Your online source for Jane Austen and her legacy
From the desk of Laurel Ann Nattress:Â Happy Friday readers. I hope that you are ready for Halloween. I understand that it will be the first night since 1944 that all three time zones in the US will have a full moon. How appropriate. To put you in the mood for the season, I am... Continue Reading →
From the desk of Katie Patchell: It’s that time of year again: when days shorten, and the once-warm breeze transforms into a blustery wind. Now is the season where, regardless of uncertain global events, we settle into the familiar routines of planning family holidays and awaiting the ghostly specters that rise from book’s pages (or... Continue Reading →
From the desk of Laurel Ann Nattress: Fall is here and Halloween is just around the corner as the next holiday to celebrate. To get in the mood I always like to re-read Northanger Abbey, Jane Austen’s Gothic parody, and a new Austen-inspired Gothic fiction. This year it will be Tempt Me, by Julie Cooper.... Continue Reading →
From the desk of Katie Patchell: The highwayman: A mysterious figure riding on cloudless nights, a man whose purpose goes beyond treasure for wealth’s sake. There’s something about the highwayman that captures our imagination and has done so for centuries. Is it his inevitable strength and beauty (if he’s the novel’s hero)? Is it because... Continue Reading →
From the desk of Laurel Ann Nattress:Â Hello dear readers, I hope that you are all coping during this crazy time. I am on lockdown here at Woodston Cottage trying to be productive while immersing myself in audiobooks and rom-com movies. It is Spring and the birds are singing, and the flowers are blooming. I... Continue Reading →
From the desk of Laurel Ann Nattress:Â Cornwall + Gothic = scintillating reading! There has been a long tradition of Gothic novels set in Cornwall. The southern-most county of England has more miles of rocky coastline, windswept cliffs, mysterious manor houses, and menaced heroines than any other location in literary history. Author Daphne du Maurier... Continue Reading →
From the desk of Laurel Ann Nattress: It’s that time of year again when the holiday spirit takes hold and I am compelled to read Christmas stories in between shopping and baking. I especially appreciate short stories during this busy time. There are several historical anthologies to choose from along with novellas and novels to... Continue Reading →
Hey-ho Janeites! May I introduce you to a newly released Regency romance fantasy novel today? By Time Divided, by Elaine Jeremiah is a time-travel story that takes us back into Jane Austen’s England. Time-travel in fiction is a creative literary technique. It allows characters and readers to be transported to a different era. The Time... Continue Reading →
From the desk of Debbie Brown: Soon, All Hallow's Eve will be upon us, when restless spirits of the dead are said to roam. What better time to pick up a gothic Austenesque novel centered around an ancestral family curse that continues to claim its victims? Beware, brave readers: this tome is not for the... Continue Reading →
From the desk of Laurel Ann Nattress: Honestly, to be a fly on the dining room wall of author John Kessel when in between passing the potatoes he announced to his family that his next book would be an amalgamation of Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice and Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein. What a mischievous rogue he... Continue Reading →
Those of you who are fans of Austenprose know how much I enjoy Jane Austen’s lively, burlesque comedy, Northanger Abbey. In 2008 I hosted a month-long event here called, Go Gothic with Northanger Abbey, where we read the novel and explored its history, characters, locations, and legacy. I am a big #TeamTilney fan. Sadly, there... Continue Reading →
From the desk of Lisa Galek: Fantasy novels with a supernatural bent are all the rage right now. So, if you love a battle between the forces of good and evil… all set against the backdrop of the upper-crust society of 1812 London, then The Dark Days Club by Alison Goodman should be on your... Continue Reading →
