With the arrival of Jane Austen on the scene, there was a sudden yet unanimous consensus reached within the critical fraternity that socially realistic parlor-dramas or comedies of manners are not only the most lofty standard to which all literature need be measured, but indeed the only form of writing which can be considered genuine, serious literature. Thus, with a sweep, all fantasy and genre fiction were ruled unclean, consigned to the outlying slums and ghettos past the ivory battlements of literary respectability.