Who they were
Austen published Sense and Sensibility (1811), Pride and Prejudice (1813), Emma (1815), and others anonymously in her lifetime, with Northanger Abbey and Persuasion appearing after her death. Set among the landed gentry, her novels use free indirect speech and irony to examine women’s limited choices around marriage and money.
What they did
She raised the domestic novel to high art, combining social comedy with moral seriousness and psychological precision.
Legacy
Once modestly known, Austen is now among the most read and adapted of English authors, her six novels endlessly filmed and her reputation still growing two centuries on.