Score: 5/5 Bookmarks

Thank you to Flatiron Books for gifting me a review copy of Miss Austen by Gill Hornby.

I’m always a little wary when I pick up a book that is a retelling, continuation of, or somehow relates to Jane Austen or one of her books. I love Austen so much and have been sorely disappointed by most modern homages. But this book was wonderful. Just wonderful.

While Jane features in Miss Austen, it is really about her sister, Cassandra. On a larger scale, it is also about women and their value to society, family, and the bond between sisters. It takes you back to the mid-1800s and has split timelines between Cass as an old lady, and her younger years.

Just like an Austen novel, this book is full of heartbreak, lost love, gossip, uncertainty, and drama. But what really got me hooked was Cassandra’s hilariously sarcastic inner monologue, as well as the retelling of conversations had with (and reading of letters written by) her sister Jane. They’re just so funny and feel so modern despite being set in the 1800s.

I couldn’t love this book more, and I definitely recommend it if you’re an Austen fan, or just like a good period novel. The audiobook is also fantastic, being narrated by Juliet Stevenson. You can grab the audio here, or click the button below to get a physical copy. 

Synopsis:

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 sister’s reputation. Now in her sixties and increasingly frail, Cassandra goes to stay with the Fowles of Kintbury, family of her long-dead fiancé, in search of a trove of Jane’s 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 sister’s legacy to the flames?

Moving back and forth between the vicarage and Cassandra’s vibrant memories of her years with Jane, interwoven with Jane’s brilliantly reimagined lost letters, Miss Austen is the untold story of the most important person in Jane’s 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.