Jane Actually

they approached Bath. He unplugged the computer’s power supply from the outlet under the seat and collected his coat. He looked for the old woman he’d offended and saw she’d already left her seat and was making for the queue to exit. He stood up as well, but waited to proceed until the train completely stopped.
    It was time to return his attention to the purpose of his visit. His first stop was the Guildhall. Once he got to his bed and breakfast he would search again for Mrs Westerby … and he would try to contact Dr Davis through the University of Chicago website.
    After all, she was on the committee that identified Austen. If I can get a good review from her, that should count for something.
    1 Corn Laws refers to any number of protective trade legislations that kept grain prices high in Britain. Corn is a generic term for grain. The Enclosure Acts encouraged wealthy landowners to enclose common grazing lands, to the detriment of villagers who freely used the commons for centuries. Many villagers, unable to make a living, moved to cities.
    2 Deirdre Le Faye is an eminent UK Janeite and author of
Jane Austen: A Family Record
.
Dr Joan Klingel Ray
is a past president of the Jane Austen Society of North America (JASNA) and the author of
Jane Austen for Dummies.
    3 Anna Austen Lefroy’s continuation is also unfinished. The Lefroy and Austen families were very close. Austen’s niece married Benjamin Lefroy, a cousin of that Tom Lefroy.
    4 Sir Thomas Bertram is the uncle of Fanny Price, the heroine of
Mansfield Park
, Austen’s third published novel
    5 Each year, JASNA convenes in a different city for the Annual General Meeting
    6 Austen is buried at Winchester Cathedral
    7 The mother of Elizabeth Bennet, the heroine of
Pride and Prejudice
. Mrs Bennet was given to histrionics.
    8 Austen visited Lyme Regis at least twice in her lifetime, and in a letter Jane sent to Cassandra about a dance she attended there, remarks on “a new odd-looking man who had been eyeing me for some time, and at last, without any introduction, asked me if I meant to dance again. I think he must be Irish by his ease, and because I imagine him to belong to the Honbl. Barnwalls, who are the son and son’s wife of an Irish viscount, bold and queer-looking people, just fit to be quality at Lyme.” There is no reason to believe the relationship involved more than the one dance.
    9
Persuasions
is a journal published by JASNA

An empty chair
Jane needs an avatar
    “T hen we are agreed,” Mr Pembroke said and sat back in his chair. Jane regarded him with some amusement, charmed by his manner that seemed so like her Mr Gardiner. 1
He is just as I imagined, a good and sensible man with just that sort of amusement.
It helped strengthen the resemblance that he was English—having lived in America a number of years—had grey hair, balding on top, and affected wire-rimmed spectacles that did not obscure his grey eyes.
    It was their fourth meeting, and Jane could not complain of Melody’s skills at negotiation, but to be honest, Mr Pembroke hardly objected to any of her demands. He professed to be Jane’s ardent admirer, having “cut his teeth on Austen,” a phrase that made him laugh just as she imagined Mr Gardiner would.
    Damme, what was his first name? It won’t do for me to forget the name of … wait, did I ever give him a first name?
    She felt slightly foolish, foolish for again cursing and then for forgetting.
I did create him two hundred years ago. And I have created not a few characters.
    “… if you might consider changing the title?”
    “What?”
    “I’m sorry, you want to change the title?” Melody asked.
    “It’s just … now I know this is just one of those marketing things that drives authors insane … it’s just your most famous novel is
Pride and Prejudice
and …”
    “I see where this is going, Mr Pembroke,” Jane said, her words audible for the man through the small speaker attached to the AfterNet terminal on the table before them. “My next most famous novel is
Sense and Sensibility
and you would like another three word title that is similarly alliterative.” Jane hoped the digitized voice of the terminal would convey that she wasn’t upset by the suggestion.
    “But it’s been known as
Sanditon
for two hundred years,” Melody said. “Why would you …”
    “It also has been called
Sand and Sanditon
, Melody, although I never quite understood that. And I thought of it as
The Brothers
. I will