β Scribed by Gill Hornby
No coin nor oath required. For personal study only.
Whoever looked at an elderly lady and saw the young heroine she once was?
England, 1840. For the two decades following the death of her beloved sister, Jane, Cassandra Austen has lived alone, spending her days visiting friends and relations and quietly, purposefully working to preserve her sisterβs reputation. Now in her sixties and increasingly frail, Cassandra goes to stay with the Fowles of Kintbury, family of her long-dead fiancΓ©, in search of a trove of Janeβs letters. Dodging her hostess and a meddlesome housemaid, Cassandra eventually hunts down the letters and confronts the secrets they hold, secrets not only about Jane but about Cassandra herself. Will Cassandra bare the most private details of her life to the world, or commit her sisterβs legacy to the flames?
Moving back and forth between the vicarage and Cassandraβs vibrant memories of her years with Jane, interwoven with Janeβs brilliantly reimagined lost letters,Miss Austenis the untold story of the most important person in Janeβs life. With extraordinary empathy, emotional complexity, and wit, Gill Hornby finally gives Cassandra her due, bringing to life a woman as captivating as any Austen heroine.
Regency
π SIMILAR VOLUMES
*Whoever looked at an elderly lady and saw the young heroine she once was?* England, 1840. For the two decades following the death of her beloved sister, Jane, Cassandra Austen has lived alone, spending her days visiting friends and relations and quietly, purposefully working to preserve her si
""A deeply imagined and deeply moving novel. Reading it made me happy and weepy in equally copious amounts." -Karen Joy Fowler For fans of Jo Baker's Longbourn, a witty, poignant novel about Cassandra Austen and her famous sister, Jane. Whoever looked at an elderly lady and saw the young heroine she
The Sunday Times bestseller, and set to be a major TV drama'You cant help feeling that Jane would have approved. OBSERVERSo good, so intelligent, so clever, so entertaining I adored it.' CLAIRE TOMALINA wonderfully original, emotionally complex novel that delves into why Cassandra burned a treasure