The Austens
In 1802, aspiring novelist Jane Austen, lured by the prospect of financial security and a settled home in the country, accepts a proposal from the lumpish Harris Bigg-Wither, only to retract her answer in the morning. Meanwhile, young Frances Fitzwilliam Palmer, daughter of the Attorney General of Bermuda, frets over her family’s impending move to London. As it turns out, she will soon find love in Bermuda—with Captain Charles Austen, one of Jane’s many brothers.
Narrated in the first person by Jane and Frances, who as sisters-in-law also exchange letters throughout the book, The Austens is a story of two women who make very different choices in life, in a world where women had few to make. While Jane’s life story will be familiar to many readers, Frances’s will be far less so, and it is clear that the author has researched her story thoroughly. The shifting relationship between the two narrators, and the warm one between Jane and her sister, Cassandra, are skillfully depicted.
Nonetheless, I didn’t enjoy The Austens as much as I had hoped. Perhaps due to the author’s determination to keep us mindful of the hardships women faced at the time, a certain gloom hangs over the novel from beginning to end. And while Jane Austen’s first-person narrative has occasional touches of wit, one still wishes that the narrator sounded a little more like, well—Jane Austen. Still, while no one could call this novel “too light & bright & sparkling,” it is an interesting and informative read.
