Jane Austen was born in 1775 and died in 1817. Her novels explored love, marriage, family, money, social expectations and the choices available to women in her time.
Her writing remains powerful because romance in her novels rarely exists in isolation. Love is shaped by pride, class, reputation, family pressure and personal judgement. Persuasion, her final completed novel, is especially concerned with second chances, regret and the possibility of recognising love differently with time.