Jane Austen

Educated in England in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, Jane Austen published four novels during her lifetime embraced by the literary elite of her day and later beloved by the public.  After her death, an additional two novels and a biography written by her nephew secured her place as an English lit superstar.  She wrote with candor, humor, and sass under her own authority as an unmarried woman, disregarding the “shortcoming” of her marital status. Jane’s words make us laugh and remind us both of the joy pining for love and of the power of stand-alone femininity.  Photo credit: wikimedia.org