Jane Austen (1775 - 1817) was an English writer. Her romantic novels are distinctive for their criticism of the British landed gentry and are considered classics of English literature. Austen lived her entire life as part of a close-knit family located on the lower fringes of the English landed gentry. From 1811 until 1816, with the release of Sense and Sensibility (1811), Pride and Prejudice (1813), Mansfield Park (1814) and Emma (1815), she achieved success as a writer. She wrote two additional novels, Northanger Abbey and Persuasion, both published posthumously in 1818, and began a third, which was eventually titled Sanditon, but died before completing it. Austen's works critique the novels of sensibility of the second half of the 18th century and are part of the transition to 19th-century realism. Her plots, though fundamentally comic, highlight the dependence of women on marriage to secure social standing and economic security.