One hundred and fifty years ago, Chawton was the final home of Jane Austen, one of England's finest novelists. Now it's home to a few distant relatives and their diminishing estate. With the last bit of Austen's legacy threatened, a group of disparate individuals come together to preserve both Jane Austen's home and her legacy. These people—a laborer, a young widow, the local doctor, and a movie star, among others—could not be more different and yet they are united in their love for the works and words of Austen. As each of them endures their own quiet struggle with loss and trauma, some from the recent war, others from more distant tragedies, they rally together to create the Jane Austen Society.
This novel will be released next May 26th, I received a digital copy of this novel courtesy of Netgalley in exchange for an honest review, here it is (if the cat lets me finish, she thinks she deserves more attention than my keyboard !) :
First of all, let me tell you that, as the author says in the end, this story is completely fictional, it's in no way a description of what really happened, just what could have happened.
I requested this book because many people said first, that it was really good, second, that it reminded them of The Guernsey Literary and Potato peel pie society, which I read when it was published and still remember fondly, and third because, well, there's Jane Austen in the title and I'm a huge fan.
Fans like me will greatly appreciate all the references to the books of their beloved author, read the literary discussions as if we were ourselves among a group of Jane Austen lovers and talking about which book we prefer, which character, which quote we love and why. There are not many better ways to spend the time ! Those who have never read her novels will dearly want to correct that while enjoying the story.
The story takes place after the second world war, when so many people lost their loved ones, family members, friends, when the TV was beginning to appear but most people went to the cinema and everybody listened to the readio. In Chawton, that small village where Jane Austen lived for a few years, everybody knows everyone, the doctor has given birth to most children and accompanied the dying, all the people cope as best as they can with the past.
Several of these people, an ex teacher who lost her husband at war, a farmer who lost his father and brother, a doctor who lost his wife, a sollicitor who has been loving a woman from afar since she refused to marry him, a young girl who was forced to leave school but wants more out of life, a famous American actress with an uncertain love life and a woman who spent her life under the rule of her awful father, all join in The Jane Austen Society, wanting to create a place where Jane Austen fans from all over the world could come and see her cottage, the desk she wrote on, the books she read, the jewels she wore, etc., something that the village was sadly lacking until then.
I really loved reading how they managed it and at the same time, how they finally changed their lives for the better. One thing though : there are two characters in there who end up in happiness, but how they get together is not as much described as it is for the others. Anyway, I closed this heartwarming book with a happy smile upon my face and recommend it to you.
OK, cat, I'm all yours !
(A few pictures if she lets me :
Jane Austen's cottage
The Knight estate, now a major library
PS : When I think I went to Porstmouth with my school and they never, never took us to Chawton that was so close !!)
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