![]() These readers often felt they had a personal connection to Austen and that they were the only ones who could truly appreciate the subtleties of her work. During the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the term usually referred to a socio-economically elite and mostly male readership. It could be said that these were the earliest Janeites, although the term didn't enter the English language until the mid-1890s, when it was coined by George Saintsbury in his introduction to a new edition of Pride and Prejudice. ![]() As early as the 1850s, but especially after her nephew's A Memoir of Jane Austen was published in 1870, fans began traveling to England to visit sites connected to the author. Today, however, there is an underlying negative connotation to the term "Janeite" with roots in gender issues and the ways in which Austen's work has been conceptualized over the past 200 years.Īlthough Austen did not enjoy fame during her lifetime, it wasn't long after her death in 1817 that her popularity began to grow. ![]() Johnson, "Janeism" is a "self-consciously idolatrous enthusiasm for 'Jane' Austen and every primary, secondary, tertiary (and so forth) detail relative to her." The devotees who share this enthusiasm, also known as "Janeites," are in the simplest sense fans of Jane Austen and her writings. ![]() ![]() This article relates to The Jane Austen SocietyĪccording to literary scholar Claudia L. ![]()
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