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Is Jane Austen’s legacy more than just romantic love? Ask Penguin Podcast

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The Penguin Podcast: episode 3 – the classics

Miss Austen

NOW A MAJOR SERIES ON BBC ONE AND BBC iPLAYER STARRING KEELEY HAWES 
 
'A funny, warm and engaging novel' Queen Camilla, Spectator 
 
'You can't help feeling that Jane would have approved' Observer 
 
'Celebrates unexamined lives, sisterhood and virtues such as kindness and loyalty' Sunday Times 
'I read the book and laughed and sobbed' Keeley Hawes 
___________ 
 
Throughout her lifetime, Jane Austen wrote countless letters to her sister. But why did Cassandra burn them all? 
 
1840: twenty three years after the death of her famous sister Jane, Cassandra Austen returns to the village of Kintbury, and the home of her family's friends, the Fowles. 
 
She knows that, in some dusty corner of the sprawling vicarage, there is a cache of family letters which hold secrets she can never allow to be revealed. 
 
As Cassandra recalls her youth and her relationship with her brilliant yet complex sister, she pieces together buried truths about Jane's history, and her own. And she faces a stark choice: should she act to protect Jane's reputation, or leave the contents of the letters to go unguarded into posterity? 
 
Based on a literary mystery that has long puzzled biographers and academics, Miss Austen is a wonderfully original and emotionally complex novel about the loves and lives of Cassandra and Jane Austen. 
___________ 
 
'So good, so intelligent, so clever, so entertaining - I adored it' CLAIRE TOMALIN 
 
'The perfect book to wrap yourself around on a dark night' STYLIST 
 
'This is a deeply imagined and deeply moving novel' KAREN JOY FOWLER, author of The Jane Austen Bookclub 
 
'It's a delight, one of those that you don't want to end.' RTE 
 
'A charming novel' SUNDAY MIRROR 
 
'Hornby brings to life the Austen family, using the known to speculate on what might have been' THE TIMES Audio Book of the Week 
 
'Extraordinary and heart-wrenching' LARA PRESCOTT, author of The Secrets We Kept 
 
'Gill Hornby ingeniously imagines what Cassandra Austen's own life might have been like.' DEIRDRE LE FAYE, editor of Jane Austen's Letters 
 
'Tender and touching' DAILY MAIL 
 
'Utterly absorbing' ARTEMIS COOPER 
 
'Delightful' SUE RYAN, founder of Henley Lit Fest 
 
'Sparkling novel' DAILY MAIL 
 
___________ 
 
Loved Miss Austen? Check out Gill Hornby's wonderful new novel, The Elopement!

Without romanticising its period setting or underplaying the precariousness of any woman’s position in this society, it celebrates unexamined lives, sisterhood and virtues such as kindness and loyalty.

This is the perfect book to wrap yourself around on a dark night.

Miss Austen voices the (hitherto) shadowy figure of Cassandra, the villainies of the piece, and makes her flesh and blood…. Gill Hornby is at her best describing the complex bonds between the “excellent women” of her story. She describes the horrors, but also the pleasures, of spinsterhood.

So good, so intelligent, so clever, so entertaining – I adored it.

Hornby's gift to the world of Austen lovers is to return to Cassandra her rightful recognition as Jane's most intimate and sustaining relationship, her greatest love. This is a deeply imagined and deeply moving novel. Reading it made me happy and weepy in equally copious amounts.

KAREN JOY FOWLER, author of THE JANE AUSTEN BOOK CLUB and WE ARE ALL COMPLETELY BESIDE OURSELVES

Miss Austen is an ingenious imaginary explanationof how so many of Jane’s letters came to be destroyed… With flashbacks and wonderful domestic detail, Hornby brings to life the Austen family, using the known to speculate on what might have been.

Extraordinary and heart-wrenching, Miss Austen transported me from page one. A remarkable novel that is wholly original, deeply moving, and emotionally complex. A gift to all Austen lovers.

LARA PRESCOTT, author of THE SECRETS WE KEPT

A delightfully astute re-imagining… A persuasive picture of a brilliant woman who’s often derailed by her domestic duties but driven to write regardless.

A cleverly observed fictional account of Jane Austen’s relationship with a sibling…The great joy of Miss Austen is that the reader feels immersed in a world that is convincingly Jane’s from the first page… It’s testament to Hornby’s skill, then, that I had to turn to the author’s note at the back to check how many of the letters included here were invented. It’s also extremely funny; figures in Jane’s life who might well have provided models for some of her more bumptious, self-important characters are fleshed out here with a comic relish that feels entirely Austenian… Miss Austen is a novel of great kindness, often unexpectedly moving, with much to say about the status of “invisible” older women. Above all, it’s concerned with the triumph of small acts of goodness; you can’t help feeling that Jane would have approved.’

A moving, often funny novel. Richly imagined and spryly told, it reinstates overlooked Cassandra as the most important person in Jane’s life, reimagining some of those lost letters as an added bonus.

In this subtle and delicate novel, Gill Hornby has created a clever, warm hearted character in Cassandra, Jane Austen’s sister.

Miss Austen is both complicit in and a sly comment on our obsession with the novelist’s life and contested mental state, and it burns, too, with sympathy for the women forced to carve out different sorts of lives at a time when marriage was considered the only index of their worth.

Jane Austen’s sister Cassandra takes centre stage in this engrossing novel that portrays what 19th Century life was like for an unmarried woman of limited means.

Gill Hornby ingeniously imagines what Cassandra Austen's own life might have been like, both before and after Jane’s untimely death, casting a different light on the familiar biographical picture without in any way distorting it.

DEIRDRE LE FAYE, editor of JANE AUSTEN'S LETTERS

Miss Austen is affecting, thought-provoking, and makes you think about both the Jane and Cassandra Austen in a new light.

HELENA KELLY, author of JANE AUSTEN, THE SECRET RADICAL

A charming novel… capturing the spirit of the brilliant sardonic Jane, and reminding the reader of how brutal life was for women in Austen’s era, it’s an ingenious and affecting embroidery on the fact of the author’s life.

A pitch perfect novel, fond and atmospheric. It reads as if Gill Hornby was born to write Cassandra’s story, and she brings her whole witty and sympathetic self to the task.

Utterly absorbing. The lives of the Austen sisters are recreated with a brilliant sureness of touch that can only be achieved by deep study of the period.

Gill Hornby weaves a magnificent work of the imagination, a pastiche of Regency style and manners, fabricating a solution to a problem that has long mystified scholar . . . Hornby’s portrayals of Cassandra and Jane are tantalising . . . All devotees of Austen’s novels will want to join Hornby, and Cassandra, in this enjoyable act of piety to Jane.

Austen aficionados have looked askance at Cassandra’s wilful destruction of her famous sibling’s letters, but here, in a tender and touching recreation of their relationship, the (imagined) correspondence is the key that unlocks the plot... Hornby deftly describes the psychological toll that such uncertainly took on Jane, and movingly celebrates the fortitude of Cassandra whose greatest love was her sister.

A wonderfully original, emotionally complex novel that delves into why Cassandra burned a treasure trove of letters written by her sister, Jane Austen – an act of destruction that has troubled academics for centuries.

A beguilingly persuasive book that no Austen fan will want to miss.

A beautifully wrought drama that find Cassandra, now an elderly spinster, looking back on the life they shared. Utterly charming.

Fans will delight in this new novelby Gill Hornby, which ingeniouslyimagines what Jane’s sister Cassandra Austen’s own life might have been like.

This complex story reveals a clever and warm-hearted character in Cassandra, and brings us closer to one of the greatest of all English writers.

A novel that will delight Pride and Prejudice fans.

This is an engaging story about love, loss, and finding one's place in the world. A must-read for Jane Austen fans.

Through her spry, witty portrait of Jane Austen’s sister, Hornby mounts a lively defence of single women’s liberty.

Fans of Pride and Prejudice and Emma will enjoy this touching story[…] In her meticulously researchedthird novel, Gill Hornby skilfully imagines the correspondence between the sisters.

Hornby does amazingly well in the riskiest area of all, the invention of letters ostensibly written by Jane […] The television rights to this novel were sold at birth. No surprise: the dialogue is ready to roll […] People are going to love it, but I wonder if any screen adaptation will be able to convey the hidden treasure within this thoughtful story.

‘It won’t surprise me if this is one of the books of the year, it’s a delight, one of those that you don’t want to end.’

Many of the themes familiar from Austen’s novels are deftly revisited by Hornby, and the letters that are reimagined are pitch-perfect, with deeply touching confidences shared in family correspondences. You can tell this book by its cover – it’s quite lovely.

Beautiful novel[…] light hearted historical fiction which resembles Austen’s novels, a really lovely read very suitable for incoming spring’

Gill Hornby unfolds it all in her imagination.

Hornby combines a moving portrait of sisterly devotion with a comic depiction of the provincial life so brilliantly evoked in Austen's own novels

[A]t the heart of it all there's a romantic twist..."Hornby is at her best describing the complex bonds between the excellent women of her story. She describes the horrors, but also the pleasures of spinsterhood"

Throughout her lifetime, Jane Austen wrote countless letters to her sister. But why did Cassandra burn them all? 
 
1840: twenty three years after the death of her famous sister Jane, Cassandra Austen returns to the village of Kintbury, and the home of her family's friends, the Fowles. 
 
She knows that, in some dusty corner of the sprawling vicarage, there is a cache of family letters which hold secrets she can never allow to be revealed. 
 
As Cassandra recalls her youth and her relationship with her brilliant yet complex sister, she pieces together buried truths about Jane's history, and her own. And she faces a stark choice: should she act to protect Jane's reputation, or leave the contents of the letters to go unguarded into posterity? 
 
Based on a literary mystery that has long puzzled biographers and academics, Miss Austen is a wonderfully original and emotionally complex novel about the loves and lives of Cassandra and Jane Austen.

Godmersham Park

From the number one bestselling author of Miss Austen, a powerful and moving novel featuring Jane Austen's closest friend and confidante . . . 
 
* Waterstones Fiction Book of the Month * 
 
'So envious of anyone yet to read this. A triumph!' Nigella Lawson 
'A masterly piece of storytelling.' Helena Kelly 
'The great writer is brought to life in this clever, well-researched piece of fiction' The Times 
'Thoroughly entertaining, Godmersham Park has some of the same understated wit and sharp observation as Austen's novels' Sunday Times 
'Displays a keen sense of wit and rich characterisation ... a thoroughly enjoyable book' Observer 
________________ 
 
January 1804: Anne Sharpe arrives at Godmersham Park in Kent to take up the position of governess. 
 
At thirty-one years old, she has no previous experience of either teaching or fine country houses. But her mother has died and she desperately needs an independent income if she is to survive. 
 
For her new charge, twelve-year-old Fanny Austen, Anne's arrival is all novelty and excitement. 
 
But Anne is keenly aware that her new role is an awkward one: she is neither one of the servants nor one of the family, and to balance a position between the 'upstairs' and 'downstairs' members of the household is a diplomatic chess game. One wrong move may result in her instant dismissal. 
 
She has just begun to settle into her position when dashing Henry Austen and his younger sister Jane come to stay. 
 
Both take an immediate interest in the pretty, clever governess who quickly becomes drawn into the above stairs life of the Austen family. 
 
Despite her best endeavours, Anne finds that she is beginning to fall in love. But has her survival at Godmersham Park just become a good deal more precarious? 
________________ 
 
More love for Godmersham Park . . . 
 
'If you love Jane Austen you're sure to enjoy Gill Hornby's stylish glimpse into the life of young governess Anne Sharp.' The Independent 
 
'Utterly absorbing and illuminating ... Gill Hornby's best book yet.' Esther Freud 
 
'I read it straight through without looking up.' Karen Joy Fowler 
 
'Meticulously researched, Hornby's absorbing novel revels in the joys and tensions of life above and below stairs.' Mail on Sunday 
 
'An invigorating riff on an author whose life and works keep on giving, and an ideal companion for your beach towel this summer.' Metro 
 
'Gill Hornby has created another winning tribute to the genius of Jane.' Woman 
________________ 
 
Loved Godmersham Park? Check out Gill Hornby's wonderful new novel, The Elopement! 
 
 
Sunday Times bestseller, January 2023

So envious of anyone yet to read this. A triumph!

Utterly absorbing and illuminating. Written with a sure and stylish hand. Gill Hornby's best book yet.

I read it straight through without looking up ... Godmersham Park provided me with a perfectly contented day.

The great writer is brought to life in this clever, well-researched piece of fiction.

Thoroughly entertaining, Godmersham Park has some of the same understated wit and sharp observation as Austen's novels.

Meticulously researched, Hornby's absorbing novel revels in the joys and tensions of life above and below stairs.

Gill Hornby is the author of The Hive and All Together Now, as well as The Story of Jane Austen, a biography of Austen for younger readers. 
 
Her subsequent novels, Miss Austen and Godmersham Park were Sunday Times bestsellers, and Miss Austen is a four-part BBC adaptation starring Keely Hawes as Cassandra Austen. She is also the President of the Jane Austen Society. 
 
She lives in West Berkshire with her husband and four children.

Early evening, 1804: Anne Sharpe arrives at Godmersham Park in Kent. 
 
Alone and desperately in need of an independent income, she is to become a governess to twelve-year-old Fanny Austen. 
 
But her new role in this large household where she is neither a servant nor a member of the family is an awkward one, and Anne is keenly aware that one wrong move may result in her instant dismissal. 
 
Then dashing Henry Austen and his younger sister Jane come to stay. 
 
Both take an immediate interest in the pretty, clever governess, and Anne quickly becomes drawn into the above-stairs life of the Austen family. 
 
Soon, and despite her best efforts, she finds she is falling in love. 
 
But has her survival at Godmersham Park just become a good deal more precarious?

Gill Hornby

Hornby’s Austen books are funny, bittersweet family sagas, impeccably researched and lavishly imagined

Combines meticulous research with a fabulously heartfelt feeling for her characters . . . Filled with Austen-esque ironies and humour.

Joyous  . . . captured with apt perspicacity and keen wit

Has all the wit and wisdom of a Jane Austen novel

Combines meticulous period research with a fine feeling for the characters' inner lives, hopes and fears

I’m so fond of Gill’s books for their vividness at explaining the historical period. She also truly cares about her characters and their welfare

Has all Austen’s wit and unnerving powers of observation with an extra twenty-first century zap

Few writers are as perspicacious or half as delightful as Hornby

Gripping and moving and also so sharp and funny. I loved it!

Tremendous . . . Darker than Miss Austen but rendered with her characteristic lightness of touch and neat wit

A captivating return to the world of the Austens

Turmoil ensues in this novel laced with scandal, elopement, gossip and family intrigue.

A magical and terrifically interesting read

‘A richly imagined family saga, love story and social comedy’ Times 
'Gripping and moving and also so sharp and funny. I loved it!’ Sabine Durrant 
‘Has all the wit and wisdom of a Jane Austen novel’ Red 
 
----------------- 
 
‘It is a truth universally acknowledged that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife.’ 
 
1820. Mary Dorothea Knatchbull is living under the sole charge of her widowed father, Sir Edward – a man of strict principles and high Christian values. 
 
But when her father marries Miss Fanny Knight of Godmersham Park, Mary’s life is suddenly changed. 
Her new stepmother comes from a large, happy and sociable family and Fanny’s sisters become Mary’s first friends. Her aunt, Miss Cassandra Austen of Chawton, is especially kind. Her brothers are not only amusing, but handsome and charming. 
 
And as Mary Dorothea starts to bloom into a beautiful young woman, she forms an especial bond with one Mr Knight in particular. 
 
Soon, they are deeply in love and determined to marry. They expect no opposition. After all, each is from a good family and has known the other for some years. 
 
It promises to be the most perfect match. Who would want to stand in their way? 
 
----------------- 
 
Praise for The Elopement: 
 
‘Hornby’s Austen books are funny, bittersweet family sagas, impeccably researched and lavishly imagined’ The Times 
 
'Tremendous . . . Darker than Miss Austen but rendered with her characteristic lightness of touch and quick wit' Nigella Lawson 
 
'Has all Austen’s wit and unnerving powers of observation with an extra twenty-first century zap' Ferdinand Mount 
 
‘Few writers are as perspicacious or half as delightful as Hornby’ Karen Joy Fowler 
 
‘A captivating return to the world of the Austens’ Woman & Home 
 
‘Combines meticulous period research with a fine feeling for the characters' inner lives, hopes and fears’ Daily Mail

Gill Hornby

Praise for The Elopement

Hornby’s Austen books are funny, bittersweet family sagas, impeccably researched and lavishly imagined

Combines meticulous research with a fabulously heartfelt feeling for her characters . . . Filled with Austen-esque ironies and humour.

Joyous . . . captured with apt perspicacity and keen wit

Hornby’s Austen books are funny, bittersweet family sagas, impeccably researched and lavishly imagined

Combines meticulous research with a fabulously heartfelt feeling for her characters . . . Filled with Austen-esque ironies and humour.

Joyous . . . captured with apt perspicacity and keen wit

Hornby’s Austen books are funny, bittersweet family sagas, impeccably researched and lavishly imagined

Combines meticulous research with a fabulously heartfelt feeling for her characters . . . Filled with Austen-esque ironies and humour.

Joyous . . . captured with apt perspicacity and keen wit

Books by Gill Hornby

Articles featuring Gill Hornby

Is Jane Austen’s legacy more than just romantic love? Ask Penguin Podcast

The Penguin Podcast: episode 3 – the classics

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