And in the sect—fairly large and yet unusually choice—of Austenians or Janites, there would probably be found partisans of the claim to primacy of almost every one of the novels.

This compilation is addressed to Austenians in general rather than to the fastidious collector, who is already provided for, on the grand scale, by Dr. Geoffrey Keynes’s Bibliography of 1929, with its wealth of detail and its precise facsimiles.

Not only do Austenians buy and read these books, but they maintain a lively conversation, in person and online, about sequels, continuations, adaptations, and completions.

We do not know what Jane Austen herself intended to call the book, since her manuscript had no title. It is widely held among Austenians that her own title would have been The Brothers – which would have been appropriate to the theme and subject matter – but there is only one source for this information, Edward Thomas Austen, fifth son of Jane’s brother Frank, who communicated it to his daughter, Janet Sanders, in a letter of 8 February 1925.

Austenian

Meaning

Adj

Noun

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