Q 01/05

In which English county was Jane Austen born in December 1775?

A) Somerset

B) Hampshire

C) Sussex

D) Dorset

Answer · why

B) Hampshire

Hampshire: she was born in the village of Steventon and lived there until she was 25, drafting the first versions of three of her novels before the fa...

Q 02/05

What was the occupation of Jane Austen's father, George Austen?

A) Country solicitor

B) Naval officer

C) Wool merchant

D) Anglican rector

Answer · why

D) Anglican rector

Anglican rector: George Austen topped up a modest clerical income by farming and by taking in three or four boys at a time as boarding pupils.

Q 03/05

Austen's father and two of her brothers all studied at which university?

A) Oxford

B) Cambridge

C) Edinburgh

D) St Andrews

Answer · why

A) Oxford

Oxford: at St John's College her eldest brother James launched a humorous weekly, The Loiterer, kept it going for over a year, and in later life spoke...

Q 04/05

Which sibling was Jane Austen's only sister and lifelong closest companion?

A) Eliza

B) Anna

C) Cassandra

D) Philadelphia

Answer · why

C) Cassandra

Cassandra burned most of Jane's letters to her in old age and left the rest to relations; the family put it down to a dread of publicity, though schol...

Q 05/05

Which disease nearly killed the young Jane Austen in 1783 at school in Southampton?

A) Typhus

B) Scarlet fever

C) Cholera

D) Smallpox

Answer · why

A) Typhus

Typhus swept through Southampton that autumn: both sisters caught it and were fetched home, and Jane, who nearly died, was taught at home for more tha...