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That's 20% off your first purchase with Code Short History at LiquidIV. It's February 1917 in northern France in a trench on the Western Front of the Great War. A British soldier is propped up against a six foot pile of sandbags, firing his rifle over the top of the enemy. The deafening roar of shelling and explosions has been relentless all afternoon and the stench of death hangs in the cold morning air. The soldier stomps his leather boots on the frozen mudd growl. He can't remember the last time he felt his toes. He's still haunted by the cries of his friend who endured trench foot for weeks before going to hospital. He never came back. Now the soldier's gun jams and he ducks down trying to fix it. But his mind is a mess. He can barely concentrate on what his fingers are doing. It's not just the noise, it's the terrorist. Only yesterday another friend died in his arms after being hit by enemy fire. In this corner of France, he has seen more misery than any 19 year old should ever have to. As the shelling dies down, the officers shout to the soldiers to get some rest so they're ready to face the enemy fire that will surely return. After sunset, the young soldier turns his back on the deadly swirls of barbed wire littering no man's land and heads through the warren of trenches to a shelter a little further back. As he walks, he thinks of his parents and sisters at home on the family farm in the Yorkshire Dales. His comfortable bed there. Here, rest is almost impossible. He's barely slept for more than a couple of hours at a time so since joining up last year, he gets himself a tin mug of tea and finds a sandbag to sit on. Leaning his rifle close by, he pulls out a dog eared pocket edition of a novel. The mud splattered cover reads Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen. The book is one of many provided by the army. As he flicks through to find his page, he sips his tea, thankful for the warmth. The war's third winter is also turning into the most bitter. The book is a welcome distraction and he tries to lose himself in the genteel world of the Georgian middle classes. Reading Austin reminds him of his school days, but it's also a window to a time and society untouched by the horror he's surrounded by. He absently scratches at his thick woolen underwear, itchy with lice beneath his uniform and damp overcoat. Soon enough it will be time to pick up his rifle again, but for now he is immersed in the comforting world of the quick witted heroine Elizabeth Bennet and the brooding hero, Mr. Darcy. Today, Jane Austen's novels are known around the world. Academics carve out careers from debating her work, which has been translated into dozens of languages. Obsessed fans flock to see the countless adaptations of her novels. As one of the world's best known female writers, Austen has acquired almost cult status. But what challenges did this clergyman's daughter from 18th century Rural England face in her lifetime when vanishingly few women could call themselves writers? What drives self proclaimed Jainites today to adopt her Georgian dresses and bonnets, start societies in her honor and devour every detail about her life? Why do her characters and stories continue to capture our hearts and imaginations? I'm John Hopkins from Noiser. This is a short history of Jane Austen. On a bitterly cold night in December 1775, at the rectory in the village of Steventon in the south of England, a woman is giving birth to her seventh child. Cassandra Austin, attended to by a handful of women, gives a final push. A few moments later, the baby girl, who is almost a month late, lets out her first cry. Propped on pillows in her four poster bed, Cassandra cradles her healthy new daughter. As the maids quietly tidy the room, one lays out thick cloths and pins to be used as nappies. Next to the wooden cradle, cozy with linens and blankets, Cassandra rests and feeds the round faced baby Jane. She decides her name will be Jane. The infant is christened the next day at home by her father, the Reverend George Austen. Before long, the parents send baby Jane away to be fostered by a woman in a nearby village. This practice of Handing over an infant to a wet nurse to temporarily feed and look after is a common custom, something the Austens have done with all their babies. Around the age of three months, just like her siblings, Jane returns to her family at the rectory once she's able to walk. Right from the start, she's very close to her elder sister, who's named Cassandra, after their mother. The pair will remain best friends and live together for the whole of Jane's life. Austen is born into a Britain on the brink of change, While King George III, his wife, Queen Charlotte, and their 15 children settle into life at the newly acquired Buckingham Palace. Across the Atlantic, the American Revolutionary War is in full swing. Explorer Captain James Cook is back on English soil after his second voyage, circumnavigating the globe. And engineers are racing to develop a viable steam locomotive. But as the young Austen passes through her happy rural childhood, this burgeoning era of innovation, war and discovery has little influence on her daily life. While her brothers have the opportunity to find careers in the church or military, from a young age, Austen knows that she will be expected to marry. Despite her father tutoring students for extra income. The Austens are far from wealthy, and any money they do have will pass from father to sons, leaving the daughters with little choice but to find a husband to support them financially. These social conventions of marrying for money and the related issue of the limited choices of women will later form a vivid central theme in Austen's writing. Even so, the Austen parents value education and encourage a love of learning and literature in all of their children. Jane's father, especially, is a major influence on his daughter's passion for writing and a great source of encouragement. Janine Barkus is a professor at the University of Texas and author of the Lost Books of Jane Austen.
