Story highlights Life-sized statue of novelist Jane Austen has been unveiled

Artwork commissioned to mark the bicentenary of Austen's early death in 1817

London (CNN) It's a truth universally acknowledged that Jane Austen is a novelist loved across the world.

None more so than in Basingstoke, near the author's birthplace of Steventon in southern England, where what's believed to be the first statue of the "Pride and Prejudice" author was unveiled Tuesday.

The life-sized bronze figure was created by sculptor Adam Roud as part of a series of events marking the 200th anniversary of the writer's death.

Roud told CNN the statue of Austen, which he said was "my own interpretation of her," had taken nearly five months to complete. The only confirmed portrait of the author, a watercolor sketch drawn by her sister Cassandra, hangs in the UK's National Portrait Gallery in London.

Roud said he was aware of the image: "That has been hovering in the back of my mind," he said, "but really I'd have preferred if that painting hadn't existed at all."