ABSTRACT
Suppose that the novels of Jane Austen had been out of print since a generation or so after she died; that most general readers had never heard of her; that the literary histories rarely mentioned her; that literary critics paid her no attention; and that a few devoted enthusiasts worldwide paid three-figure sums for old copies found in second-hand bookshops, made illicit photo-copies for their friends, and kept in touch with fellow enthusiasts on a Jane Austen website. Imagine the diminishing of our experience of fiction if that were so – and the bafflement and frustration felt by the few who knew her work at their inability to bring the pleasure of reading it to the notice of the general reading public.
