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 appearedposthumously in 1818. All these novels are still read, and therenever has been a time since she wrote them when they have not beenenjoyed. If there is a cult of Jane Austen admirers, she has neverlost the attention of the common reader; she has a special placeamong English novelists, and Miss Townsend Warner's essay showswhat it is. ?Miss Townsend Warner has won distinction in manyspheres; a musical scholar, poet, novelist and writer of shortstories. Her first book The Espalier, a volume of poems,was followed in 1926 by a novel Lolly Willowes which wasdescribed by the Times Literary Supplement as 'a firstnovel of remarkable accomplishment.' Among many other volumes ofprose and poetry The Corner That Held Them (1948) wasrecognized as one of the most sustained works of historicalimagination of our time.