Editors’ Note: Toward a Map of Austen’s Fandom

Citation

MacLean d & Allen Ford S (2026) Editors’ Note: Toward a Map of Austen’s Fandom. Persuasions: The Jane Austen Journal On-line, 46 (2). https://jasna.org/publications-2/persuasions-online/volume-46-no-2/editors/

Abstract
First paragraph: We can surmise from an 1813 letter to her brother Francis that Jane Austen was bemused to find that their brother Henry had “heard P. & P. warmly praised in Scotland” (25 September). To her sister, Cassandra, she wrote: Lady Robert [Kerr] is delighted with P. & P—and really was so as I understand before she knew who wrote it—for, of course, she knows now.—[Henry] told her with as much satisfaction as if it were my wish. (15–16 September) Some weeks later she reported “more of such sweet flattery from Miss Sharp”: “I am read & admired in Ireland too.—There is a Mrs Fletcher, the wife of a Judge, an old Lady & very good & very clever, who is all curiosity to know about me” (3 November 1813). Such literary fame was heady stuff. Later in the same letter, she wrote exuberantly, “I do not despair of having my picture in the Exhibition at last—all white & red, with my Head on one Side;—or perhaps I may marry young Mr D’arblay.”