Jane Austen lived during a time of great political and social change in England between 1775-1817. As a woman of modest means, she drew inspiration from her travels within southern England and visits to cities like Bath and seaside towns along the Devon and Dorset coasts. Though she did not begin any novels during her 5 years living in Bath, she used these experiences to gather material and settings for many of her most famous works, including Northanger Abbey, Persuasion, and scenes from Pride and Prejudice.

1. jane austen Essay
Jane Austen lived from 1775 until 1817, a span of four decades that saw significant changes in
English social, political, and economic life. At the time her birth, England was embroiled in a bitter
struggle with its American colonies, the loss of which, several years later, proved to be a
tremendous blow to English political and military prestige. Under the rule of George III, England's
political climate became increasingly unstable with constant struggles between the King and Whig
politicians. Ireland received its independence in 1782, although the violence that had long plagued
the country continued to rage. Across the Channel, the French Revolution had begun and the English
aristocracy watched in horror as royal heads began to roll....show more content...
Bath, where Jane's family moved after her father's retirement in 1801, provided Austen with a
different view of 19th–century social customs. Although her family's social standing did not enable
her to travel in the most elite circles, she was a frequent visitor to Assembly Room events and
made regular trips to the Pump Room, another of the city's centres of social life. Bath serves as
the locale for scenes in two novels, Northanger Abbey and Persuasion, and both draw heavily on
her experiences there. Jane apparently used her time in Bath primarily to gather material for future
novels, or to infuse into revisions of her previous ones; she did not begin any of her six novels
during the five years she lived in Bath.
Although Jane's travel experiences never took her out of the immediate area, she travelled quite a bit
within the South of England. During the years they lived in Bath, she and her family often spent
intervals of time at the seaside––most often the beaches on the Devon and Dorset coasts. These
locales worked their way into her writing, as did most others with whom Jane came into contact.
Pride and Prejudice, in particular, contains scenes based directly on her experience in the small
fishing village of Lyme Regis, which she uses as the scene of Louisa Musgrove's frightening fall.
After her father's death in January 1805, Jane, her mother, her sister Cassandra, and family friend
Martha Lloyd, moved first to Clifton, and then, in autumn 1806, to Southampton
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