What Was Jane Austen's Early Life Like?

Born in 1775, Jane Austen was one of two daughters (out of seven children) of the Rev. Georrge Austin (1731-1805).
Jane was socially and financially dependant on her parents, and remained in Steventon most of her life (the first 25 years).
Jane Austin was educated briefly by a relative in 1783 in Oxford and then in 1785-1786, when she attended the Reading Ladies boarding school in the Abbey gatehouse in Reading, Berkshire. Jane recieved a broader education than many women of her time, despite being tutored at home and irregularly at school.
Jane began to write for family amusement as a child. Both her parents were avid readers. Her earliest writings date from about 1787. She was very shy about her writing and wrote on small peices of paper, which she slipped under the desk if anyone entered the room.
Though she never married or had her own room, Jane's social life was very active. One of her stories, which was written in the form of letters, was read aloud to the family as early as 1795.
When her father retired unexpectedly, the family sold off eveything, including Jane's piano and moved to Bath. Jane, then twenty-five, and her sister, then twenty-eight, followed their parents. Jane, torn from her friends and rural roots, abandoned her writing for a decade.