Agnes Repplier’s Anglophilia: The Half Century of the “American Austen”

Agnes Repplier, an American essayist and critic born in Philadelphia, wrote for more than a half-century from the late 19th to the early 20th century. Her writings appeared in almost every major magazine and newspaper and gained a wide range of readership and a high reputation in the United States. Some call Repplier the “American Austen,” after her favorite English novelist, as she stayed single her whole life and sometimes dealt with women’s life from a literary perspective. Repplier loved literary works by English authors, from the last quarter of the 18th century and the first quarter of the 19th in particular, which she called “a happy half-century.” She put a high value on realism in literature, but Anglophilia also held a prominent position in her set of values. As a result, she didn’t go along with William Dean Howells, an ardent advocate of realism, because he often described the English nation pejoratively. In contrast with a keen interest in English literature, Repplier showed little enthusiasm for her countrymen’s works, which evoked staunch criticism from those who aimed for due recognition of American literature. How Repplier’s contemporary Americans accepted her writings gives a promising clue as to American nationalism in this period, when cultural independence is a critical issue a century after the birth of the United States.

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