During her lifetime Jane Austen published but four novels, Sense and Sensibility (1811), Pride and Prejudice (1813), Mansfield Park (1814), and Emma (1816). Northanger Abbey and Persuasion appeared posthumously in 1818. All these novels are still read, and there never has been a time since she wrote them when they have not been enjoyed. If there is a cult of Jane Austen admirers, she has never lost the attention of the common reader; she has a special place among English novelists, and Miss Townsend Warner's essay shows what it is. ?Miss Townsend Warner has won distinction in many spheres; a musical scholar, poet, novelist and writer of short stories. Her first book The Espalier, a volume of poems, was followed in 1926 by a novel Lolly Willowes which was described by the Times Literary Supplement as 'a first novel of remarkable accomplishment.' Among many other volumes of prose and poetry The Corner That Held Them (1948) was recognized as one of the most sustained works of historical imagination of our time.