A fact from A Memoir of Jane Austen appeared on Wikipedia's Main Page in the Did you know column on 11 August 2008, and was viewed approximately 2,065 times ( disclaimer) ( check views). The text of the entry was as follows: Did you know... that the novels of Jane Austen (pictured) became popular with the public only after the publication of A Memoir of Jane Austen in 1869? A record of the entry may be seen at Wikipedia:Recent additions/2008/August.

This article is rated B-class on Wikipedia's content assessment scale. It is of interest to the following WikiProjects:

Books This article is within the scope of WikiProject Books. To participate in the project, please visit its page, where you can join the project and discuss matters related to book articles. To use this banner, please refer to the documentation. To improve this article, please refer to the relevant guideline for the type of work.BooksWikipedia:WikiProject BooksTemplate:WikiProject BooksBook articles This article has been marked as needing an infobox. England Mid‑importance This article is within the scope of WikiProject England, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of England on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.EnglandWikipedia:WikiProject EnglandTemplate:WikiProject EnglandEngland-related articles Mid This article has been rated as Mid-importance on the project's importance scale. Women writers High‑importance This article is within the scope of WikiProject Women writers, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of women writers on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.Women writersWikipedia:WikiProject Women writersTemplate:WikiProject Women writersWomen writers articles High This article has been rated as High-importance on the project's importance scale.

I note the DYK nomination of this article describing this book's impact on popularity of Jane Austen's books. I believe the assertion is well enough supported for DYK purposes, but I wonder if it would be relatively easy to quantify the impact. Perhaps it is well-known when there were printings of one or more of Austen's books, and there will be a cluster of new printings after 1869? In this article, it is reported how many copies were included in the first edition of this book; are the numbers of copies printed available for Austen's own books?

Also, this article is very clear on the dates of publication of this book (late 1869), and its second edition. But, I wondered throughout reading this what is the relation of that date to the publication dates of Jane Austen's books, myself entertaining the idea that it was written during Austen's lifetime. Then in the Jane Austen article i find that she died in 1817 i think. So this was much later! I think it would help this article to be clear on that (and that this 1869-published book had a big impact on sales of the 1818-published Persuasion, 1811-published Sense and Sensibility, etc.

Hope these comments are helpful. doncram ( talk) 21:02, 4 August 2008 (UTC) reply

• This is very helpful, thanks. This is just a start, to de-redlink a title in Reception history of Jane Austen. Eventually I will get around to fixing up this article properly. However, the JA context information is a good idea. I'll add some of that later today. Awadewit ( talk) 21:09, 4 August 2008 (UTC) reply

Thanks i like the date-context-clarified new version better. However, I think the DYK nomination is now not supported by a specific inline reference (maybe i shouldn't have said it was well enough supported for DYK before). The statement that the "book had an 'immediate' and 'incalculable' effect on the public's perception of Jane Austen" is supported by a reference, but it is not explicit there whether the effect was to increase sales and popularity or to decrease them. doncram ( talk) 17:52, 7 August 2008 (UTC) reply

This should be better. The idea is that only a literary elite read them before and after the publication of the Memoir was published the masses read her novels. That was supported before, but the extra details should add to that. Awadewit ( talk) 23:14, 7 August 2008 (UTC) reply

Hello! This is a note to let the editors of this article know that File:Jane Austen, from A Memoir of Jane Austen (1870).jpg will be appearing as picture of the day on December 16, 2010. You can view and edit the POTD blurb at Template:POTD/2010-12-16. If this article needs any attention or maintenance, it would be preferable if that could be done before its appearance on the Main Page so Wikipedia doesn't look bad. :) Thanks! howcheng { chat} 22:19, 14 December 2010 (UTC) reply

Picture of the day

The frontispiece to A Memoir of Jane Austen, a biography of the author Jane Austen (1775–1817), written by her nephew James Edward Austen-Leigh and published 52 years after her death. Common to biographies written in the Victorian era, it did not attempt to unreservedly tell the story of the author's life, but instead kept much private information from the public. The Memoir generated popular interest in the works of Jane Austen, which only a literary elite had read up until that point. The art for the frontispiece took some liberties with the original painting, softening Austen's features in the Victorian style.Image: James Andrews, after Cassandra Austen
Restoration: Adam Cuerden/ Staxringold

Archive – More featured pictures...