meta_pixel
Tapesearch Logo
Log in
History Extra podcast

Jane Austen: life of the week

History Extra podcast

Immediate Media

History

4.34.5K Ratings

🗓️ 18 February 2025

⏱️ 35 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Jane Austen remains one of the most influential novelists in English literature. Her sharp social commentary, wit, and exploration of love, class, and gender continue to captivate readers. This year marks the 250th anniversary of the author's birth, and a new BBC One drama, Miss Austen, is currently exploring her relationship with her sister Cassandra. Emily Briffett spoke to historian Lizzie Rogers to piece together Austen's life, from her cultured upbringing in a rural Hampshire village, to the turbulent Bath years and beyond. The HistoryExtra podcast is produced by the team behind BBC History Magazine. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

Hello and welcome to Life of the Week from History Extra, where leading historians delve into the lives of history's most intriguing and significant figures.

0:12.9

Jane Austen remains one of the most influential novelists in English history.

0:18.8

Her social commentary, sharp wits, and exploration of love, class and gender

0:24.5

continue to captivate readers today. 2025 marks the 250th anniversary of her birth, and a new BBC1

0:34.1

drama, Miss Austin, is currently exploring her relationship with her sister Cassandra.

0:39.8

So this seemed like the perfect moment to speak to historian and Jane Austen fan, Lizzie Rogers,

0:46.1

to piece together her life, from her cultured upbringing in a rural Hampshire village,

0:51.8

to the turbulent bath years and beyond. Today we are going to be talking

0:56.9

all about the life of Jane Austen. Now, she's quite an iconic character in history. Could you

1:04.8

introduce us to her? Yeah, it's a funny one to introduce you to Jane Austen because I think

1:09.7

her name kind of appears before she does, but to kind of get it down to its introduce you to Jane Austen because I think her name kind of appears before she does,

1:12.2

but to kind of get it down to its bare bones, Jane Austen is an author of six published novels,

1:17.6

finished novels, who was born in 1775 and she died in 1817. She wrote some of the works that

1:24.2

are adapted numerous times for TV today and that we read and reread like

1:28.1

pride and prejudice and sense and sensibility. So you've given us a clue to when she was born,

1:33.5

but where was she born? So she was a Hampshire girl. She was born at Steventon in Hampshire in

1:38.3

December of 1775. So yeah, that was where she spent the first 25 years of her life, actually.

1:45.0

And what was her family background like? How did this sort of shape who she was?

1:50.8

Yeah, well, her family, I think, is really crucial to who she became. So her nephew ended

1:56.9

writing a memoir about her and he described Steventon in Hampshire where she was born

2:00.9

as the cradle of her genius. It's quite a powerful phrase. I mean, when you learn more about it,

2:05.6

so she was the seventh of eight children, the Austins were a big family. Her father was a rector

...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Immediate Media, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Immediate Media and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.

Copyright © Tapesearch 2025.