It’s no surprise that plenty has been written about Jane Austen’s lively and spirited character, when that wit is clearly displayed in works such as Pride and Prejudice, Emma and Lady Susan.
But while we may know lots about Austen’s character, less is known about her appearance.
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What did Jane Austen look like?
Only one portrait of Austen, taken during her lifetime, has been authenticated. It was created by Jane’s sister Cassandra, so we can only assume that it is relatively accurate. In it, she is depicted with dark curls, rosy cheeks and an angular face.
How tall was Jane Austen?
This is a trickier question to answer. However, as part of her book Jane Austen’s Wardrobe, dress historian Hilary Davidson details the novelist’s garments.
One of these is a brown silk pelisse (a piece of outwear, similar to a dress). The New York Review reveals that Davidson thought that its wearer could have been at least 5ft 6in – even up to 5ft 8in.
So how does this compare to the average Regency woman? Again, this is difficult to answer. However, in 2017, researchers from Oxford University used data on skeletal remains to calculate how the average height of Englishmen changed over a period of 2,000 years.
They suggest that the mean height of Englishmen fell to around 169cm (5ft 5 in) in the late 1600s, with this decline continuing until the early 1800s.
In another study from 2020, a team from the University of Cambridge and Tallinn University analysed the heights of men in Dorset, England, taken from Dorset Militia Ballot Lists.
These lists included all men in the parish within an age range of approximately 18-50. They found that the men were on average 168.7cm tall in 1798-99.
As Jane Austen was born in 1775, there is a possibility that she towered over many men while in a ballroom – as well as the beloved romantic heroes she wrote about.
