" ‘Jane? Why, she was a little old maid ’oo’d written ’alf a dozen books about a hundred years ago. ’Twasn’t as if there was anythin’ to ’em, either. I know. I had to read ’em. They weren’t adventurous, nor smutty, nor what you’d call even interestin’—all about girls o’ seventeen (they begun young then, I tell you), not certain ’oom they’d like to marry; an’ their dances an’ card-parties an’ picnics, and their young blokes goin’ off to London on ’orseback for ’air-cuts an’ shaves. It took a full day in those days, if you went to a proper barber...'"
The Janeites by Rudyard Kipling
I love that Kipling brought this phrase to public attention! (or did he invent it?) A.A. Milne writes in his autobiography that he befriended someone in WW1 because they both loved Jane.
Posted by: Simon T | January 28, 2013 at 11:35 PM
Yes, I was rather charmed by the Kipling story too!
According to the Kipling soc 'Janeites' was coined by George Saintsbury http://www.kipling.org.uk/rg_janeites1.htm though they seem to have been using wikipedia as a source so how reliable that is, I don't know.
Posted by: Juxtabook | January 29, 2013 at 11:39 AM