Miss Austen by Gil Hornby
Genre: Historical fiction
Read: 4th April 2020
Purchase: Amazon
(publication date: 23rd January 2020)
★★ 2.5 stars
When one hears the term MISS AUSTEN one immediately thinks of Jane Austen, the author of "Pride and Prejudice", "Sense and Sensibility" and "Emma" to name a few. But in actuality, the title of Miss Austen belonged to Jane's eldest sister Cassandra, of whom this story is about.
Cassandra (Cassy) was the most significant person in Jane's life as her confidante, closest friend and companion. And after her death, Cassandra became her censor in destroying so much of Jane's letters, protecting her sister's memory and shaping the narrative of what was her life.
The book begins in 1840 with the now older Miss Austen arriving at the home of her long dead fiance's family, the Fowles. The Reverend Fowle has recently passed and it falls to his youngest unmarried daughter Isabella to pack up the family's possessions to make way for the new vicar. It's an inconvenient time but Cassandra has a purpose in tracking down all of her Jane's letters and to destroy them. Although she is unwelcome, Cassandra is nothing if not loyal as she endeavours to protect her sister's memory. When the letters are found, she then pieces together alternate versions of events from various parties as the letters recount the story of both Cassandra and her more famous sister.
The narrative moves between the past 1795 and the present 1840 with Cassandra as both a young woman and an elderly one much later in life. She reminisces on Tom Fowle's proposal and her acceptance followed by the excitement of her first visit to Kintbury as a prospective bride which then is in contrast with her now unwelcome arrival as an elderly spinster. This is the tragedy for which Cassandra is known. The girl who loved Tom Fowle, who died before he would marry her and she was consumed by her silent grief for his memory for the rest of her life.
The revelation of Jane's letters recounting Cassandra's relationship with Tom gave a shadow of hope in that the story would become a little more compelling but it did not. I liked the story, but I found it difficult to connect with it. I didn't find it as easy read as I had thought I would...but then I have never read any of Jane Austen's books either. I've only seen the TV adaptions and thoroughly enjoyed them.
While the plot is simple enough the story is slow to progress and I guess that's what I found difficult to connect with. I don't like slow stories as a rule, but prefer a much faster pace. I'm not sure what I expected but I was somewhat disappointed. However, there are those who may appreciate it's slow detailed stroll through MISS AUSTEN and her memories.
MISS AUSTEN is not a bad book. It just failed to enthrall me as much as I'd hoped. In my opinion, I believe you may well need to be an Austen fan to fully appreciate this book...or it won't be as enjoyable. As I have never read any Austen, this may be why I didn't.
I found it incredibly difficult to follow the unformatted copy (moreso than others) so I may go back an re-read it at a later date so I can fully appreciate it more. That being said, fans of Austen will enjoy MISS AUSTEN.
Can I just say how much I love the embroidered cover? It is soooo delighful and very fitting for the time period of this book.
I would like to thank #GilHornby, #NetGalley and #RandomHouseUK for an ARC of #MissAusten in exchange for an honest review.
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