And the politics of gender

At 15, she wrote History of England from the reign of Henry the 4 th to the death of Charles I, by a partial, prejudiced and ignorant historian, a satire on Goldsmith’s History, similar in nature to Wollstoncraft’s response to Burke. This is typical of her wit and reflects the gender divide of the family politics: The men largely supporting the current Hanoverian regime while women identified with the Stuarts. Jane’s stated intent however was to exonerate Mary Queen of Scots and basically skewer Elizabeth. By 1789 she writes Love and Friendship (a dark satire), followed by Susan, a novel told through letters In 1795, Jane meets Tom Lefroy, a law student from Ireland. They form an attachment but, being penniless, are separated by his family. She never sees him again and never marries. By 1796 she writes Elinor and Marianne followed by First Impressions which later becomes Pride and Prejudice sees the family suddenly moving to Bath, much to Jane’s apparent dismay, who is said to have fainted at the announcement. After this move, there are intermittent periods of unsettlement and family involvements until she is finally settled at Chawton Cottage in 1808 at which time she began revising Sense and Sensibility.