Pretence

Jane Austen is most recognisable for her romance novels such as Pride and Prejudice and Sense and Sensibility. What many long-suffering English students forget is that she herself had no great love story to call her own, save one fling and a broken engagement. Her engagement to Harris Bigg-Wither lasted only a day before she broke it off; her motive for doing so remains unknown. 

Should you wish to live in ignorance of the event that ensured the spinsterhood of the most prolific female writer, ignore this story and forget you saw this description. But if, perchance, you are intrigued and feel like reading my exaggerated and embellished account...