Jane Austen was a leader with creativity, an elegant, witty and important female novelist. Her works of romantic, comedic fiction marked a shift in English literature away from the neo‐classical style. Consider the description of her life and read the challenge that follows.
Female Leaders: Jane Austen
Jane was born in Steventon in Hampshire in 1775, the seventh of eight children. She was educated by her Reverend father who acted as a tutor to his children and other children of the district. However, in 1783 Jane and Cassandra, her older sister, were sent to Oxford to be taught by a Mrs Ann Cawley. Here both girls caught typhus and Jane nearly died. The pair were inseparable almost throughout their lives and they spent much of their childhood happily writing and performing plays and charades. Their father had a rich library and Jane read widely and was encouraged to write from an early age. At the age of 14 she wrote her first novel, ‘Love and Freindship’ [sic]. This was followed by ‘A History of England by a Partial, Prejudiced and Ignorant Historian’ (with 13 illustrations by Cassandra), but Jane was in her 20s when she penned the first drafts of her novels Sense and Sensibility, Pride and Prejudice and Northanger Abbey. As a young woman Jane enjoyed long country walks, attended church regularly, socialised frequently, supervised the family servants, made clothes and attended balls with local gentry. Between 1793 and 1795 she wrote Lady Susan, a short epistolary novel, described as her most ambitious and sophisticated early work.
She had many friends in Hampshire and it was a shock when the family moved to Bath in 1801. The Reverend Austen moved there to retire, but he died in 1805 and Jane, her sister and their mother had to rely on their brother’s support to survive. It was also during this time that Jane fell in love, but the young man died and she was heartbroken. Soon after she accepted a proposal of marriage from a wealthy landowner, Harris Bigg‐Wither, but she changed her mind the next day, leading to considerable upset for her family and friends. Jane, like her sister Cassandra, was never to marry.
After 1805, Jane, her sister and their mother moved to Southampton, where Jane found herself unable to write. To some extent their fortunes changed for the better in 1809 when her brother Edward provided a small but suitable residence on his estate at Chawton in Hampshire. This cottage offered the stability Jane sought and she revised Sense and Sensibility and Pride and Prejudice to the point where they were able to be published in 1811 and 1813 respectively. At Chawton cottage Jane found time to focus on her writing, since her mother and Cassandra took a larger share of the domestic duties. The Austens socialised little apart from some teaching for local children or charity work among the poor of the estate, so their lives were commonly described by their relatives as ‘quiet’.
In 1814 Jane wrote and published Mansfield Park, while Emma followed in 1816. She also worked on Persuasion and a redraft of Northanger Abbey, which were both published posthumously in 1818. She began work on Sanditon, but became ill before it could be completed. She died in 1817, with none of the books published in her lifetime bearing her name; instead, they were described as written ‘By a lady’.
It is thought that Jane died from Addison’s disease (although bovine tuberculosis is also suggested as the cause) and during her illness – as with the rest of her life – her sister Cassandra was never far from her side. In 1817 they moved together to Winchester to be near Jane’s doctor and it was in her sister’s arms that Jane died in July, aged 41. She was buried in Winchester Cathedral. Much of Jane’s correspondence is missing and most of what is known about her comes from potentially biased family sources. Nevertheless, her literary works remain a vivid reminder of the contribution of women to the artistic world. Jane Austen was little regarded during her lifetime due to her decision to publish her works anonymously, and it took almost 50 years after her death for a popular appreciation of her work to take hold. However, she has since been recognised as a powerful author, achieving belated critical acclaim.
Challenge: Jane Austen’s books are some of the most read and most beloved in English literature. They capture a piece of history, offering a critical commentary on the social practices of the period and with realism that brings the books to life. Her works focus on moral issues and women’s dependence on marriage to secure social and financial security. Jane lived her entire life as part of a small, close‐knit family unit, often facing financial insecurity, and it was not until she was in her mid‐30s that she experienced success as a published author. Her books were out of print for a number of years after her death, but in 1832 her novels were republished as an illustrated set and they have remained in print ever since. Jane kept her writing talent hidden by choosing to remain anonymous. It is possible that many health professionals do the same for different reasons. Is creativity, seeking new ways, finding new paths or being innovative valued in everyday clinical practice? Have you had a great idea about improving care or changing practice, but kept it to yourself or been dissuaded or discouraged from taking the idea forward? Why was this? How could you have managed the situation differently? As a leader, how can you draw good ideas from your colleagues in a way that supports and encourages them to feel safe and supported to contribute? Have you ever had a great idea? Have you thought of a new way to care for a particular client group or a new type of documentation that saved time or captured the right information in the right way? What was it? What did you do about it? Write a short reflection about your experiences of generating a new idea, positive or negative. What would you do differently if you had a similar idea in the future?
