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candacesiegle_greedyreader's review against another edition
5.0
Why do we know so little about Jane Austen? We know she was a prodigious writer of letters, but we also know that her older sister, Cassandra, destroyed them. "Miss Austen" imagines why that might be.
The first part of the novel is charming, with a jolt of great sadness when Cassandra's fiance dies in the West Indies, leaving her future uncertain. More than perhaps any other I've read, this novel brings home the frightening situations of unmarried woman who cannot work and have no money of their own. Jane never wanted to marry but Cassie's marriage would have secured her own future--a home to live in.
The story toggles between 1840 and late in the last century. Cassie shows up at the home of her friend Eliza. Eliza is long dead, but her daughter is about to lose the house that has been in the family for generations. With no vicar in the family to take the living over, it will go to a stranger. Cassie wants to find the letters Jane wrote to Eliza and other friends, to keep them from being discovered and published, revealing how different the real Jane was from the adored author she now is.
"Miss Austen" is a wonderful imagining of what the lives of Jane, Cassie, and their other friends who didn't marry were like as they grew older. It's filled with love and sisterhood, but the friends can only hope that a male family member will provide them with enough money to live.
Throughout the book we see women marrying men who are stupid, thoughtless, or cruel because the alternative is even worse--traveling from relative to relative hoping to be "of use."
Thank you to Edelweiss and the publisher for the opportunity to read and review. Janeites will love this book.
The first part of the novel is charming, with a jolt of great sadness when Cassandra's fiance dies in the West Indies, leaving her future uncertain. More than perhaps any other I've read, this novel brings home the frightening situations of unmarried woman who cannot work and have no money of their own. Jane never wanted to marry but Cassie's marriage would have secured her own future--a home to live in.
The story toggles between 1840 and late in the last century. Cassie shows up at the home of her friend Eliza. Eliza is long dead, but her daughter is about to lose the house that has been in the family for generations. With no vicar in the family to take the living over, it will go to a stranger. Cassie wants to find the letters Jane wrote to Eliza and other friends, to keep them from being discovered and published, revealing how different the real Jane was from the adored author she now is.
"Miss Austen" is a wonderful imagining of what the lives of Jane, Cassie, and their other friends who didn't marry were like as they grew older. It's filled with love and sisterhood, but the friends can only hope that a male family member will provide them with enough money to live.
Throughout the book we see women marrying men who are stupid, thoughtless, or cruel because the alternative is even worse--traveling from relative to relative hoping to be "of use."
Thank you to Edelweiss and the publisher for the opportunity to read and review. Janeites will love this book.
_luxpins's review
emotional
funny
inspiring
lighthearted
reflective
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.5
asmallgremlin's review against another edition
emotional
funny
lighthearted
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
I first attempted to read this book a few years ago when it first came out. I believe I only got about a quarter of the way through and gave up - and I think the reason was it did not capture my imagination at first (I was 15 give me a break!). I also knew very little about Jane Austen and her family when I first tried to read this book - I think I had heard of Austen and had a vague awareness of her but I had not read her books or seen any of the adaptations. Well, four years later, this little book nerd has not only a) read three and a half of her books (P&P, Persuasion, Northanger Abbey and Emma), b) watched the BBC Pride and Prejudice TV adaption (Colin Firth as Darcy <3), the Emma Thompson Sense and Sensibility film (so good), and the Emma 2020 film (bill nighy as Mr Woodhouse is perfect casting), and c) visited Bath and the Jane Austen museum in order to learn more about the author. Safe to say I am a Jane fan now, so reading this book which concerns Jane and her older sister Cassandra was a brilliant idea having now fallen in love with the author and her works.
Miss Austen tells two stories - the story of an elderly Cassandra Austen visiting the home of her late friend Eliza in order to find and retrieve some deeply personal letters relating to Jane and their family, so she can control Jane’s legacy, and a younger Cassandra and Jane revealed through these letters living their lives and loving their loves between the 1790s and 1810s (Jane Austen died in 1817). The book is a response to the literary and historical question of why Cassandra Austen destroyed 90% of Jane’s correspondence a few years before her own death, and all the letters in the book are fictionalised.
I thoroughly enjoyed this book. Not only because of the Austen focus but also because it was a delightful read, and became a page turner at various times. I loved the character of Cassandra, both old and young, and her spinster niece Isabella, and of course the complex Jane revealed through the flashbacks to the past. I enjoyed the dual storyline structure and thought the two storylines were well balanced and paced throughout, and the book had a very accessible but descriptive language. All in all, this was a lovely book for the start of the Spring and I am so glad that I read it! Would definitely recommend to people who love Jane Austen and her books.
Miss Austen tells two stories - the story of an elderly Cassandra Austen visiting the home of her late friend Eliza in order to find and retrieve some deeply personal letters relating to Jane and their family, so she can control Jane’s legacy, and a younger Cassandra and Jane revealed through these letters living their lives and loving their loves between the 1790s and 1810s (Jane Austen died in 1817). The book is a response to the literary and historical question of why Cassandra Austen destroyed 90% of Jane’s correspondence a few years before her own death, and all the letters in the book are fictionalised.
I thoroughly enjoyed this book. Not only because of the Austen focus but also because it was a delightful read, and became a page turner at various times. I loved the character of Cassandra, both old and young, and her spinster niece Isabella, and of course the complex Jane revealed through the flashbacks to the past. I enjoyed the dual storyline structure and thought the two storylines were well balanced and paced throughout, and the book had a very accessible but descriptive language. All in all, this was a lovely book for the start of the Spring and I am so glad that I read it! Would definitely recommend to people who love Jane Austen and her books.
maryw's review against another edition
emotional
funny
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
bookfrog508's review against another edition
3.5
I loved how the writing was reminiscent of Jane Austen’s while also being unique on it’s own. Reading this book almost felt as if I was reading a Jane Austen book except she’s a main character. Not sure if that makes any sense, but I can’t find other words to express it! Jane Austen could’ve explained it, brilliant as she was 😁
lucylibrarymouse's review against another edition
I was bored, I kept getting distracted and I just didn’t enjoy it. There was too many names that were repetitive and it just didn’t bring me joy.
readingoverbreathing's review against another edition
emotional
lighthearted
reflective
sad
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.0
I will readily admit that I am an Austen purist, often with little patience for much of the modern Jane literature. It's difficult to align your own fierce love for an author and her body of work with someone else's and thus usually disappointing, at least for me. But this book came on a strong recommendation from my best Austen friend and tackled a new, intriguing angle: what actually was in all of those letters of Jane's that her beloved sister Cassandra burned after her death?
We get into some serious Austen lore here, spanning multiple decades and a variety of locations spread across southern England. The writing straddles Austen's sophisticated, cheeky style and something more aligned with light modern fiction, which works better in some instances than it does in most others. The affectational style Hornby took here was somewhat fun, especially at first, but by halfway really started to irritate me a bit.
To be honest, the core 1840 timeline, was honestly quite boring. None of the Kintbury characters had much to them, other than maybe Dinah. Really, the flashbacks were where the drama was, but they were for the most part quite sad. There is just a lot of death in this book. None of it is unexpected, given Cassandra's circumstances from the outset, but I will say that I was not expecting this much sadness to permeate this kind of book.
There was clearly a commendable amount of research that went into all of the Austen family history Hornby explores, which I truly appreciated. However, though I was willing to give this a go, my personal distaste for implanting real historical figures into narrative fiction ultimately won out here. There is just something about it that I can never take seriously, especially in a case like the Austens', where so much has been written about them. I was hoping for a creative, dramatic angle here to really take advantage of the legendary mystery with the letters, but, honestly, there was nothing here that was particularly juicy or revealing. I don't know if Hornby was just too conscious of staying true to reality, but, whatever the case, I could have gotten pretty much all the drama this offered by simply reading a biography, and probably would have enjoyed that more than a lot of the cringing I experienced here.
Did I still have some fun? Yes, I would say so. But ultimately, this is just not the kind of Austen indulging I am interested in doing.
We get into some serious Austen lore here, spanning multiple decades and a variety of locations spread across southern England. The writing straddles Austen's sophisticated, cheeky style and something more aligned with light modern fiction, which works better in some instances than it does in most others. The affectational style Hornby took here was somewhat fun, especially at first, but by halfway really started to irritate me a bit.
To be honest, the core 1840 timeline, was honestly quite boring. None of the Kintbury characters had much to them, other than maybe Dinah. Really, the flashbacks were where the drama was, but they were for the most part quite sad. There is just a lot of death in this book. None of it is unexpected, given Cassandra's circumstances from the outset, but I will say that I was not expecting this much sadness to permeate this kind of book.
There was clearly a commendable amount of research that went into all of the Austen family history Hornby explores, which I truly appreciated. However, though I was willing to give this a go, my personal distaste for implanting real historical figures into narrative fiction ultimately won out here. There is just something about it that I can never take seriously, especially in a case like the Austens', where so much has been written about them. I was hoping for a creative, dramatic angle here to really take advantage of the legendary mystery with the letters, but, honestly, there was nothing here that was particularly juicy or revealing. I don't know if Hornby was just too conscious of staying true to reality, but, whatever the case, I could have gotten pretty much all the drama this offered by simply reading a biography, and probably would have enjoyed that more than a lot of the cringing I experienced here.
Did I still have some fun? Yes, I would say so. But ultimately, this is just not the kind of Austen indulging I am interested in doing.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Death, Grief, and Death of parent
berlinbibliophile's review against another edition
emotional
reflective
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.0
The bits of Cassandra Austen's life presented here are a bit random and haphazard, but I liked the writing and the idea of the letters. And the very different perceptions of herself she encounters in the past and in the present from her various family-members.
drizcoll's review against another edition
informative
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
2.5