Austenian

comparative more Austenian · superlative most Austenian

1. Of, relating to, or reminiscent of Jane Austen (1775–1817), English novelist noted for realism and biting social commentary.

   Synonyms: Austenesque, Austenish, Jane Austen-esque, Jane Austenian, Jane Austenish, Miss Austenish

plural Austenians

1. A fan or admirer of Jane Austen; someone who studies the works of Jane Austen.

   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.

   2003, Marjorie Garber, Quotation Marks, Routledge, →ISBN, page 74

   3 more examples

   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.

   1894, George Saintsbury, Pride and Prejudice, London: George Allen, Preface, page ix

   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.

   1953, R[obert] W[illiam] Chapman, “Preface”, in Jane Austen: A Critical Bibliography, Oxford: At the Clarendon Press, page v

   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.

   2013, Antony Edmonds, Jane Austen’s Worthing: The Real Sanditon, Amberley Publishing, →ISBN

   Synonyms: Austenite, Janeite