Your online source for Jane Austen and her legacy
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 →
From the desk of Tracy Hickman: What can the places that Jane Austen called home tell us about the author’s life and work? In Jane Austen at Home, historian, author, and BBC presenter Lucy Worsley looks at the author’s life through the lens of Austen’s homes. As Worsley notes in the book’s introduction, “For Jane,... Continue Reading →
From the desk of Laurel Ann Nattress: Sanditon, Jane Austen’s last unfinished novel is in the news. A new TV adaptation and continuation of the same name premiered in the UK on ITV on August 25, 2019. The new eight-part series was written by Andrew Davies (Pride and Prejudice 1995) and will be shown on... Continue Reading →
From the desk of Laurel Ann Nattress: Set in an English country village at the onset of WWII, The Chilbury Ladies Choir is told through letters and journal and diary entries by four female characters who are faced with keeping the home fires burning while their menfolk are off fighting Nazis. The first-person format intrigued... Continue Reading →
From the desk of Katie Patchell Recently, I discovered the joy that comes from not reading the description on the back of a book prior to opening page one. When I was asked to review The Work of Art, I heard “Regency” and “Laurel Ann recommends” and I was all for it. After downloading this... Continue Reading →
A five star book review of a Modest Independence, in which an impertinent, strong-willed woman and an independent bachelor travel from England to India in search of a lost friend and self discovery in Mimi Matthews' new historical romance.
Between 1870 and 1914, there were at least a hundred marriages of American heiresses to British peers. Fueled by microeconomics—supply and demand—American industrial tycoons bought position, prestige, and coronets by bartering their daughter’s dowries to cash-strapped aristocrats. One transatlantic trade was Brooklynn born Jeanette “Jennie” Jerome. In 1874 she became one of the first “dollar... Continue Reading →
A review of Unmarriageable, a colorful and lively retelling of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice set in 2000 Pakistan.
Just in time for the premiere on 13 January 2019 of the third season of Victoria on Masterpiece Classic on PBS, Queen Victoria: Twenty-Four Days That Changed Her Life is a new biography of one of the United Kingdom's (and the world's) most famous queens. Arriving like a gift on a royal red velvet cushion,... Continue Reading →
A five star book review of the new Victorian-era holiday novella from best-selling author Mimi Matthews.
From the desk of Laurel Ann Nattress: Having long been credited as the grandmother of the romance novel, it is an interesting notion to ponder if Jane Austen can also be attributed as an early feminist writer. Did she gently inject progressive thinking into her female characters to bring about the equality of the sexes?... Continue Reading →
