mansfield Park with Thomas Egerton, who agrees to publish it on commission.

Robert Southey is made Poet Laureate. The following works appear: Eaton Stannard Barrett's The Heroine, or Adventures of Chirubina, George Gordon, Lord Byron's Bride of Abydos and The Giaour, Samuel Taylor Coleridge's Remorse, Sir Walter Scott's Rokeby, Percy Bysshe Shelley's Queen Mab, and Robert Southey's Life of Nelson.

1814: In January, Jane Austen begins work on Emma. Austen corrects the proofs in February, and Mansfield Park is published in May in an edition of around twelve hundred copies at eighteen shillings each. The first edition of Mansfield Park sells out by November, and Jane Austen receives a profit of between £310 and £350. She and Henry try to arrange a second edition, but Thomas Egerton refuses to issue one.

Charles Austen's wife, Fanny, dies on 6 September on board HMS Namur after the birth of their fourth child.

England and its allies invade France and enter Paris on 31 March. Paris falls; Napoleon Bonaparte abdicates in April and is exiled to Elba.

The first steam press is used to print The Times. Steam locomotives become increasingly efficient.

The Treaty of Ghent ends the Anglo‐American war in December (though the Battle of New Orleans occurs in January 1815).

Frances Burney's The Wanderer, or Female Difficulties, George Gordon, Lord Byron's Ode to Napoleon, Lara, and Corsair, Henry Francis Cary's complete translation of Dante'sDivine Comedy, Maria Edgeworth's Patronage, Sir Walter Scott's Waverley, Percy Bysshe Shelley's Refutation of Deism, Robert Southey's Roderick, and William Wordsworth's The Excursion are published.

1815: Jane Austen completes Emma at the end of March and begins to write Persuasion (titled posthumously by Henry Austen).

Jane Austen copies out “Lines of Lord Byron, in the Character of Buonaparté” (Byron's “Napoleon's Farewell”).

Jane and Henry Austen negotiate the publication of Emma with publisher John Murray, who receives a positive reader's report by the end of September.

Jane Austen spends most of the end of the year in London with Henry, who becomes seriously ill. He is out of danger within a month, but she remains to nurse him.

Jane Austen is invited to visit the Prince Regent (later George IV) at Carlton House in November. She is asked to dedicate her next novel to him, and although Austen has misgivings, she agrees. The response comes from the Reverend James Stanier Clarke (1765‐1834), the regent's chaplain and librarian, and in subsequent correspondence he urges Jane Austen to compose a novel about a clergyman. This suggestion is the basis for her comic Plan of a Novel, according to Hints from Various Quarters, written in 1816, possibly with the help of her niece Fanny Knight.

John Murray offers £450 for the copyright of Emma if copyrights for Sense and Sensibility and Mansfield Park are included in the package. Henry and Jane Austen refuse this offer, and Murray declines to raise it. However, he agrees to publish an edition of 2,000 copies of Emma on commission, along with a second edition of 750 copies of Mansfield Park. Jane Austen corrects proofs for Emma and makes revisions for the second edition of Mansfield Park. Emma appears at the end of December (with the title page marked 1816) in an edition priced at twenty‐one shillings. It is dedicated to the Prince Regent, and a special presentation set is sent to Carleton House prior to the novel's general publication.

Raison et Sensibilité (Sense and Sensibility) is published in France, the first foreign translation of an Austen novel.

The landlords carry the Corn Law Act; the price of bread rises in consequence and causes hardship for the poor.⁵ Napoleon Bonaparte escapes from Elba and begins the Hundred Days (from March to June), restarting the war. After the Battle of Waterloo of 18 June, Napoleon surrenders (15 July), the war ends, and he goes into exile on St. Helena. King Louis XVIII is restored to the throne in France and a “holy Alliance” of Europe's monarchs forms when the Congress of Vienna establishes the Quadruple Alliance between Britain, Austria, Prussia, and Russia.

1816: Jane Austen revises Susan after Henry buys back the rights from Crosby and Co. She changes the title to Catharine, writes the “Advertisement, by the Authoress,” and intends to seek another publisher. A second, revised edition of Mansfield Park is issued. Le Parc de Mansfield (Mansfield Park) and La Nouvelle Emma (Emma) are published in France.

Charles Austen's ship, HMS Phoenix, is wrecked off the coast of Asia Minor in a hurricane. Charles and his crew survive.

Henry Austen's bank collapses in March. Several family members suffer major losses, including Edward Knight (£20,000) and uncle James Perrot (£10,000).

Jane Austen's health begins to weaken, and she goes with Cassandra to take the waters at Cheltenham.

Jane Austen completes the first draft of Persuasion on 18 July and revises the ending by 6 August.

By October, Emma has sold 1,248 copies, with a theoretical profit of £221. However, the second edition of Mansfield Park is creating losses that offset the profit, so she receives only £38 for Emma during her lifetime. In any event, the first edition did not sell out: 539 copies were remaindered in 1821, as well as 498 copies of Mansfield Park.

In December, Henry Austen is ordained deacon and takes the curacy of Chawton. He becomes a priest in 1817.

The Spa Fields riot occurs in December amidst the beginnings of economic depression and discontent.⁶

Richard Brinsley Sheridan dies and George Gordon, Lord Byron, leaves England. Samuel Taylor Coleridge's Christabel, Kubla Khan, Pains of Sleep, and Stateman's Manual appear.

1817: Jane Austen begins to write Sanditon, titled posthumously by the family; she seems to have meant the title to be The Brothers. She stops work around mid‐March because of illness, and Sanditon remains unfinished. She makes her will in April, leaving everything to her sister, Cassandra, except for a legacy of £50 to her brother Henry and another of the same amount to his French housekeeper, Madame Bigeon.

Jane and Cassandra Austen move to Winchester on 24 May to obtain better medical care for Jane. Jane Austen writes her last work, “Venta,” some verses on the Winchester Races and St. Swithin.

Jane Austen dies on 18 July in the early morning. On 22 July, she is publicly identified in the Hampshire Courier obituary as the author of her novels. She is buried in the north aisle of Winchester Cathedral on 24 July.

When Jane Austen's will is proved in September and funeral costs (£239) and other payments deducted, Cassandra is left with £561.2.0. At the time of her death, Austen's earnings from her novels amount to about £630. Posthumous profits, which include selling the five remaining copyrights to publisher Richard Bentley, place her total earnings from her work at about £1,625.

In December, Northanger Abbey, a revision of Susan, is published by Murray with Persuasion in a four‐volume set. Included is a “Biographical Notice of the Author” by Henry Austen. Henry probably gave these novels their titles, and negotiated this publication on a commission basis on Cassandra Austen's behalf. The copies number 1,750 and are sold at twenty‐four shillings each. By the start of 1821, Cassandra had netted a profit of £519, at which time 283 copies were remaindered.

Pride and Prejudice sells out in its second edition, and Thomas Egerton publishes a third edition.

Habeas Corpus is suspended in March, and the Seditious Meetings Bill is enacted. Princess Charlotte dies.

POSTHUMOUS DATES

1827: Jane Austen's mother, Cassandra Leigh Austen, dies at age 88.

1833: A collected edition of Jane Austen's novels is published with a “Biographical Notice” by her brother Henry Austen.

1845: Jane Austen's sister, Cassandra Elizabeth Austen, dies.

1848: Francis Austen appointed Commander‐in‐Chief of the North American and West Indian Station.

1852: Admiral Charles John Austen, Jane Austen's youngest brother, is made Commander‐in‐Chief of the East India state.

1863: Sir Francis Austen, Jane's Austen's other naval brother, is made Admiral of the Fleet.

1866: The first publication of Jane Austen's verses “To the Memory of Mrs. Lefroy.”

1870: James Edward Austen‐Leigh, Jane Austen's nephew, publishes A Memoir of Jane Austen (it appears on 16 December 1869 but is dated 1870). A second, expanded edition of the Memoir is published, and this edition includes Lady Susan, The Watsons, and a cancelled chapter of Persuasion. Austen‐Leigh's work is the basis for all subsequent biographies, and it sparked increased interest in Jane Austen.

1884: Jane Austen's great‐nephew, Edward, Lord Brabourne, son of Lady Knatchbull (née Fanny Austen‐Knight) publishes Letters of Jane Austen.

1895: Publication of Charades, Written a Hundred Years Ago by Jane Austen and Her Family.

1902: Constance Hill's Jane Austen: Her Homes and Her Friends is published, with additional biographical information.

1906: Jane Austen's Sailor Brothers, by Frank Austen's grandson and great‐granddaughter, is published with new family information, family prints, the poem “Venta,” and letters to Frank.

1913: Jane Austen: Her Life and Letters, by William Austen‐Leigh, James Edward's son, and his nephew Richard Arthur Austen‐Leigh, is published. This has come to be a primary source record.

1920: Personal Aspects of Jane Austen, by Mary Augusta Austen‐Leigh, James Edward's daughter, is published.

1922: Volume the Second, a collection of the juvenilia appears under the title Love and Freindship [sic].

1923: The Novels of Jane Austen, the Oxford edition of the novels, is published under the editorship of R. W. Chapman. This is the first scholarly edition and remains the standard edition. The second edition is issued in 1926 and the third in 1932‐1934, with many subsequent reprintings.

1925: The unfinished Sanditon is published. Lady Susan is reprinted. R. W. Chapman edits both.

1926: Chapman re‐edits the original manuscript ending of Persuasion, correcting the ending transcription from the 1871 Memoir. Chapman also edits Plan of a Novel, according to Hints from Various Quarters and Austen's “Opinions of Mansfield Park and Opinions of Emma accompany this printing.”Two Poems by Jane Austen (“Mr. Gill and Miss Gell” and “On a Headache”) is published.

1927: R. W. Chapman's edition of The Watsons is published.

1932: R. W. Chapman publishes Jane Austen's Letters to Her Sister Cassandra and Others. This volume includes new letters.

1933: Volume the First of the juvenilia is published.

1940: W. M. Roth edits Jane Austen's Three Evening Prayers.

1942: R. A. Austen‐Leigh publishes Austen Papers 1704‐1856, a collection of previously unpublished material.

1951: Volume the Third of the juvenilia is published.

1952: Caroline Mary Craven Austen (1805‐1880), James' daughter, publishes My Aunt Jane Austen: A Memoir.

1954: R. W. Chapman publishes Jane Austen's Minor Works, which includes all three volumes of the juvenilia and some other previously unpublished pieces of writing. This volume is reprinted in 1965 and further revised in 1969.

1975: B. C. Southam edits The MS of Sanditon.

1977: The manuscript of Sir Charles Grandison is discovered. Scholar B. C. Southam publishes it as Jane Austen's “Sir Charles Grandison” in 1980. The handwriting in the manuscript is Jane Austen's. Family tradition had ascribed the authorship to Austen's niece Anna, but scholars believe that Austen herself wrote it.

1995: Deirdre Le Faye publishes a new edition of Jane Austen's Letters with further additions.

1996: David Selwyn edits Jane Austen: Collected Poems and Verse of the Austen Family.

Notes

1. A “fair copy” is a neatly recopied manuscript. This is what would have been sent to the printers for publication.

2. Habeus corpus is a law that requires a person to be brought before a judge or court to investigate a restraint of the person's freedom, and was used as a protection against illegal imprisonment.

3. These acts represented the response of the government of William Pitt to the mob attack on George III, and derived from efforts to suppress dissidents and to restrict political discussion.

4. Slavery itself was not abolished until 1833.

5. The Corn Law Act restricted imports and thus shored up the price of wheat; the bill was supported by landowners.

6. In this uprising, rioters attempted to seize the Bank of England and the Tower of England but were dispersed. Marilyn Butler suggest that this event may be the subject of a brief reference in Northanger Abbey, in which Henry Tilney mentions a riotous mob trying to seize the Tower. See Marilyn Butler, Romantics, Revolutionaries, and Reactionaries: English Literature and Its Background 1760-1830 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1981): 106.