- Format: Kindle Edition
- File Size: 6045 KB
- Print Length: 416 pages
- Publisher: Cornerstone Digital (23 Jan. 2020)
- Sold by: Amazon Media EU S.à r.l.
- Language: English
- ASIN: B07SYG6BMV
Synopsis
1840: twenty three years after the death of her famous sister Jane, Cassandra Austen returns to the village of Kintbury, and the home of her family’s friends, the Fowles.
She knows that, in some dusty corner of the sprawling vicarage, there is a cache of family letters which hold secrets she is desperate should not be revealed.
As Cassandra recalls her youth and her relationship with her brilliant yet complex sister, she pieces together buried truths about Jane’s history, and her own. And she faces a stark choice: should she act to protect Jane’s reputation? Or leave the contents of the letters to go unguarded into posterity …
Review
Jane Austen is one of this country’s most famous authors, an one of my favourite authors so I couldn’t wait to read Gill Hornby’s Miss Austen. Set in 1840, twenty years after Jane’s death, her elder sister Cassandra goes to visit family in Kintbury in the aim of recovering letters both Jane and herself sent to their friend Eliza Fowle. Cassandra is worried about the content of these letters and doesn’t want them discovered when Eliza’s daughter, Isabella has to move out from the vicarage. Whilst there, old memories arise, and Cassandra reflects on her life with Jane. Part Epistolary novel, we learn of the young Jane and Cassandra and their lives.
Miss Austen is a fictional novel, the letters are imagined but the characters are all real as are their relationships; Cassandra was engaged to Eliza’s brother Tom and Eliza’s sister was married to one of Jane and Cassandra’s brothers. What I most enjoyed about Miss Austen was that it read like one of Jane Austen’s novels; full of wit, sarcasm, social commentary and wonderful characters. I found myself likening some of the characters to those in the books, Isabella looking for a second chance like Anne Elliot from my favourite novel Persuasion and Cassandra’s meddling reminded me of Emma Woodhouse.
Gill Hornby shows great understanding of the period and the Austen family and has created a wonderful and original read that took me back to the pleasure of reading Jane Austen’s novels. This book is full of emotion, the highs and lows of the sisters lives together, their loves and friendships and how they were held in esteem by those who knew them. The letters are very realistic, and are a brilliant device for showing the close relationship between Jane and Cassandra and the support and love between them. What we do know is that after Jane’s death Cassandra did burn a lot of letters to protect her sister and her memory. The majority of the characters are female, and show how women were viewed in society, as wives, mother’s, sisters and aunts, all at the mercy of the male members of their family; a theme that appears frequently in Jane Austen’s novels.
Miss Austen is simply a beautiful novel to read. Gill Hornby perfectly captures the nineteenth century and the bond between Cassandra and Jane. Her characterisation and writing style are reminiscent of some of Jane Austen’s novels for me this brought on a feeling of nostalgia. Captivating, charming and a celebration of the life of one of our most famous authors, Miss Austen is an extraordinary and heartwarming read.
