Skip to main content

Review--The Lost Memoirs of Jane Austen, by Syrie James

It’s tempting to create a story about Jane Austen's romantic life, considering that she was so private about her personal life. In The Lost Memoirs of Jane Austen, Syrie James creates a lively, likeable, and realistic heroine that stays true to what I think Austen must have been like.

Set in the time period in which Jane Austen was revising Sense and Sensibility, Jane introduces us to Frederick Ashford, a charming gentleman she meets one day at Lyme. They instantly form an attachment, but nothing comes of it until one day two years later, when they encounter one another quite unexpectedly. Syrie James acquaints the reader with many real and imagined characters, who may or may not have served as inspiration for characters in her novels (particularly delightful in his foolishness is Mr. Morton, who “becomes” Mr. Collins in Pride and Prejudice).

The Lost Memoirs of Jane Austen is a cute, charming tale of “what if…” What was the source of Jane’s inspiration? What really happened that gave Jane cause to revise Sense and Sensibility and First Impressions (later re-named Pride and Prejudice)? What if Jane had actually married her mysterious gentleman? It’s a quick read, but if you have “Austen-mania” as I have, you’ll certainly enjoy this book. It's hard to believe that The Lost Memoirs of Jane Austen isn't a real memoir!

Comments

Hi Kathy!
WOW! I really LOVE your blog! Thanks for coming by the castle and admiring my new system for scoring books! This is a great review and it sounds like a sweet, quick, read! : ) I love it!
Do stop by whenever you want and I'll have to add you to the blogroll!

Hugs
Amy
The Princess
Katherine said…
Thanks for stopping by!
Anonymous said…
Thanks for checking out my review. It looks like we both liked this one!
Anonymous said…
I keep passing this one up at the bookstore - I really should read it one day. Thanks for the review!

Popular posts from this blog

Another giveaway

This time, the publicist at WW Norton sent me two copies of The Glass of Time , by Michael Cox--so I'm giving away the second copy. Cox is the author of The Meaning of Night, and this book is the follow-up to that. Leave a comment here to enter to win it! The deadline is next Sunday, 10/5/08.

A giveaway winner, and another giveaway

The winner of the Girl in a Blue Dress contest is... Anna, of Diary of An Eccentric ! My new contest is for a copy of The Shape of Mercy , by Susan Meissner. According to Publisher's Weekly : Meissner's newest novel is potentially life-changing, the kind of inspirational fiction that prompts readers to call up old friends, lost loves or fallen-away family members to tell them that all is forgiven and that life is too short for holding grudges. Achingly romantic, the novel features the legacy of Mercy Hayworth—a young woman convicted during the Salem witch trials—whose words reach out from the past to forever transform the lives of two present-day women. These book lovers—Abigail Boyles, elderly, bitter and frail, and Lauren Lars Durough, wealthy, earnest and young—become unlikely friends, drawn together over the untimely death of Mercy, whose precious diary is all that remains of her too short life. And what a diary! Mercy's words not only beguile but help Abigail and Lars

Six Degrees of Barbara Pym's Novels

This year seems to be The Year of Barbara Pym; I know some of you out there are involved in some kind of a readalong in honor of the 100th year of her birth. I’ve read most of her canon, with only The Sweet Dove Died, Civil to Strangers, An Academic Question, and Crampton Hodnet left to go (sadly). Barbara Pym’s novels feature very similar casts of characters: spinsters, clergymen, retirees, clerks, and anthropologists, with which she had direct experience. So it stands to reason that there would be overlaps in characters between the novels. You can trace that though the publication history of her books and therefore see how Pym onionizes her stories and characters. She adds layers onto layers, adding more details as her books progress. Some Tame Gazelle (1950): Archdeacon Hoccleve makes his first appearance. Excellent Women (1952): Archdeacon Hoccleve gives a sermon that is almost incomprehensible to Mildred Lathbury; Everard Bone understands it, however, and laughs