A Lasting Love Affair

It might surprise fans to learn that Jane Austen was almost entirely unknown during her lifetime. Soon after she died, in 1817, aged just 41, her works, including Emma, Persuasion, and even Pride and Prejudice, all went out of print. It was only when her nephew, James Edward Austen-Leigh, released A Memoir of Jane Austen in 1870 that she was born again to a wider Victorian public. Soon the cult of Austen fans, sometimes known as ‘Janeites’, was established and, since then, The Jane Austen Society has developed branches across the globe.