Republic of Pemberley
Encyclopedia
The Republic of Pemberley is an online community
dedicated to the appreciation of the work of the English
author
Jane Austen
. The site was established shortly after the release of the 1995 BBC adaptation of Austen's novel
, Pride and Prejudice
, and takes its name from the estate
owned by the hero Fitzwilliam Darcy
. The website was co-founded by Myretta Robens and Amy Bellinger. It is the largest online Jane Austen fansite and had an average of 8 million to 10 million hits per month as of 2007. In 2000, there were one million page views of its fan-fiction area each year, and most of their fanfic authors are female. Stories based on Pride and Prejudice dominate the site as it is the most popular Austen work.
The website contains chat rooms and bulletin boards and reproduces Austen's novels in their entirety, annotated with hyperlink
s and augmented by discussion boards, allowing readers to make connections between various parts of Austen's writings as well as interact with fellow readers.
When screenwriter Andrew Davies
met with some American women from the Republic of Pemberley, he said "They were all most insistent on the point that it is unresolved sexual tension that makes for a romantic drama."
Online community
An online community is a virtual community that exists online and whose members enable its existence through taking part in membership ritual. An online community can take the form of an information system where anyone can post content, such as a Bulletin board system or one where only a restricted...
dedicated to the appreciation of the work of the English
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
author
Author
An author is broadly defined as "the person who originates or gives existence to anything" and that authorship determines responsibility for what is created. Narrowly defined, an author is the originator of any written work.-Legal significance:...
Jane Austen
Jane Austen
Jane Austen was an English novelist whose works of romantic fiction, set among the landed gentry, earned her a place as one of the most widely read writers in English literature, her realism and biting social commentary cementing her historical importance among scholars and critics.Austen lived...
. The site was established shortly after the release of the 1995 BBC adaptation of Austen's novel
Novel
A novel is a book of long narrative in literary prose. The genre has historical roots both in the fields of the medieval and early modern romance and in the tradition of the novella. The latter supplied the present generic term in the late 18th century....
, Pride and Prejudice
Pride and Prejudice
Pride and Prejudice is a novel by Jane Austen, first published in 1813. The story follows the main character Elizabeth Bennet as she deals with issues of manners, upbringing, morality, education and marriage in the society of the landed gentry of early 19th-century England...
, and takes its name from the estate
Pemberley
Pemberley is the fictional country estate owned by Fitzwilliam Darcy, the male protagonist in Jane Austen's novel Pride and Prejudice. It is located near the fictional town of Lambton, and believed by some to be based on Chatsworth House, near Bakewell in Derbyshire.In describing the estate, Austen...
owned by the hero Fitzwilliam Darcy
Fitzwilliam Darcy
Fitzwilliam Darcy, generally referred to as Mr Darcy, is one of the two central characters in Jane Austen's novel Pride and Prejudice. He is an archetype of the aloof romantic hero, and a romantic interest of Elizabeth Bennet, the novel's protagonist...
. The website was co-founded by Myretta Robens and Amy Bellinger. It is the largest online Jane Austen fansite and had an average of 8 million to 10 million hits per month as of 2007. In 2000, there were one million page views of its fan-fiction area each year, and most of their fanfic authors are female. Stories based on Pride and Prejudice dominate the site as it is the most popular Austen work.
The website contains chat rooms and bulletin boards and reproduces Austen's novels in their entirety, annotated with hyperlink
Hyperlink
In computing, a hyperlink is a reference to data that the reader can directly follow, or that is followed automatically. A hyperlink points to a whole document or to a specific element within a document. Hypertext is text with hyperlinks...
s and augmented by discussion boards, allowing readers to make connections between various parts of Austen's writings as well as interact with fellow readers.
When screenwriter Andrew Davies
Andrew Davies (writer)
Andrew Wynford Davies is a British author and screenwriter. He was made a Fellow of BAFTA in 2002.-Education and early career:...
met with some American women from the Republic of Pemberley, he said "They were all most insistent on the point that it is unresolved sexual tension that makes for a romantic drama."
Further reading
- Making sense of Austen's online sensibility. Toronto StarToronto StarThe Toronto Star is Canada's highest-circulation newspaper, based in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Its print edition is distributed almost entirely within the province of Ontario...
. 2007. - A World Without End For Fans of Jane Austen. The New York TimesThe New York TimesThe New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
. 2000.