Austen Now: An Introduction

In July 2017, fans and scholars alike took the opportunity to commemorate the bicentenary of Jane Austen's death, celebrate her works and all that they have spawned, and reflect on what Austen means to them in this modern age. Scholars mostly converged around two international conferences: one at Chawton House Library, located in the village where Austen spent the last 8 years of her life; and another, “Immortal Austen,” at Flinders University (Adelaide, Australia), co‐convened by the editors of this special section. One conference was held in what is now the epicenter of serious Austen scholarship and the other not too far from what Jerry Seinfeld once called “the anus of the world” (Teh). If any observation from the bicentenary helps to reinforce the immense geographical breadth of Austen's global fame, this is it.