Why wasn't Jane Austen married?

Acknowledged as one of the greatest writers in the English language, Jane Austen's romantic novels are admired across the world. Yet, while her literary heroines enjoyed romantic wedded bliss, Austen herself remained unmarried all her life. read more

While it wasn't exactly as steamy as it seemed in the Anne Hathaway movie Becoming Jane, Jane Austen and Irish politician Thomas Langlois Lefroy are said to have had a romance, but nothing ever came of it. Lefroy even named his eldest daughter Jane, but whether her namesake was Austen or Lefroy's mother-in-law isn't entirely clear. read more

By then, Jane was relatively old in a world where women married young. Bigg-Wither was six years her junior, but she accepted him anyway. The story might have ended there, with Jane Austen becoming Jane Bigg-Wither and her extraordinary life becoming an ordinary one of marriage and motherhood. read more