MY JANE AUSTEN BOOK CLUB

DUTY vs. DELUSION: COMPARING EDWARD FERRARS AND EDMUND BERTRAM

2026-07-13T12:14:48.012+02:00

The curates' corner: Edward Ferrars vs. Edmund Bertram

When we think of Jane Austen heroes, our minds instantly fly to the brooding wealth of Mr. Darcy or the dashing chivalry of Captain Wentworth. But today, we are turning our attention to the quiet churchmen of the Austen universe: Edward Ferrars (Sense and Sensibility) and Edmund Bertram (Mansfield Park).

As the daughter, sister, and cousin of clergymen, Jane Austen understood the realities of the Church of England better than almost anyone. While Edward and Edmund might not be the most universally beloved romantic leads, they are deeply complex, highly realistic men navigating the rigid system of Regency church patronage.

Let’s look at how these two future clergymen compare.

The analogies: what do they share?

The clerical vocation: Both men reject the flashy, ambitious, or legally driven lifestyles expected of upper-class gentlemen. They genuinely desire the quiet, moral, and useful life of a country parish priest.
The dominant family matrix: Both Edward and Edmund are heavily repressed by tyrannical family structures. Edward is financially blackmailed by his domineering mother, Mrs. Ferrars, while Edmund must constantly placate the rigid, patriarchal expectations of Sir Thomas Bertram.
Blind desires & worldly rivals: Both men fall victim to a superficial attachment before finding true happiness. Edward entangles himself in a secret, youthful engagement to the manipulative Lucy Steele. Meanwhile, Edmund is utterly blinded by the witty but cynical Mary Crawford, who famously attacks the entire profession by sneering:

"A clergyman has nothing to do but to be slovenly and selfish—read the newspaper, watch the weather, and quarrel with his wife."

The anchor woman: Ultimately, both heroes rely on a highly principled, quiet woman—Elinor Dashwood and Fanny Price—to serve as their moral anchor and true intellectual equal.

The differences: where do they part ways?

True calling vs. family livings: According to historical analysis, Edward Ferrars is the only hero in Austen's works who chooses the church entirely out of a true personal calling, despite having zero expectation of patronage. It is only Colonel Brandon's radical generosity that saves him from being a starving curate. Edmund Bertram, on the other hand, enters the clergy because his family explicitly holds the Mansfield living for him.
Honour vs. blindness: Edward’s biggest mistake comes from a place of rigid, gentlemanly honor. He stays engaged to Lucy Steele for years not because he loves her, but because he gave his word and refuses to ruin her social standing. Edmund’s mistake, however, is pure self-delusion. He actively ignores Mary Crawford's lack of morals because he is infatuated with her charm.
Self-pity vs. preachiness: Edward is painfully self-aware, often retreating into a quiet, melancholy cloud because he knows he is trapped by his secrets. Edmund can be quite self-righteous. He loves to lecture others on morality while failing to see his own hypocrisy, prompting his famous defense of his future office:

"I cannot call that situation nothing which has the charge of all that is of the first importance to mankind... which has the guardianship of religion and morals."

The Regency Reality Check

To a modern reader, a church living sounds humble. But to a Janeite, the numbers tell the real story of their future stability:

Edward Ferrars starts his married life at the Delaford rectory with roughly £200 a year in tithes, which John Dashwood scoffs at as a pittance, though it provides absolute freedom from his mother.

Edmund Bertram receives the valuable Mansfield living, which provides a significantly more comfortable, upper-middle-class gentry lifestyle.

Edward Ferrars wins our sympathy because his flaws stem from a misplaced sense of duty; he suffers in silence to protect a woman he no longer loves. Edmund Bertram demands more patience from the reader; he is a good man, but his temporary blindness makes us want to shake him by the shoulders!

Over to You, Book Club!

If you had to choose between these two earnest, flawed gentlemen, who has your vote? Is it the quietly honourable Edward Ferrars or the deeply principled Edmund Bertram?

THE DASHWOOD SISTERS RETURN: OUR FIRST LOOK AT SENSE AND SENSIBILITY (2026)

2026-07-12T16:08:13.937+02:00

More than three decades after Ang Lee's acclaimed adaptation introduced a generation of audiences to Emma Thompson's Elinor and Kate Winslet's Marianne, Sense and Sensibility is returning to the big screen.

Focus Features has released the first trailer for its highly anticipated new adaptation of Jane Austen's first published novel, directed by Georgia Oakley (Blue Jean) and written by bestselling novelist *Diana Reid. Judging from these first images, this isn't an attempt to recreate the beloved 1995 film. Instead, it appears to offer a fresh interpretation—one that feels quieter, earthier, and perhaps even closer to the realities Austen herself described.

Let's take a closer look at what we've learned so far.

A NEW GENERATION OF DASHWOODS

Taking on characters forever associated with one of cinema's most beloved literary adaptations is no easy task, yet the new cast brings together an exciting blend of established stars and rising talent.

Daisy Edgar-Jones leads the film as Elinor Dashwood, with Esmé Creed-Miles portraying the passionate Marianne. Alongside them are George MacKay as Edward Ferrars, Frank Dillane as the charming but unreliable John Willoughby, Herbert Nordrum as Colonel Brandon, Caitríona Balfe as Mrs. Dashwood, and the always magnificent Fiona Shaw as Mrs. Jennings.

It's a cast that feels refreshingly different from previous adaptations while remaining perfectly capable of carrying Austen's emotional complexity.

WHAT DOES THE TRAILER TELL US?

Although only a few minutes long, the trailer reveals quite a lot about the filmmakers' vision.

Perhaps the biggest surprise is its emphasis on the Dashwoods' reduced circumstances. Previous adaptations have sometimes softened the family's financial hardship by placing them in picturesque country houses that hardly seemed impoverished. Here, Barton Cottage genuinely feels modest. The interiors are smaller, the landscapes windswept rather than idyllic, and there's a sense that losing Norland truly changes every aspect of the sisters' lives.

Visually, the film also appears less polished than its predecessors—in the best possible way. Costumes look lived in, muddy paths remain muddy, and the countryside feels beautifully untamed rather than romanticised. Georgia Oakley seems interested in creating a world that feels authentic rather than decorative.

The emotional heart of the trailer, however, belongs to Elinor and Marianne. Rather than foregrounding romance, the footage repeatedly returns to the sisters themselves—their affection, disagreements, laughter, and shared resilience. It's a reminder that while Sense and Sensibility certainly contains memorable love stories, Austen's novel is equally a celebration of sisterhood.

There are also brief glimpses of Willoughby's undeniable charm, Colonel Brandon's quiet reserve, and Edward Ferrars' gentle awkwardness, suggesting performances that favour subtlety over melodrama.

MODERN AND DISTINCTIVE

In a recent interview with British Vogue, Daisy Edgar-Jones admitted that taking on Elinor was both thrilling and intimidating.

She described the 1995 adaptation as "one of my favourite movies of all time," before adding that the creative team wanted to make something "modern and distinctive" for today's audiences.

That ambition certainly comes across in the trailer. Rather than competing with the earlier film, this adaptation seems determined to find its own voice.

Edgar-Jones also spoke warmly about working with George MacKay, explaining that they quickly developed an easy creative partnership because they approach acting in much the same way—carefully, thoughtfully, and with meticulous attention to detail.

A FEW DETAILS JANEITES WILL APPRECIATE

One casting choice has already delighted many readers of the novel.

At 46, Caitríona Balfe is actually much closer to Austen's Mrs. Dashwood than audiences may expect. In the novel, Mrs. Dashwood is only around forty years old—a reminder that Regency widows with three marriageable daughters were often far younger than modern adaptations suggest.

The film also boasts impressive Austen credentials behind the camera. Produced by Working Title and Focus Features, it comes from the same studios responsible for Pride & Prejudice (2005) and Emma. (2020), giving fans good reason for optimism.

Filming across the English countryside also appears to make full use of the contrast between elegant Norland Park and the rugged beauty surrounding Barton Cottage—a visual metaphor for the sisters' changing fortunes.

FIRST IMPRESSIONS

Daisy Edgar-Jones as Elinor and George MacKay as Edward

For many Janeites, the 1995 Sense and Sensibility occupies a place alongside the 1995 Pride and Prejudice as one of the greatest Austen adaptations ever made. Comparisons are inevitable.

Yet after watching this first trailer, I don't think comparisons are what this film is asking for.

Instead of trying to emulate Emma Thompson's Oscar-winning screenplay or Ang Lee's sweeping romantic style, Georgia Oakley appears to be exploring a different side of Austen's novel—one rooted in realism, intimacy, and the everyday courage required of the Dashwood women.

Whether this new interpretation will join the ranks of the great Austen adaptations remains to be seen.

But one thing is certain: after our first glimpse, I can't wait to see more.

What were your first impressions of the trailer?

Did any particular performance, scene, or visual detail stand out to you? And can any new adaptation ever rival the 1995 classic, or is it best appreciated on its own terms?

KINDLE THE LIGHT OF LIBERTY: A CONVERSATION WITH MIRTA INES TRUPP

2026-07-08T09:00:00.000+02:00

"There is, I believe, in every disposition a tendency to some particular evil..."

— Pride and Prejudice

One of the reasons Jane Austen's novels continue to resonate with readers around the world is that they remind us how often first impressions can be misleading. We think we understand a person, only to discover there is far more beneath the surface than we first imagined.

Today, I am delighted to welcome author Mirta Ines Trupp to My Jane Austen Book Club to discuss Kindle the Light of Liberty, a fascinating historical novel set in Revolutionary Philadelphia. While not a retelling of Pride and Prejudice, the novel draws inspiration from Austen's timeless themes of misunderstanding, growth, family, and the challenge of judging character accurately.

At the heart of the story are Rose Wachsman and Nathan Hirsch, members of Philadelphia's Jewish community during the American Revolution. Through their journey, Mirta explores questions of identity, belonging, loyalty and love against the backdrop of a nation struggling to define itself.

In our conversation below, she shares how Jane Austen influenced her writing, why she chose this little-known corner of American history, and what readers might discover when they look beyond first impressions—both in fiction and in history.

Please join me in giving Mirta a warm My Jane Austen Book Club welcome!

Maria Grazia 💕

Kindle the Light of Liberty has been described as carrying the spirit of Pride and Prejudice without being a retelling. What aspects of Jane Austen's novel most inspired your story?

First, Maria, please let me express my appreciation for this opportunity to discuss my latest novel. As it happens, talking about one's novels or characters has excellent literary precedent. Jane Austen herself seems to have taken enormous pleasure in revisiting hers. In letters to her sister, Cassandra, she imagined spotting members of the Bennet family in portrait galleries, speculated about what Mrs. Darcy might wear, and unabashedly declared Elizabeth Bennet one of the most delightful heroines ever to appear in print! With that reassuring example before me, I am happy to talk about my own scribblings!

While Elizabeth Bennet and Mr. Darcy were certainly important inspirations, what drew me most to Pride and Prejudice was Austen's remarkable ability to create an entire social world through a cast of memorable characters. In Kindle the Light of Liberty, I was inspired not only by the intelligence, independence, and evolving relationship that make Elizabeth and Darcy so enduring, but also by the supporting characters who shape their journey. Lady Catherine de Bourgh fascinated me as a force of social expectation and authority, while George Wickham demonstrated how charm can conceal deeper flaws. Caroline Bingley provided another compelling model—a character whose ambitions, prejudices, and insecurities create tension in subtle but powerful ways.

Austen understood that a love story is never just about two people; it is also about the family, friends, rivals, and societal pressures that influence their choices. I wanted to capture some of that same richness of character and emotional complexity in my own style and in my own way—to paraphrase our treasured author. My goal was to create a story in which readers could experience misunderstandings, growth, and the challenge of seeing people as they truly are—all elements that have made Austen's work resonate for more than two centuries.

That philosophy extends to my other works as well. Whether I am writing J.A.F.F. or historical variations, I am passionate about creating narratives through my lens and experiences—as a woman, an immigrant, and a Jew. That said, I generally don’t recast Austen's Anglican characters as members of my faith. Instead, I introduce Jewish protagonists, perspectives, and storylines into the narrative world. My purpose is not to create a parody or a novelty version of Austen, but to engage with the themes and social observations that make her novels timeless. As the saying goes, “imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.” I could never hope to duplicate Austen's genius, but I do aspire to learn from it. If Kindle the Light of Liberty encourages readers to see Austen's influence reflected in a new historical setting while discovering voices and experiences that are often absent from traditional narratives, then I will feel I have paid her a worthy tribute.

Rose Wachsman has been compared to Elizabeth Bennet. What qualities do they share, and in what ways is Rose uniquely her own character?

I certainly can understand why readers draw comparisons between Rose and Elizabeth Bennet—and am humbled by the thought. They share a quick intelligence and a strong sense of self. Both women are observant, independent-minded, and willing to challenge expectations when they believe those expectations are unjust. They also possess a certain stubbornness that can be both a strength and a weakness. That said, Rose is very much her own character. Elizabeth Bennet's story unfolds primarily within the context of family dynamics, social class, and the marriage market of Regency England. Rose faces some of those same human concerns, but her circumstances are shaped by a very different historical reality.

As the daughter of a Jewish immigrant—and a tradesman at that—Rose carries an awareness of history that Lizzy never had to consider. Her identity is shaped by generations of displacement, exclusion, and perseverance. Questions of continuity—of security—are never far from her mind. The choices she makes are influenced not only by personal happiness but by a sense of responsibility to her family, her heritage, and the future she hopes to build. In many ways, Rose also reflects my fascination with the women who came before us. Historical records often preserve the names of prominent men while leaving women's stories untold. When I write characters like Rose, I find myself imagining the intelligence, courage, and determination required of those women whose voices were rarely recorded but whose lives helped shape the generations that followed.

Rose ultimately grew beyond any single influence founded by Austen. She may share some of Elizabeth Bennet's spirit, but she is also the product of her own history and circumstances—a woman navigating not only matters of the heart, but larger questions of identity, belonging, and what it means to help build a place where future generations can thrive.

Your novel brings Jewish families and communities in Revolutionary America to the forefront. What drew you to this setting, and what do you hope readers will discover about this fascinating period of history?

Several factors drew me to this era, but one of the most important was the opportunity to explore a chapter of this nation’s history that remains largely unknown to many readers. As a naturalized American citizen, I wanted to contribute to and pay homage to our 250th anniversary of independence. We are indeed a nation woven together with multilayered and multifaceted threads. By setting the scene in colonial Philadelphia, I hope to strengthen those ties that bind us in this “great experiment.”

When—or rather, if— people think about the colonial Jewish community, they may picture a small number of merchants or prominent financiers. While those figures certainly played important roles, they represent only a fraction of the story. During my research, I was fascinated to learn about the incredible bravery of Jewish patriots—men and women who actively fought, sacrificed, and risked everything for the cause of independence, yet whose stories are rarely taught in schools. I became deeply interested in these ordinary individuals who experienced the terrifying uncertainties of the rebellion alongside their neighbors.

What fascinated me most about the Revolutionary era was that breaking free from Britain was only half the story. The war dismantled old colonial legal systems and forced people to figure out what a truly free society should look like. For religious minorities like the Jewish community, the stakes were incredibly high. Under British rule, Jews faced strict legal limits on voting, holding public office, or achieving full equality. The birth of a new republic raised thrilling, untested possibilities:

Would this emerging nation live up to its promises of universal liberty?

Would it offer Jewish families a place where they could build their futures not as tolerated outsiders, but as equal citizens?

Through Rose and the others, I wanted to show Jewish colonists as three-dimensional human beings rather than caricatures or historical footnotes. Their experiences are woven into the larger American story, even if they are not always included in the versions of history we commonly encounter. If readers come away with a greater appreciation for the diversity of this particular generation and a curiosity to learn more about the communities that helped shape the early United States, I will feel that I have succeeded.

If Jane Austen herself could read Kindle the Light of Liberty, what do you think might surprise her most about your story?

I absolutely love this question, Maria! I suspect Jane Austen would be surprised by several things in Kindle the Light of Liberty, but perhaps most of all by the fact that the story is set in the colonies and told largely through the experiences of Jewish characters.

We often think of Austen as universally beloved—and rightly so. We adapt her novels endlessly, quote Elizabeth Bennet as if she were an old friend, and build entire industries around Regency romance and culture. Yet Austen herself appears to have viewed America with a fair degree of skepticism. In a letter written to her friend Martha Lloyd during the War of 1812, Austen remarked that while Britain remained “a religious nation,” she doubted Americans possessed the same seriousness of faith. Given her generally conservative outlook and suspicion of political upheaval, I imagine she would be rather astonished to find one of her literary descendants writing a novel set amid a rebellion against the Crown! Yet what fascinates me is how much common ground might exist beneath that initial surprise.

Austen's skepticism toward revolutions was rooted in more than politics. Her novels reveal a deep concern with continuity—how families endure, how values are passed from one generation to the next, and how fragile social order can become when people abandon duty, restraint, and moral responsibility. Those same concerns lie at the heart of Kindle the Light of Liberty.

For the Jewish communities of colonial America, the conflict was never simply an abstract debate about liberty and independence. It was a deeply personal question. Families in places such as New York, Newport, Charleston, and Philadelphia faced uncertain futures as governments changed, economies were disrupted, and old loyalties were tested. Like so many Jewish communities throughout history, they had to ask themselves whether the society around them would remain welcoming and secure in the years ahead.

I think Austen would also be intrigued by the diversity of the world my characters inhabit. Her novels focus on a relatively narrow segment of English society, while the colonies brought together people of different backgrounds, faiths, and cultures who were all helping to shape a new nation. The idea that a Jewish heroine could stand at the center of such a story would likely have been entirely outside her experience. And yet, I hope she would recognize something familiar in Rose's journey. Beneath the wartime setting are questions Austen understood better than almost anyone: whom to trust, how to judge character, how to balance personal happiness with family obligations, and how to preserve what is most valuable when the world around you is changing.

Austen is famous for her sharp observations of human nature and social interactions. Is there a particular lesson you learned from reading Austen that has influenced the way you write fiction?

If there is one lesson I learned from Jane Austen, it is to be wary of first impressions. Austen understood that people are rarely what they seem at first glance. The charming person may be selfish. The proud person may be honorable. The quiet person may possess unexpected strength. Much of her genius lies in showing how easily we misjudge one another and how important it is to look beyond assumptions. That lesson has profoundly influenced the way I write fiction.

I try to approach every character as a well-rounded human being rather than a stereotype or a one-dimensional, “filler” figure. Austen taught me that good fiction begins with curiosity: Why does a person behave as they do? What fears, hopes, loyalties, and experiences lie beneath the surface? As I researched Jewish life in colonial America, I realized that readers often fall victim to the same kind of first impressions that Austen explored in Pride and Prejudice.

For centuries, European stereotypes portrayed Jews as outsiders, disloyal, or concerned only with commerce. Yet the historical record tells a far more complicated and compelling story. Jewish colonists served in local militias and in the Continental Army. Men such as Francis Salvador, often remembered as the first Jew to die in the cause of American independence, risked—and ultimately gave—their lives for the Patriot cause. Women such as Abigail Minis or Reyna Levy Moses navigated the same hardships, uncertainties, and sacrifices as their Christian neighbors. What struck me during my research was how often the record challenged my own first impressions. A name would appear in a synagogue register, a military roster, or an old letter, and I would initially think of that person as a historical category: a soldier, a merchant, a patriot, a heartbroken wife. Then I would dig deeper and discover a life far more complicated and interesting than any label could capture.

Take Jacob I. Cohen. At first glance, he appears in the records as a Jewish soldier who served in South Carolina during the Revolution and endured imprisonment aboard a British prison ship. But then the story takes an unexpected turn. After the war, he fell in love with Esther Mordecai, a widow whose status as a convert created religious obstacles to their union because Jacob was a kohen—a descendant of the priestly line and bound by certain marital restrictions. Rather than accept defeat, he challenged those assumptions and found a way forward. Suddenly, he is no longer merely a soldier in a history book. He is a young man navigating faith, love, communal expectations, and the possibilities opened by a new nation.

Then there is Abigail Lopez Gomez. At first glance, she might seem like a footnote in a larger family story, but her life reveals something far richer. As a child, she was displaced by war, lost her father in a tragic accident, and helped her family rebuild in the aftermath. Later, she married Isaac Gomez, a man who proved less interested in mercantile pursuits than in literature.

In 1820, Isaac published an anthology of poetry and prose, Selections of a Father for the Use of his Children. It became so well regarded that former President John Adams was moved to write to him, remarking that it “shall be a manual on my table.” Details like this are always striking because they remind us how interconnected these early American lives could be, across communities, professions, and even generations. Even more moving, and one of my favorite details from the period, is a prayer book Isaac copied by hand for Abigail after nearly four decades of marriage. The book includes a note expressing his enduring devotion to her. Moments like that remind us that history is not merely a sequence of public events or political milestones. It is also a record of human relationships—private hopes, long companionships, and deeply personal acts of love and care.

I hope readers will find my characters to be interesting, in particular when they discover their contradictions, their struggles—their humanity. In some ways, Kindle the Light of Liberty asks the same question Austen asked more than two centuries ago: What happens when we discover that our first judgment of a person—or an entire community—was wrong? The answer, I think, is where both good history and good fiction begin.

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AUTHOR INTERVIEW: SUSAN MOORE ON THE DARCY LIST, MR DARCY AND THE PROBLEM WITH PERFECT MEN

2026-06-30T08:30:00.000+02:00

"It is a truth universally acknowledged..." Or is it?

For generations, readers have fallen in love with Fitzwilliam Darcy and measured real-life suitors against Jane Austen's most famous hero. But what happens when the ideal we have cherished since our teenage years begins to collide with reality?

Today, I am delighted to welcome Susan Moore to My Jane Austen Book Club to discuss her new novel, The Darcy List, a witty and thought-provoking contemporary story inspired by a question many Janeites have secretly asked themselves: Did Jane Austen set the bar impossibly high?

At the centre of the novel is Florence Elliot, who at sixteen creates a list of everything the perfect man should be—a "Darcy List" inspired by her favourite literary hero. Years later, life, love, heartbreak, and unexpected opportunities force her to reconsider not only the list itself, but what she truly wants from a partner.

In the interview below, Susan reflects on the enduring appeal of Mr Darcy, the influence Jane Austen continues to have on modern readers, and the difference between loving the idea of someone and learning to embrace someone real.

Please join me in giving Susan a warm My Jane Austen Book Club welcome.

Maria Grazia 💕

The Darcy List asks a question that many Jane Austen readers have wondered about: Did Miss Austen set the bar impossibly high? What inspired you to build an entire novel around that idea?

The honest answer is that the novel started with a confession — mine and, I suspect, many other women's. I've spent decades measuring men against a fictional standard I absorbed at sixteen, when I read Pride and Prejudice for the first time, and at some point I had to ask myself: is that romantic, or is it a problem? We don't talk much about the way beloved fiction can quietly shape — and sometimes distort — our expectations of real life.

What fascinated me most was the gap between the Darcy we carry in our heads and the Darcy Austen actually wrote. The checklist version is compelling, but it misses the point of him. His real quality is accountability: he can be told he is wrong, he considers it, and he changes. That felt like a much richer and more honest thing to write about. So the novel grew out of that tension: what happens when a woman who has held the Darcy ideal all her life keeps encountering men who have his surface but not his substance? I wanted to hold both truths at once — that Darcy is genuinely compelling, and that holding out for him might cost you something real.

Can you tell us a little about Florence and the "Darcy List" she has kept since she was sixteen?

Florence and her best friend Alice are devoted Austen girls from the start. At sixteen, fuelled by dog-eared copies of Pride and Prejudice and teenage certainty, they sit down and compile the definitive list of qualities the ideal man must possess. It's half joke, half blueprint — and entirely specific. Really fit in all ways. Smart and witty. Can gallop on a horse, but driving a cool sports car will do.

It's an endearing document, and also, as Florence comes to understand, entirely the wrong way to approach love. The list names qualities — it describes someone who has already arrived. What it can't account for is the real question: not who someone is, but whether they're capable of growth. That's what takes Florence the rest of the novel to learn.

What does Mr Darcy mean to you personally, and why do you think he continues to capture readers' imaginations more than two centuries after Pride and Prejudice was published?

I think what Darcy means to me personally has shifted as I've got older. When I was younger, it was absolutely the surface: his reserve, brooding intelligence, the moment when the mask slips. But what I've come to love in him — and what I think makes him genuinely indestructible as a character — is his arc, not his appearance. Austen created a hero whose greatest quality is the ability to be corrected by someone he loves and not flinch from it. He doesn't explain away Elizabeth's refusal. He doesn't sulk. He goes away and thinks, and when he comes back, he has genuinely changed because he knew she was right. That's rarer, in fiction and in life, than we'd like to think. I believe readers sense that — they sense that the real Darcy is not the proud man at the ball but the man who writes the letter.

Were there any particular Austen themes or characters that influenced this story beyond Mr Darcy himself?

Elizabeth Bennet is everywhere in this book, even though Florence is not a straight parallel. What I admired in Elizabeth, and tried to honour, is that she refuses to accommodate male pride as though it were simply her social duty. She calls Darcy out, walks away, and maintains her own judgment even when the pressure to capitulate is enormous. Florence has to learn her way to that kind of self-possession. She starts the novel deferring to what love is supposed to look like rather than trusting her own instincts about what it actually feels like.

There's also something of Austen's comedy of manners running through the book — the social dynamics, whether in rural England or California society, each with its own rich absurdity. And I've always been drawn to Austen's quiet insistence that women's inner lives are serious — that what a woman thinks and feels and wants matters, even when the world around her doesn't quite agree. That felt urgently relevant to a contemporary story.

Contemporary fiction and Austen-inspired fiction do not always overlap. What drew you to bring Austen's influence into a modern setting?

I was less interested in retelling Austen than in asking what her legacy does to us — specifically to women who grew up loving her. That felt like a contemporary story rather than a historical one. Florence isn't living inside a Jane Austen novel; she's living inside her own life while haunted by one. The modern setting lets me explore the gap between the world Austen described and the world we actually inhabit — the compromises, and confusion. I wanted readers to recognise themselves, not in the bonnets and drawing rooms, but in the private knowledge that they still, somewhere, believe in Darcy.

Without giving too much away, what challenges does Florence face when real life refuses to follow the script she imagined for herself?

Florence is warm, funny, and perceptive about almost everyone around her, and yet she has a profound blind spot about what she herself deserves. The men who seem to fit the list turn out to be performances rather than people, and she endures far more than she should before she can admit it.

She comes to realise that the list she has clung to all her life has actually been a defence. Wanting someone perfect is a very effective way of not having to risk wanting someone real.

There's external hardship too: grief, a costly marriage, and a pub renovation undertaken largely on hope. But the real challenge is interior. Florence is brave in most areas of her life. Trusting her own judgment about love takes her the longest.

Your forthcoming LitHub essay explores why we're still looking for Mr Darcy. Could you give our readers a small preview of your thoughts on that question?

The essay starts from the observation that the interesting question isn't why we love Darcy — that's well established — but what it says about us that we keep returning to a character whose defining quality is his capacity to change.

Because Darcy isn't, at the outset, particularly loveable. What makes him immortal is what happens after Elizabeth refuses him. He doesn't change to win her back. He changes because he comes to recognise that she was right. That distinction matters. Rochester is reshaped by circumstance; Heathcliff is consumed by it. Darcy's arc is genuinely moral, not merely emotional. He is corrected by love, and he chooses to be.

The essay also pushes back against the modern instinct to say "find someone who has already done the work." Darcy's story isn't the "fix the difficult man" fantasy people rightly distrust, because Elizabeth doesn't fix him. She refuses him and walks away. He goes home, thinks, and writes a letter that is an act of accountability rather than self-justification.

What was the most enjoyable aspect of writing The Darcy List?

Florence's voice, without a doubt. She has a dry, self-deprecating wit that I found genuinely joyful to inhabit — she narrates her own disasters with such fond exasperation that even her worst moments have warmth. I also loved writing the friendship between Florence and Alice, which is really the emotional backbone of the whole novel. That friendship — the constancy of it, the way it holds through grief and distance and poor decisions — is in some ways the great love story of the book. And I loved the pub renovation, which gave me the chance to write about practical, physical, unglamorous hard work, which I think fiction doesn't always make room for.

If Jane Austen could read your novel, what do you hope she might say about it?

I hope she'd find the comedy sympathetic. She was so precise about human self-deception — particularly our habit of telling ourselves we want one thing while chasing something entirely different — and I'd love to think that Florence's journey from the Darcy List to something real might have made her smile. I also hope she'd approve of the fact that Florence, ultimately, does not compromise herself for love. She earns the right to be chosen by first becoming, fully and at considerable cost, her own person. I think Austen would have had something rather dry and pointed to say about Chase, and I rather wish I could have heard it.

Finally, what would you most like readers to take away from The Darcy List?

That the list is worth examining — whatever form yours takes. We all carry ideals we absorbed when we were young, and they shape what we look for and what we overlook in ways we don't always notice. I'd love readers to finish the book feeling gently challenged rather than lectured — to close it and think, perhaps for the first time, about the gap between the love story they imagined and the one that might actually be waiting for them. And I hope they feel that Florence's journey, for all its complications, is ultimately hopeful. Not naively so — but genuinely so. Real love, messy and surprising as it is, turns out to be better than the list.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Susan Moore spent over three decades in film, technology and media — including time at Lucasfilm's Skywalker Ranch in California — before turning to fiction. She holds an MA with Distinction in Creative Writing from Kingston University, London, and is the author of seven books, including The Widow's Web and the Nat Walker Trilogy. The Darcy List is her latest novel. She lives in the UK and believes that a Darcy obsession and a happy life are entirely compatible.

ABOUT THE BOOK

At sixteen, Florence Elliot writes The Darcy List, a teenage blueprint for the perfect man inspired by Austen's famous hero. Years later, after a glamorous but unhappy marriage in California, she returns to the English countryside and buys a crumbling village pub — only to meet the brooding Scottish architect restoring it who breaks every rule on her list.

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GUEST POST & EXCLUSIVE EXCERPT - FASCINATION & FALSEHOODS: THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING DARCY

2026-06-21T08:30:00.000+02:00

Today we are delighted to welcome author Jayne Bamber to My Jane Austen Book Club as she celebrates the release of her newest Austen variation, Fascination & Falsehoods: The Importance of Being Darcy.

For readers who enjoy imaginative reimaginings of Pride and Prejudice, this novel offers a fascinating premise. In this story, Jane and Elizabeth Bennet are orphaned at a young age and raised by none other than Lady Catherine de Bourgh, while Fitzwilliam Darcy grows up under circumstances far removed from those we know in Austen's original novel. The result is a fresh take on beloved characters, family relationships, and the paths that ultimately lead to love.

What makes this variation especially intriguing is its homage not only to Jane Austen but also to Oscar Wilde's The Importance of Being Earnest. With witty dialogue, unexpected twists and familiar characters placed in entirely new circumstances, the story promises to delight readers who appreciate both Austen's timeless romance and Wilde's sparkling humour.

Today, the author is sharing an exclusive excerpt that introduces us to a young Elizabeth Bennet preparing for her first London season—and reveals the beginnings of her rather charming fascination with the name "Darcy."

We hope you enjoy this sneak peek into Fascination & Falsehoods: The Importance of Being Darcy. Be sure to let us know in the comments what you think of this inventive new twist on a beloved classic!

Maria Grazia 💕

AUTHOR GUEST POST: JAYNE BAMBER ON THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING DARCY

Hello, Readers! I am so looking forward to sharing my upcoming release, Fascination & Falsehoods: The Importance of Being Darcy with Jane Austen and Oscar Wilde enthusiasts. That’s right, this mashup pays homage to both!

The story has a unique premise: not only are the two eldest Bennet sisters raised by Lady Catherine after being orphaned, Mr. Darcy is also raised away from home, taken in as a foundling infant. These wildly different origins lead to one of the biggest twists of the tale, with Lady Catherine believing Mr. Darcy is not good enough for her daughter Elizabeth!

Another significant variation from canon is that Lady Anne Darcy is still alive, suffering some tragic losses before settling near Rosings in Kent. Elizabeth is inspired by her favorite aunt, to such an extent that she becomes fascinated by the name Darcy. Today I am sharing an excerpt from the novel, showing just how Elizabeth’s fascination with the Darcy name manifests itself as she and Jane prepare to be introduced to London society….

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Lady Anne gave Lady Catherine an arch look. “The children are all quite grown up, Cathy. Georgiana is nearly seventeen, and I have agreed that she may have a little season in London this year. Perhaps you will bring Jane and Elizabeth; I believe it is time.”

“Aye, so it is,” Lady Catherine admitted, casting a look of assessment over her daughters. “You have every advantage of fortune, beauty, and accomplishment.”

“You are both far too lovely to be still unwed,” Lady Anne agreed. “It is a pity we have not been able to move in society since you both reached an age to be out, though I believe Georgiana will be happy to share her debutante season with you.”

Georgiana’s eyes lit with excitement, and she gave an emphatic nod. “I will not be half so anxious if you are with me,” she agreed.

“I shall write to the dowager countess,” Lady Catherine said. “Unless you wish to open Darcy House, Anne?”

Lady Anne’s countenance shaded, as it always did at any allusion to her tragic first marriage. “No… no. We will stay at Matlock House. We practically grew up there, and I am sure it is large enough to accommodate all of us.” She turned a teasing smile on Jane and Elizabeth. “We must do a great deal of shopping. Are you prepared for the exertion and the subsequent tribulations of being admired wherever you go?”

“That will indeed be a trial,” Lady Catherine drawled. “Every fortune hunter in London will be sniffing around! You must be on your guard, girls, for penniless rakes who profess their love as they covet your dowries. Three young ladies with thirty thousand pounds apiece! I shall be obliged to stand sentinel at the door with saber drawn ‘round the clock!”

Elizabeth waggled her eyebrows at her sister and cousin. “And my two companions to inherit estates, besides. I suppose I shall sleep a little easier, though I may lament my own lack of suitors, if not my want of property. But I shall take comfort in growing exceedingly accomplished, having so many free hours to practice art and music while Jane and Georgiana are beset by beaux vying to become the next masters of Rosings and Pemberley. Nobody will think of me, and I am sure I could not fancy anybody who did prefer me of the three of us, for you know I could never love a man who is out of his wits.”

“Well, that eliminates Richard as a prospect,” Lady Catherine drawled, giving her sister a sideward glance. “He is always shilly-shallying about with his invalid friend Bunbury, waiting for the poor wretch to die, as he ought to do so that Richard might finally be settled. But Jane, you may be just the siren to tempt him. You are such a sweet, steady creature, and you are sure to be the most beautiful woman in any room you enter.”

“Oh, yes,” Lady Anne agreed. “But do not let your mamma shade your impression of him - you must remember how kind he was to you in your youth.”

“Before Mamma’s talk of marriage frightened him away,” Elizabeth laughed. “It would serve him right if you did not fancy him at all, Jane, and obliged him to give chase.”

“Hush! Perish the thought! Jane is better than such paltry tactics, Lizzy, and I know you would never act that way yourself.”

“Certainly not, Mamma. If I am so lucky as to meet a man of good sense and good humor, whom I can love and respect, I shall make no secret of being very well pleased.”

“And so you shall. I daresay you will meet a great many and have the luxury of choice.”

“Only take care that your choice aligns with your mother’s,” Lady Anne said with a smirk.

“What a fine joke if cousin Richard were to fancy Lizzy instead,” Georgiana laughed. “Or me!”

“He is of a more suitable age for Jane,” Lady Catherine said. “It shall all be very tidy; he has done well enough in managing Pemberley, and when Georgiana is wed or comes of age, Richard will come here and run the place for me, and you will succeed me as mistress of Rosings, Jane. You were brought up for such greatness, and I know you will be very happy.”

Jane gave them all a tight smile. “I hope I shall be loved by some gentleman of whom you approve, Mamma. Cousin Richard has avoided us for years, and I should not wish to feel myself forced upon him.”

“Nobody in their right mind could consider you forceful, Jane,” Elizabeth told her sister with a reassuring smile. “Although Mamma seems to think our cousin Richard is not entirely sensible, so perhaps you may yet have some choice in your future happiness.”

“Richard will behave sensibly when I instruct him to do so,” Lady Catherine harrumphed. “And upon no account should any of you think of the new young earl. Rupert will undoubtedly think you in possession of every virtue he requires, for he has already nearly bankrupted the earldom! I shall inform the dowager countess that her unfortunate first-born had better go and manage his affairs at Matlock Park when we come to London, for despite his many failings, charming the ladies is not amongst them! He is a rake and a profligate; I think it a terrible pity he was born before Richard, who at least knows better than to race horses in Rotten Row and take up with actresses - and countless other indecencies I cannot speak of to my gently-bred darlings!”

Lady Anne smiled wryly as her sister fanned herself with indignation. “Let us not vex ourselves, else I fear we shall talk ourselves out of any enjoyment in our scheme, and there are a great many pleasures to be had in London. You will make friends and take in the culture, and you will learn how to navigate the fine society your station entitles you to move amongst. If you fall in love, we shall be very happy for you, but we will be content, regardless, to have so many agreeable experiences.”

Elizabeth admired her aunt’s attitude, and she was relieved to see that Lady Anne had allayed some of Jane’s anxiety. She saw the wisdom in making what she could of a month or two in town, and even tried to persuade herself that she would be content to move amongst a new and varied set of acquaintance, observing all the foibles and extravagances of the first circle.

Elizabeth had a romantic heart, upon which she hoped some worthy gentleman might make an impression. And yet, she required so much, for beyond the common merits of intelligence and humor packaged nicely in a handsome, masculine form, Elizabeth still clung to the youthful fancy inspired by her favorite aunt - she secretly, and perhaps foolishly, longed to love a man by the name of Darcy.

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AN UNCANNY ALIGNMENT OF HEARTS: A Q&A WITH NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLING AUTHOR JUNE HUR

2026-06-19T08:30:00.000+02:00

Dear Janeites and book lovers,

sometimes, the universe has a beautiful way of bringing things full circle. If you have followed my online writing journey, you might know that alongside My Jane Austen Book Club (which I have been writing since 2010), I also ran a parallel blog called FLY HIGH! (started in 2009). Way back in March 2010, I featured a young, aspiring writer in a "Blogger Buddies" segment on FLY HIGH!. She used to email me about her passionate dream of one day becoming a published author. That writer was June Hur.

Sixteen years later, June is a New York Times bestselling author, and while I now focus most of my energy right here on My Jane Austen Book Club and our wonderful Facebook community, I still occasionally pop over to FLY HIGH! to share my latest obsessions. If you've read those rare, recent posts, you know that since the pandemic, I have fallen completely in love with Korean literature, K-dramas, and all things Hallyu (the Korean Wave). You can imagine my absolute thrill when the social media algorithms brought June and me back together, revealing that her newest novel, Behind Five Willows, is a romantic homage to Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice, set right in the heart of the Joseon Dynasty!

Set in 1792 during a strict, real-life historical government book ban, Behind Five Willows follows Shin Haewon (our fierce, Elizabeth Bennet-inspired heroine), a poor second daughter moonlighting as an illegal book transcriber under the pen name "Magpie." Enter Yu Seojun (our brilliant, uptight Mr. Darcy), a wealthy nobleman who secretly rebels against his status by writing forbidden fiction under the name "Black Lotus." Forced together as chaperones for their friends, they clash spectacularly in person, entirely unaware that they are already deeply connected through anonymous, secret letters.

Today, June joins us at My Jane Austen Book Club to chat about yearning, censorship, historical parallels, and what it’s like to bring Darcy and Elizabeth to 18th-century Korea.

Maria Grazia 💕

June, welcome back! We first connected 16 years ago when you were dreaming of publication and I featured you on my parallel blog, FLY HIGH!. Now, you are a New York Times bestseller writing a Pride and Prejudice homage, and I am a massive fan of Korean culture and Hallyu! How does it feel to look back on those early 2010 emails, and did you ever imagine Jane Austen and Korea would be the bridge that brought us back together?

Maria! The moment I saw your DM, I felt such a rush of nostalgia. I remember being so honored when you first reached out to interview me, and now I'm doubly honored (and honestly so moved) that you still remembered me all these years later.

When I first began researching Korean history, I was always struck by the parallels between late Joseon Dynasty Korea and Jane Austen's England, such as social expectations, the importance of reputation, and the rigid class structures. And in many ways I noticed how historical K-dramas evoke the similar feelings as British period dramas.

So the fact that I used BEHIND FIVE WILLOWS to bridge those two worlds makes our reconnection feel fitting.

Behind Five Willows takes place in 1792 under the strict Muchebanjeong literature censorship edict. In Austen's world, reading novels was often looked down upon as a frivolous distraction, but in your version of Korea, fiction is actively illegal. How did shifting the stakes from social disapproval to literal government rebellion change the dynamic between your Elizabeth and Darcy figures (Haewon and Seojun)?

I've always gravitated toward high-stakes stories, so raising the stakes felt like a natural fit. I love how danger shapes romantic relationships, as I find it heightens the emotions and intensifies the longing.

And, in 1792 Korea, because fiction was illegal and people held incredibly passionate opinions about it, I was also able to reimagine Austen's theme of first impressions. Instead of judging one another based on just manners or social status, Haewon and Seojun initially judge each other based on whether they believe the other supports or opposes book banning. That allowed me to explore Austen's central idea of misjudgment through a uniquely Korean historical lens.

You have mentioned that you purposefully researched Korean history in the 1790s to match the exact era when Jane Austen was alive and writing Pride and Prejudice. What were some of the most surprising structural parallels you found between Regency England's social restrictions and the Joseon Dynasty's strict rules regarding class and gender propriety?

While researching about Joseon Dynasty Korea, I've always been struck by the parallels, and it wasn't until I was working on BEHIND FIVE WILLOWS that I could more fully explore the similarities.

For example, the strict codes surrounding propriety, honor, and class in Regency England closely mirror those of 1790s Joseon Korea -- although late Joseon society was considerably more rigid and restrictive.

In both societies, reputation was everything. Marriage for love was uncommon and, in Joseon Korea, nearly unthinkable. A woman's future was largely determined by her family's status and her perceived virtue.

On your Instagram @junehwrites, you noted that your absolute favourite element of Pride and Prejudice is the intense, slow-burn yearning—especially the "Darcy falls first" trope. How did you translate that agonizing, delicious Austen-style tension into a historical Korean sageuk (period drama) setting?

That was actually one of the biggest challenges. BEHIND FIVE WILLOWS follows the plot structure of Pride and Prejudice, so readers will recognize nods to iconic scenes. But adapting something like the Meryton Assembly or the visit to Netherfield was rather tricky

In Joseon Korea, upper-class boys and girls were rigidly segregated from the age of seven under the Confucian principle of "namnyeo chilse budongseok" (남녀칠세부동석), meaning "men and women, after the age of seven, should not sit together." There were no public dances or drawing-room gatherings where young men and women could naturally meet. In fact, unmarried women were expected not to show their faces to unrelated men. Courtship as we think of it today simply didn't exist, and brides and grooms often didn't meet until their wedding day.

That meant I had to creatively imagine historically believable situations where Haewon and Seojun could cross paths without causing scandal.

Ironically, those restrictions ended up becoming one of the story's greatest strengths. Every conversation and glance, and every encounter and hand touch feels forbidden, because it wasn't supposed to happen. The yearning became even more delicious precisely because it was forbidden.

In Behind Five Willows, Haewon and Seojun are anonymous epistolary pen pals ("Magpie" and "Black Lotus") who can't stand each other when they meet face-to-face as chaperones. This gives the story a brilliant You've Got Mail twist. Why did you choose letters as the medium for them to look past their pride and prejudices?

When I wrote the first draft, I struggled to make Seojun's feelings for Haewon develop naturally without it feeling like instalove.

As I brainstormed, I thought about how Darcy first truly reveals himself through his letter. That led me to thinking about letters more generally, and then I remembered that You've Got Mail was itself inspired by Pride and Prejudice. Suddenly everything clicked.

Letters allowed Haewon and Seojun to fall in love with each other's minds before they ever truly saw one another. By the time chapter one begins, they already deeply care for each other without realizing they're the very people they clash with in real life. It gave their romance a much richer emotional foundation while also reinforcing Austen's theme of looking beyond first impressions.

For my readers at My Jane Austen Book Club who are eager to dive into Korean historical fiction and K-dramas for the first time, what elements of Behind Five Willows do you think will make them feel right at home?

I intentionally wrote BEHIND FIVE WILLOWS to feel like a Regency romance, even though it's set in Joseon Korea. I studied the structure by reading countless Regency novels, including Georgette Heyer, so I think readers will recognize the familiar pacing, wit, banter, and slow-burn romance.

At the same time, I hope they'll discover the joy of Korean historical fiction. Joseon Korea offers many of the same things that make Regency romances so beloved: strict social etiquette, family expectations, hidden longing, and sweeping romance. If you love Jane Austen and period dramas, I think you'll find that Korea's history feels surprisingly familiar while offering an entirely fresh world to fall in love with.

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Join the Conversation!

A huge thank you to June Hur for sharing her incredible journey and giving us a peek into Behind Five Willows. It is truly magical to see how a friendship born in the blogosphere sixteen years ago has come full circle through a shared love of Jane Austen and historical storytelling.

Now, we want to hear from you, dear Janeites!

Are you excited to read this Joseon-era Pride and Prejudice reimagining?
What is your favorite K-drama or Hallyu obsession lately?
Have you ever reconnected with an old online friend?

Drop your thoughts in the comments below! If you enjoyed this interview, please share it with your fellow book lovers. Until next time, happy reading!

Visit June's website

Check Behind Five Willows on Amazon

Watch our video review on YouTube

THE CHERRY TREES OF ROSINGS, A NEW PRIDE AND PREJUDICE VARIATION. INTERVIEW WITH AUTHOR MORGAN BLAKE.

2026-05-21T09:00:00.000+02:00

Hello Maria Grazia and readers of My Jane Austen Book Club! I am happy to be here with you all today to share a little more about my latest Pride and Prejudice variation novel—The Cherry Trees of Rosings.

As you must have seen from the blurb, this book is a mashup of supernatural elements and comedy (with generous heartstring pulls along the way) to give you a Mr. Darcy and Elizabeth love story that is both sweet and compelling. I hope the interview below will give you a deeper look at some of the inner workingsof the story (without any spoilers, of course). Please enjoy the read!

Morgan Blake

The story introduces us to a very unusual situation — Elizabeth quite literally walking through Mr. Darcy! What was your favourite aspect of exploring this “haunting” dynamic between them?

When I started writing The Cherry Trees of Rosings, I wanted the story to have at least one jumpscare early on. And I felt this—having Lizzy walk right through him!—would hit all the marks, while creating some drama for the next chapters. But I did not want the haunted aspect to be scary for my readers at all. So I had to find ways to make the scenes that follow this revelation more like a cat getting spooked for peak comedy! Of course, the nature of the plot also creates a natural sort of slow burn between Lizzy and Mr. Darcy.

I wanted them to experience growing feelings while being unable to find even the slightest of reprieve for it… not even through the brush of hands. And I wanted them to struggle with the mystery of whether Mr. Darcy was truly dead or simply out-of-body, while working around the problem of propriety that was bound to be an issue between them.

This variation blends humour with a slightly paranormal twist. How did you approach balancing the comedic tone with the more mysterious elements of the story?

I think this comes back to my original inspiration for this variation. I was actually spurred into writing it right after I finished reading Ashley Poston’s The Dead Romantics.

That book—while not in Austenverse at all—has the plot of a copywriter who is suddenly haunted by the spirit of her new editor who she met barely a week ago. And there was a ton of comedy in it because of this ghostly trope!

Of course, The Cherry Trees of Rosings has a completely different plot with Mr. Darcy and Elizabeth in Hunsford, going about their misunderstandings while dealing with the shenanigans of Lady Catherine and Mr. Collins. But this initial inspiration helped me keep the storyline more lighthearted and emotional.

I would also like to give a shoutout to my amazing team of alpha readers (from within our Austenesque community!) who went through the first draft and gave me some excellent feedback. That helped me make the plot more intricate without sacrificing the plotpoints.

Elizabeth and Darcy are both confronted with a version of each other that challenges their first impressions. How does this unique situation change the way they understand one another?

I wanted to retain Elizabeth’s natural aversion to Mr. Darcy at the start of my book. But I also wanted to show the discrepancy and incongruence between what she was experiencing with Mr. Darcy’s spectral form and what Mr. Wickham had told her about the gentleman.

I mean, can a person be any more beastly and bad than when no one is there to force them into good behaviour? Or when no damage will be sustained to one’s reputation while in spectral form because no one shall be any wiser to what is seen, felt, heard, or done? Exactly! I wanted this jarring reality to underline in bold the gentlemanliness of Mr. Darcy. And through it let Elizabeth slowly come to the conclusion that he may not be what she believed him to be at all, or what was being said about him.

Of course, this change of perception had to be made most obvious through an incident much later in the book. But I won’t spoil anything. In terms of Mr. Darcy’s perception of Elizabeth, I have not touched on it as much in The Cherry Trees of Rosings, since the book follows a close third-person POV of Elizabeth’s thoughts and actions. But I wanted my readers to nevertheless keenly feel Mr. Darcy’s growing regard and love for Elizabeth—beyond what he already felt in Meryton—from how the formality between them reduced as time went on, and how they each struggled with being in the other’s presence, knowing it was probably transient and might end abruptly, and that they would not even have the memory of having held hands because they just could not!

Rosings and Hunsford are already such vivid settings in Pride and Prejudice. What was it like reimagining them with this added supernatural element?

I absolutely adored writing about Hunsford and its various greens and trees and singing birds! I mean, Jane Austen gave us such beautiful fictional settings and named them so well, how could I not celebrate that? The only conscious choice I made with the setting of the story was the avenue of cherry trees I placed on the grounds of Rosings, which Elizabeth is extremely fond of in my book.

This avenue is not an exact central point of the story, but it features in many of the important scenes. I felt the need to do this lest I veer into the “rose” aspect of Rosings and the book begins to feel more like Sleeping Beauty or some other gothic fairytale. To be fair, though, cherry trees bloom for just a few days. So I wanted the avenue of pink and white falling petals to subtly nod to the transient nature of Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy’s interactions while he was in his ghostly state, and the not-knowing when it would be the last day… if it was even the last day…

Lady Catherine and Mr. Collins always bring a certain energy to any variation! How did you enjoy writing their roles in this particular story?

I had a right blast writing Lady CdB and Mr. Collins! Like, can there be anything more comical than these two going on and on about their various obsessions… whether it’s Mr. Collins’ extreme fixation on his esteemed patroness, or Lady Catherine’s fixation on having Mr. Darcy wed Miss Anne de Bourgh, alive or dead?

I wanted the ridiculousness of these characters to be so over the top that it was a counterfoil to the melancholic nature of Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy’s interactions.

I think I would have cried myself into a puddle if I did not have these two (Mr. Collins and Lady CdB) doing what they do best: wag their tongues most infuriatingly and bring all the eye rolls, while being royally condescending and just ridiculous!

The idea of “seeing beyond appearances” feels central here — especially in such an unusual circumstance. Was this a theme you consciously wanted to highlight?

To be honest, I did not set out with this intention. But when you try to adhere to the principle of show don’t tell in storytelling, readers will often see a lot that’s left unsaid between the lines. I feel that makes for a better reading experience. And I like my brain tickled in that manner too when I am reading.

If you were to place yourself in Elizabeth’s position, how do you think you would react to Darcy’s… rather ghostly predicament?

Well, I am a total scaredy cat when it comes to ghosts and spirit stuff—I don’t even watch horror movies anymore! So if anyone was wondering why The Cherry Trees of Rosings had to be more comical, this is why! Having said that, I feel I would have behaved more like that kid from the M. Night Shyamalan movie “The Sixth Sense”. I would have gotten totally freaked out and scared at first, and then did exactly what Elizabeth did—which is help Mr. Darcy in whatever capacity she could.

So folks! If you are kinda scaredy about supernatural stuff as well, have no fear! I wrote the book in such a manner that my readers do not feel scared when reading it and can, instead, enjoy the supernatural mystery/romance between Lizzy and Mr. Darcy. I wanted people to have an emotional experience and leave the last page feeling satisfied, if a little curious for what might have happened next.

There’s a strong sense of humour running through the story. Were there any scenes you especially enjoyed writing or found yourself laughing at?

Thank you so much for acknowledging that! One of my biggest worries while writing The Cherry Trees of Rosings was if the humour would be received well, since that’s such a subjective terrain. But I am happy that my readers so far have found the funny bits just as funny too.

My favourite, though, has to be the bit about Lady Catherine’s obsession with hiring employees who have names that fit their service station. I don’t want to spoil the joke for anyone who hasn’t read the book yet, but let’s just say that Mr. Collins goes on and on about it in one particular dinner scene!

What do you hope readers will take away from this variation — beyond the romance and the fun twist?

Honestly, I am a bit of a cry baby in real life. So I hope my readers can feel the emotions just as deeply as I felt them while I was writing the book. I mean, is it even a romance if it’s just an inclination for the flesh? I would hope that a romance would touch one’s heart and make them feel life in all its various colours and emotions. I wanted Mr. Darcy and Elizabeth’s story to be like that in my book. To be tinged with joy, and dread, and laughter, and jump spooks, and annoyance, and tears, and the sweetest kiss of all sweet kisses. (I am seriously biased, folks!)

Finally, if your version of Elizabeth and Darcy could give one piece of advice to their original counterparts, what do you think it would be?

Should I even attempt to answer this? I wouldn’t want to step on Miss Austen’s toes, in the least. She’s fabulous after all! But I do want to say that I am thankful to have come across Pride and Prejudice and connected so deeply with it. Enough to write my own stories in Austenverse! I feel that every variation author either builds upon the original classic or explores facets of human life and experience through these beloved characters. Mine have simply chosen to do it in a supernatural manner in this book.

So there is truly no piece of advice to offer, other than the hope that my fellow Austenesque enthusiasts and aficionados will give The Cherry Trees of Rosings a read and find it an enjoyable diversion! Enough to laugh, and cry, and cheer when Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy finally come together in their own slightly spooky happy ever after! The book is available in paperback and also for borrowing on Kindle Unlimited.

ABOUT THE BOOK

A Pride & Prejudice variation with a slightly paranormal, mainly comic twist!

When Elizabeth Bennet visits her newly-married friend, Charlotte Collins, at the Hunsford parsonage, she has no idea that Mr. Darcy (he of the arrogant demeanor and perpetual cause of annoyance!) shall turn up to ruin her blissful, idyllic days.

Only, Mr. Darcy is not himself. And then Elizabeth stumbles straight through him one day... like one would an apparition! Goodness gracious!

“Mr. Darcy, I do not know what you mean, but I would appreciate it if you would desist from haunting me!”

“I apologize, Miss Bennet, for scaring you,” Mr. Darcy said, almost regretfully.

To solve her haunting problem, Elizabeth must team up with Mr. Darcy to find out what happened to him, and along the way discover that maybe he is not all that he seemed at first. And that maybe... she doesn’t hate him after all.

“You wish to write the letter now?” he asked as she moved past him with the candle.

“Well, to be honest,” she glanced at him. “I would prefer to sleep. But since you are here, I do not see why not.”

From the antics of Lady Catherine de Bourgh to the hilarity of Mr. Collins’ advice on staying fit, The Cherry Trees of Rosings shall make you laugh and cry in equal measure. And wonder: Will our favourite couple find their happy ever after?

Spoiler: Yes, they will!

This Pride and Prejudice variation features our favourite Regency romance couple from Jane Austen's original classic in a somewhat spooky setup. But fear not, dear readers! This story is not scary in the least. Prepare for a chuckle fest and abundant cups of tea!

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AN EVER- FIXED MARK BY ANGELA DENISE, A FRESH TAKE ON LOVE AND DESTINY

2026-05-05T08:30:00.001+02:00

There is something endlessly fascinating about returning to the world of Pride and Prejudice through new and imaginative variations, and An Ever-Fixèd Mark by Angela Denise offers readers a particularly engaging journey.

My Thoughts

“You must allow me to tell you how ardently I admire and love you.”
— Pride and Prejudice

There is something deeply compelling about watching admiration grow into love—especially when it must first overcome misunderstanding and restraint. In An Ever-Fixèd Mark, Angela Denise revisits this emotional journey with a gentle and thoughtful touch, allowing Elizabeth and Darcy’s connection to unfold with sincerity and depth.

In this variation, we meet Elizabeth Bennet and Fitzwilliam Darcy under slightly altered circumstances, yet with all the familiar charm that makes their story so beloved. What stands out here is the emotional development between the characters: their connection unfolds with a sense of quiet intensity, shaped not only by attraction but by growing understanding.

Angela Denise creates a version of Darcy who is observant and deeply aware, while Elizabeth remains intelligent and perceptive, though perhaps a little more open to seeing beyond first impressions. Their evolving relationship feels natural and heartfelt, with a focus on communication and mutual respect.

The story leans toward a gentle, character-driven romance rather than high drama. Moments of tension arise, but they never overwhelm the central theme: the gradual building of trust and affection. The presence of family and familiar figures adds warmth, while also offering just enough conflict to keep the narrative engaging.

Overall, this is a comforting and satisfying read—perfect for those who enjoy a softer, more introspective take on Austen-inspired romance, where love grows steadily and sincerely.

About the Book

Why did such a handsome and presumably intelligent man have to be so… difficult?

When Elizabeth Bennet meets Mr. Fitzwilliam Darcy, she is immediately struck by his looks and intrigued by their shared love of books. Yet his proud and distant behavior soon convinces her to keep her distance.

Darcy, for his part, finds himself increasingly drawn to Elizabeth, though he tries to conceal it. As circumstances bring them together more often—especially after a violent storm disrupts their world—unexpected feelings begin to take root.

But will what grows between them be strong enough to endure the trials still ahead?

READ AN EXCERPT

About the Author

Angela Denise has been a devoted admirer of Jane Austen’s works for many years. What began with collecting adaptations soon turned into a deep appreciation for Pride and Prejudice variations, which she eagerly explored before eventually writing her own.

She believes there can never be too many stories about Darcy and Elizabeth—and her work reflects that passion. Angela lives in Arkansas with her husband and two children, surrounded by the natural beauty of mountains and lakes.

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AUTHOR GUEST POST: JAYNE BAMBER, THE GUARDIAN GAMBIT

2026-05-02T09:00:00.001+02:00

Hello, Readers! I am delighted to share my new release, The Guardian Gambit, a mash-up of Pride & Prejudice + Emma that is inspired by The Parent Trap – it’s a wild ride!

The story begins with Elizabeth Bennet and Jane Fairfax discovering they are identical twins when they meet for the first time just before their 21^st birthday. With the encouragement of their intrigue-loving aunt – Mr. Gardiner’s widow, now known as Lady Gresham – the twins exchange places and scheme to reunite their parents, Elizabeth’s “guardian” Mr. Bennet and Jane’s “aunt” Miss Bates.

Jane travels to Netherfield, home of the much wealthier Mr. Bennet, and is ready to bond with her father while pretending to be Elizabeth – only to face a terrible shock when she finds him engaged to a fortune hunter!

Meanwhile, Elizabeth masquerades as Jane when she goes to stay with her mother and Grandmother at the Bates cottage. She also faces an unpleasant surprise – Highbury’s newest neighbor has brought a very rude and brooding friend with him, and he instantly suspects that Elizabeth is up to no good!

The excerpt I’m sharing today is Mr. Darcy’s first impression of Elizabeth – when he believes her to be Jane Fairfax….

Fitzwilliam Darcy had never been so uncomfortable in all his life. The presence of so many squawking, frolicking children was not something he had ever been accustomed to, and at present they were as much a reminder of his sister’s recent ordeal as all this talk of seaside holidays. Sending his sister to Ramsgate the previous summer had been the greatest mistake of his life, and nearly a year later Georgiana still felt the consequences of her time in Ramsgate, and her tryst with their erstwhile friend Mr. Wickham.

Amidst the noise of the Knightley children and the chatter of so many people all clustered together taking tea, Darcy felt himself utterly adrift. He had come to Surrey to clear his head after failing to reconcile with his sister, but he could hardly keep a clear head with so many new acquaintance thrust on him at once.

At present, Bingley was little help. The man had been in a panic when Knightley suggested they accompany him on a visit to Hartfield, for Miss Woodhouse had just the day before declined an invitation from him. Of course, this was the price to be paid for their reprieve from Caroline Bingley – there was no hostess in residence to make an afternoon tea respectable. Bingley had forfeited that convenience for Darcy’s sake, though her presence would not have been comfortable for anybody, not after Darcy had recently reached the end of his patience with Caroline Bingley and informed her that he had no intention of ever making her an offer.

Though Knightley had assured them of the Woodhouses being excellent people, Miss Woodhouse did not receive Mr. Bingley with any particular interest. As usual, she took a good look at each of them before selecting Darcy as her object, and far from being daunted by his lack of encouragement, she was spurred on by Bingley’s easy enthusiasm for Miss Fairfax.

Her circumstances were not as suitable as Miss Woodhouse’s, and the though two were both fair and pretty, Miss Fairfax possessed a glint of intelligence in her eye, and something thrilling in her air, as if she had just lately blossomed. Even Knightley, who had known the young lady all her life, seemed to be regarding her as if seeing her for the first time.

Darcy was fascinated as he watched Miss Fairfax speak with his friend. She was holding her own with Bingley, who could often render it impossible to get a word in when he grew excited about a subject. Miss Fairfax had a great deal to say, but she seemed inexplicably prone to abruptly falling silent, as if wishing to give an impression of diffidence she did not possess.

Knightley was obliged to bear a great deal of conversation from Miss Fairfax’s aunt, who supplied such a steady stream of unrelated observations that Knightley could scarcely reply to one before being assaulted with three more. Miss Bates did have a sincere and pleasing affection for her niece and her mother, and while the latter remained silent, she often called upon the former to agree with her. Miss Fairfax merely ignored her aunt at every turn.

To Darcy’s dismay, Miss Woodhouse only ceased her attempts to fascinate him in order to have her share of the conversation about Weymouth, and even Miss Bates had a great deal to say on the subject. Darcy would rather have heard more about dancing at Mr. Weston’s party than the seaside, so dismal was the subject to him, but he was granted no reprieve.

Once again, Miss Bates was obliged to repeat Miss Fairfax’s name several times before gaining the young lady’s attention. “Jane. Jane! JANE, DEAREST!”

Miss Fairfax seemed to rouse herself from her enigmatic private reverie, and she turned to lay a hand on her aunt’s arm. “Yes, m-ma’am?”

“I was telling Miss Woodhouse how strange it is that you should encounter Mr. Frank Churchill in Weymouth.”

“I travel often enough with the Campbells that I am sure to have one or two coincidental encounters some place or other,” Miss Fairfax replied. She smiled brightly, but in her eyes there was a glimpse of discomfiture.

“Very true, my dear, very true, though it ought to have been far likelier you would encounter him here in Highbury, since you both have some connection to the place. But I suppose it is hardly the most shocking thing you told me of your time in Weymouth.”

Miss Woodhouse looked at Miss Fairfax with interest. “Miss Fairfax, how obliging of you to have so many shocking things to regale us with, when generally the details of your travels are all so very regular. But I should like to hear anything you might tell me of Mr. Frank Churchill, especially if it is shocking!”

Miss Fairfax scowled, but had not the chance to reply before her aunt was talking again. “Oh, but I refer to the incident with Mr. Dixon.”

Miss Woodhouse grinned wolfishly. “An incident, you say? Better and better!”

“Not quite,” Miss Fairfax drawled.

“Oh! I am sure I cried out and frightened the wits out of poor Mother when I read of it,” Miss Bates wailed. “I shall never go near the sea without horror – not that I ever had any intention of going to the seaside – but certainly I should never wish to be on a boat!”

Miss Fairfax gave a tight smile before putting Darcy out of his misery by interrupting her aunt. “As pleasant as it is to entertain you, Miss Woodhouse, I should rather achieve that distinction without such great peril. But as the peril is quite in the past, I may as well inform you of my tremendous dismay at being swept overboard during a boating excursion. Mr. Dixon acted with alacrity….”

Darcy sat up straighter, leaning his head toward the comely young lady as he found his interest piqued at last. Miss Fairfax looked as if she had quite a tale to tell, but her aunt cut her off. “But was it not your friend that was swept overboard? I have not the letter with me, but I am sure you wrote that it was some friend of yours – I cannot recall her name, or perhaps you did not say – no indeed – pray, do not say it was yourself nearly lost to sea, else I am sure I shall never recover!”

Miss Fairfax furrowed her brow for a moment, her mouth hanging agape and forming a rather charming O, and then she again rested a hand on her aunt’s arm to silence the babbling spinster. “Yes, that is what I meant – my dismay at my friend being swept overboard.”

Darcy might have doubted that sense of panic he perceived in Miss Fairfax’s demeanor, but Miss Woodhouse must have noticed it, as well. She leaned forward with interest. “What friend?”

Miss Fairfax looked over at her aunt with wide eyes. “Oh, ah… Fanny….”

Miss Bates fairly squawked in astonishment. “Have you a friend with my name? How very odd!”

“No – ah – Fran – Franny. Yes, Franny – yes, I am sure I have mentioned her,” Miss Fairfax said with a nervous laugh before silently muttering what appeared to Darcy to be a few very vulgar words under her breath as she attempted to regain her equanimity. She stared, red-faced, down at the carpet, her hands disappearing into the folds of her gown. “Franny was swept overboard, but Mr. Dixon very bravely rescued her. That is all, really, but I had quite a fright.”

Darcy had always prided himself on his superior discernment, and presently he discerned two things with absolute certainty. The first was that Miss Fairfax was telling only a half-truth, and the second was that she was not at all a well-practiced liar.

Darcy resolved to be on his guard, and certainly he ought to advise his friend against favoring Miss Fairfax over Miss Woodhouse. The latter may prove a snob toward Bingley’s origins, but she may yet be won over by his manners. Miss Fairfax, on the other hand, would not have been a good connection even if she had not a strange air of deceit about her. She did not fawn over Bingley as other fortune hunters were wont to do, but perhaps it was some manner of art and allurement designed to engage him in chasing her. Bingley was a good man, but just fool enough for such mercenary practices.

It was for this reason alone, Darcy told himself, that he watched Miss Fairfax closely for the duration of the visit. He could not deny that it was far from a punishment to look at her, but her beauty only presented a greater danger.

Darcy decided it best to warn his friend at once, as they walked back to Bingley’s nameless manor. They had stayed far longer than intended, certainly longer than was polite, and Darcy suspected they had rather strained the patience of their hostess.

Bingley’s praise of everyone they had met soon focused on Miss Fairfax in particular, and he listed her manifold attractions, betraying his own superficial whimsy, just as he had half a dozen times before. His newest angel had even put forth a suggestion that Bingley draw a name for his manor from poetry, and now the besotted fool was determined to call on Knightley on the morrow and scour the man’s superior library for inspiration.

“What do you know of Miss Fairfax’s circumstances, Bingley? Knightley gave me the distinct impression that Miss Woodhouse is the superior creature between the two young ladies.”

“That is only because he has seen more of Miss Woodhouse, I should imagine. Miss Fairfax travels a great deal, which I think is very intrepid of her. I ought to travel more, you know; I have heaps of money.”

Darcy raised his brow at the notion of Bingley traipsing about the continent, leaving a trail of brokenhearted blonde angels in his wake. “Miss Woodhouse is the sort of young lady your sisters may approve of,” Darcy said, and then immediately winced. This was hardly a sterling recommendation.

Bingley laughed. “She is richer than Miss Fairfax, if that is what you mean. Oh, she is not unpleasant, by any means. I have forgiven her for refusing to come to tea, since Knightley thinks I ought to have a chaperone. Perhaps he is right – I could ask Louisa, and surely with Caroline now engaged, you would be perfectly safe from… any awkwardness.”

Awkwardness followed Darcy more faithfully than his own shadow. He shook his head and let out a heavy sigh. “I cannot deny there would be some expedience in having one of your sisters to keep house for you, if you wish to throw parties and dinners and the like. I only wish to advise you not to immediately single one young lady out above the others. We know very little of Miss Fairfax and her family.”

“I know that she is an orphan – not like you and I, for her parents died when she was a baby, how utterly tragic! But she travels a great deal with a family called the Campbells, who sounds perfectly respectable. And she is incomparably dutiful to her relations, for Miss Woodhouse was astonished that Miss Fairfax had come to visit Highbury when she might have gone to Ireland with her friends. That must signify an excellent character and fine morals, for I know I should choose Ireland over my relations! Ha! A hundred times over, I swear it!”

Darcy considered this, but it only heightened the strange surety he felt that the young lady had something to hide.

“Besides,” Bingley cajoled him, “I am sure Knightley’s praise of Miss Woodhouse was so generous that he must be in love with her himself, and I could hardly compete with a man who possesses such a superior library.”

Darcy only shook his head as Bingley gave in to wild hilarity. When Bingley finished laughing, he said, “Darcy, I shall be serious soon, I promise, but I wish you would not always be so. Someday, my friend, a pretty girl will catch your eye, and then I imagine all hell shall break loose.”

“Certainly not,” Darcy said at once. He had never given much thought to marriage, but he supposed that he would eventually select a suitable young lady of good breeding, tolerable appearance, and considerable accomplishment, who would give him an heir and a spare and, hopefully, a peaceful home life. But happiness in marriage, he knew all too well, was entirely a matter of chance. He would no more rush into such a risky endeavor than he would allow his friend to do so. Hell, he hoped, would not factor into their futures, as it had for his parents.

“Well, if you have no further objections to Miss Fairfax than the newness of our acquaintance, and I have not completely decided against Miss Woodhouse, then I suppose I shall have to write to my sisters,” Bingley said. “Caroline has not yet set a date for her wedding, so perhaps she can spare Louisa for a few weeks.”

Darcy was uneasy, but he acknowledged that it was a necessary evil. He might yet hope that only the Hursts would be summoned, and not Miss Bingley. He would not be easy around the harpy until she was actually another man's wife, and even then he might remain wary. It was fortunate, at least, that her betrothed was reputed to despise London; she would be kept in the country, unable to pester Darcy with her desperation.

“I suppose it is the only option,” Darcy said. But he certainly had no wish for his friend to be filling the manor with guests, especially not a particular guest with a beguiling smile and a musical laugh, whose blue eyes were full of secrets.

JAYNE BAMBER

check The Guardian Gambit on Amazon.com

NEW RELEASE! THE SISTERS HOLIDAY BY JAYNE BAMBER

2026-01-06T09:00:00.001+01:00

Hello, readers! It’s such a treat to be back at My Jane Austen Book Club to share my upcoming release, The Sisters’ Holiday, which is coming to Kindle next month!

Inspired by the film “The Holiday” this Jane Austen retelling sees the two eldest Bennet Sisters switch places with their cousins, Elinor and Marianne Dashwood after Christmas together at Longbourn.

But before Mrs. Jennings whisks Jane and Lizzy off to London while Elinor and Marianne stay in Meryton, the whole Bennet family gets some shocking news: Mr. Collins is dead! Just days before her wedding, Charlotte Lucas is devasted, and quickly embittered by the lost opportunity, while the news leads to a sensational revelation for Jane and Elizabeth at Longbourn….

Excerpt from The Sisters’ Holiday…

Elizabeth passed an agonizing night at Lucas Lodge. She sat with Charlotte, occasionally joined by Lady Lucas and Maria, all afternoon and all evening. Sir William did his part to ease Charlotte’s dismay by removing the younger children from the house, taking them into the village to purchase a few extra Christmas gifts for his bereaved daughter.

Charlotte took a tray in her room, and Elizabeth dined with her. Darkness had encroached at an early hour, and Charlotte stared out into it as she sat by the window, the untouched tray of food in her lap. “You must marry rich, Lizzy, and take me as your paid companion before I become a burden to my family.”

Elizabeth gave a snort of bitter laughter as she looked at her friend. “Oh. You are serious.”

“I am doomed to always be serious, Lizzy. I fear this was my one and only chance to marry and have a home of my own, and it has been snatched away at the very last moment.”

“I cannot believe that,” Elizabeth assured her. “You have not moved enough in the world; anyone who is fortunate enough to meet you can see your worth. Alas, not enough eligible young men have had that pleasure.”

Charlotte shook her head. “My father has taken me to London every spring….”

“If you would only learn to get on with your brother’s wife, she might be of more assistance. She is wealthy and well connected - and I shall tell you candidly that if your ill-featured brother can land such a catch, there is hope for all of us who have only our charms to recommend us.”

Charlotte shook her head, determined to be dejected. “Some of us have little in the way of charms. Where Mr. Collins was concerned, my greatest allure was desperation.”

There was little Elizabeth could do to dissuade her friend from the cynical turn of her grief. Though Charlotte wept for the rest of the night, she said little else, and Elizabeth could only hope that her silent companionship gave her friend some succor.

Elizabeth stayed the night, and the two friends shared a bed; they snuggled together, murmuring their affection for one another and assurances of friendship and fortitude. But the next morning, Charlotte was cold to Elizabeth.

She was already dressed when Elizabeth awoke, and she sat on a chair by the window, staring numbly at a breakfast tray. She wore a drab grey gown ten years out of fashion, and her hair was pulled back in a severe knot. Her cheeks were sallow and her eyes puffy, and her gaze was unfocused as she tipped her face up toward Elizabeth. “Jane will get Longbourn, I suppose.”

Elizabeth sank down onto the arm of Charlotte’s chair, drawing her shawl tight around the night rail her friend had lent her. “What?”

“I heard my parents speaking about it this morning. When Papa was in the village yesterday, he saw Mr. Phillips, heard him gossiping about it with Mr. Goulding - he had been summoned to Longbourn to discuss the entail. Mr. Bennet certainly did not tarry.”

Elizabeth drew in a sharp breath. “Perhaps there is some other distant cousin - of course my father would wish to know.”

Charlotte’s expression and her voice were utterly devoid of feeling. “Of course it will be Jane, beautiful Jane. She will get Longbourn, and be paraded around London.”

“Charlotte,” Elizabeth gasped. She had never known Charlotte to be mean spirited, and even now she could not excuse it. “I am sorry we shall keep our home, when you wished to be mistress of it someday.”

Elizabeth moved away to retrieve her gown, and changed into it behind a screen. When she had dressed herself, she folded the night rail and laid in on Charlotte’s bed. “Generally when one condoles with somebody bereaved, they speak of the merits of the deceased. You may not expect me to have much to say in praise of Mr. Collins, but I had expected it of you.”

Charlotte stared at her blankly. “Perhaps you are right, but I can find only rage. Go home, Elizabeth. I will not disappoint you with my ill humor.”

Elizabeth went home with a twisting in her gut over how she had left things with her grieving, angry friend. To her chagrin, there was a celebratory air at Longbourn. Mrs. Bennet’s voice could be heard as soon as Elizabeth entered the house, crowing over Jane’s presumed good fortune.

At the end of the corridor, the door to her father’s study opened; Mr. Bennet and Mr. Phillips stepped out of the room, and Mrs. Bennet came running. “Well, dear Brother! Do tell us there is good news!”

Mr. Bennet glanced over at Elizabeth, and beckoned her to join them. “Come, ladies, let us all go and sit in the parlor.”

Elizabeth did as she was bid. Jane was sitting with their aunt and cousin Julia, while Lydia and Kitty worked on some very ugly bonnets at a table in the corner, and Mary attacked her instrument.

“Girls, go into the village for a little while,” Mr. Bennet said, offering them each a sixpence.

Mrs. Gardiner went into the music room and laid a hand on Mary’s shoulder. “Could you work with Julia for a little while?” Mary agreed, making room for her cousin to sit beside her on the piano stool. Mrs. Gardiner shut the door behind them, and resumed her seat between Jane and Elizabeth. She took them each by the hand as she waited for Lydia and Kitty to clear out.

When the two younger girls were giggling their way out of the house, Mr. Bennet surveyed his wife and more sensible relations. They all waited for him to speak. “Mr. Phillips has brought over some documents regarding the entail.”

Despite Charlotte’s vitriolic misery, Elizabeth felt a pang of pity for her friend. “So soon?”

“Had we discovered there was some further distant relation set to inherit, it would have been best to know at once,” Mr. Bennet said evenly.

“But you did not uncover any male heirs,” Mrs. Gardiner prompted him.

“No, we did not,” Mr. Phillips said.

At the same moment, Mr. Bennet held up a hand. “This is not to leave this room.” He looked at his wife, who had already begun to sputter with avaricious glee. “I will not have every soldier in the regiment knocking down our door to woo Jane.”

“Oh, Jane!” Mrs. Bennet sprang from her chair and squared her favorite daughter’s face in her hands. “Oh, my dear girl! I knew how it would be! You shall have this house! Thank the Lord, we are saved!”

When her mother released her, Jane turned toward Elizabeth with a look of astonishment. “Can it really be possible?”

“Most certainly,” Mr. Phillips said with a proud smile. “If there are no other heirs male, and there are not, the eldest daughter may inherit.”

“Well, Jane, what do you say to that?” Mr. Bennet grinned at his daughter.

“I am so sorry for Charlotte - and poor Mr. Collins!” Jane wrung her hands. “I suppose I must learn to manage the estate.”

“No, my dear, you must find a suitable husband! I daresay that Mr. Bingley must feel terribly foolish for giving you up, when he learns of this,” Mrs. Bennet said smugly.

“Surely you would not wish him, or any man, to woo Jane because of this,” Mrs. Gardiner said. “Not any more than you would wish….” She broke off.

Jane looked nervously at their aunt. “What is it?”

Mrs. Gardiner looked at Mr. Bennet. “They do not know, do they? Tom, you ought to have told them.”

“I knew that Bingley fellow was a coxcomb,” Mr. Bennet said with a dismissive wave of his hand. He fixed a stern look on his wife. “Madam, if I hear anything we discuss repeated by somebody outside of this room, I will cut off your allowance until Easter, is that understood?”

Mrs. Bennet was on the edge of her seat, already on the scent of some great secret. She hurriedly nodded her agreement and waved her handkerchief as she urged him to go on.

Elizabeth latched onto her aunt’s hand, bracing herself for what was to follow. She tore her eyes from Jane, sharing her sister’s overwhelmed trepidation, and she stared expectantly at her father.

But it was Mrs. Gardiner who spoke. “The scarlet fever claimed James and Joan first, and then my poor little Jasper. Edward was so ill for so long before he succumbed. He changed his will, leaving the bulk of his fortune to Julia and I, and the business to my nephew, Mr. Franklin. He also set aside a small sum to be added to the money that was put aside for you girls by your grandfather.”

Mrs. Bennet sat up straighter. “What money? Mr. Bennet, you never told me there was any money from my father, besides my five thousand pounds. What is this about?”

Mr. Bennet rubbed at his temples and sighed. “I never much cared for your father, Fanny, though he has done more for our girls than I was ever able to. When Mary was born, you had already lost two boys, and we had only the three girls. He attempted to advise me against trying for any further children, though we… love one another too much.”

Elizabeth and Jane exchanged a look of mortification before turning their attention back to their father, who gave them a guilty smile.

“Your grandfather set aside funds for each of you, and for Mary - five thousand apiece. There was a fourth account established with five thousand pounds for you, my dear wife, and any additional children. He also funded the purchase of a parcel of land that added eight hundred pounds of revenue to Longbourn every year, with the stipulation that from my profits, fifty pounds be added to each of my three daughters’ portions each year, and the other six hundred and fifty to the funds set aside for my wife and other children. After twenty years of interest….”

Mrs. Bennet clapped her hands. “It must be a mighty fortune!”

Elizabeth attempted the math in her head, but she could hardly guess what this meant. Mrs. Gardiner cleared her throat. “With only one surviving child and a well-connected wife, my late husband generously added to those funds. Jane, Elizabeth, and Mary each have twenty thousand in the four percents, and the sum to be shared by Fanny and the younger girls is the same. There are stipulations, of course….”

“My girls have proper dowries!” Mrs. Bennet squealed and flapped her hands about. “But what about Kitty and Lydia - are they to share? Why do they not have twenty thousand apiece?”

“The idea was that that funds would remain in the four percents for several more years, until they are wed,” Mr. Phillips said. “Then, the sum shall be greater.”

Mrs. Bennet ignored him and continued to accost her husband. “And why did you never tell Jane? Mr. Bingley would not have gone away! And perhaps even that pompous Mr. Darcy might have fancied one of the girls! And Lizzy, your Mr. Wickham would not have chased after that insipid little Miss King - but he is to return, I hear! It is a fine thing you did not accept Mr. Collins, I daresay, for then you must go into mourning!”

Jane stood up and rested a hand on her mother’s arm. “Mamma, think of what you are saying. You would not wish Mr. Bingley or any other man to want me only for my fortune, surely. Nor for Lizzy to be pursued for anything other than true love.”

“And why should I not? You might have been married already, Jane! But your wicked father wished to keep it all a secret, some horrid lark of his, and now you are practically a spinster with your fortune and inheritance! Oh, but you must go to London! That is how we will find you a grand match. Madeline, can you not take the girls back to London with you? We will find matches for all of them!”

“You will do no such thing,” Mr. Bennet groaned. “Fanny, is it not enough that you and our girls will not be in the hedgerows?”

Mrs. Bennet looked at them all as if everybody but herself had run mad. “They might have had husbands!”

Elizabeth shared a look of mortification with Jane. She hardly knew what to think of the news of their fortune, but she certainly had very decided opinions about using her new wealth to catch a man. “Mamma, I have no wish to make myself bait for a fortune hunter.”

“Nor I,” Jane shyly agreed.

“And I am afraid a visit to London is quite impossible at present,” Mrs. Gardiner said apologetically. “I am hoping to sell the house on Gracechurch Street in the new year. There are too many painful memories, and Julia’s health is not what it once was. We wish for country air, or perhaps a cottage by the seaside.”

Mrs. Bennet hurled herself backward in her chair and cried out for her smelling salts. “You are all most perversely determined to deny me any satisfaction in this happy news! Well, if you will not hear me out, I shall go and share the good news at Purvis Lodge.”

Despite his threats, Mr. Bennet could not deter his wife from her mission, and perhaps he took pity on his daughters, who wished their mother anywhere else as they pondered his revelation.

When Mrs. Bennet had gone, Mr. Bennet and Mr. Phillips retreated to the study for more brandy. Left with their aunt, Jane and Elizabeth stared at one another in amazement.

“I wonder if it would have made a difference with Mr. Bingley,” Jane said in a choked voice. She gave a little sob, and then fled the room.

***

Stay tuned, dear readers – I will be sharing more excerpts, and each stop on my blog tours brings a chance to win a free copy of this Austen mash-up!

JAYNE BAMBER

WHAT JANEITES WILL BE WATCHING IN 2026: UPCOMING AUSTEN ADAPTATIONS

2025-12-30T17:51:00.003+01:00

Promotional picture for The Other Bennet Sister (2026)

As the final pages of 2025 turn, it feels only fitting to look ahead. After a year filled with Jane Austen’s 250th birthday celebrations — from exhibitions and new scholarship to reprints and rereads — one might assume the Austen moment would gently fade. Happily, the opposite is true. The coming year promises not a quiet coda, but a full Regency encore.

2026 is shaping up to be an extraordinary year for Austen lovers, with a wave of ambitious screen adaptations that span faithful retellings, bold reimaginings, and thoughtful expansions of her world. Whether your heart belongs to Hertfordshire, Devonshire, or Bath, there is much to anticipate.

Here is your definitive guide to the Jane Austen–inspired adaptations we’ll be watching (and debating!) in 2026.

1. Sense and Sensibility — A Return to the Big Screen

Release Dates: September 11, 2026 (US) / September 25, 2026 (UK)

More than thirty years after Ang Lee and Emma Thompson’s beloved adaptation, the Dashwood sisters are returning to cinemas courtesy of Focus Features.

The Cast: Daisy Edgar-Jones (Normal People) steps into the role of the composed and principled Elinor, opposite Esmé Creed-Miles as the passionately romantic Marianne. George MacKay will portray Edward Ferrars, while Frank Dillane takes on the dangerously charming John Willoughby. Adding to the appeal, Caitríona Balfe is set to play Mrs. Dashwood.

Why We’re Excited

Directed by Georgia Oakley (Blue Jean), this adaptation promises a sensitive yet contemporary lens on Austen’s exploration of emotional restraint, social expectation, and female resilience. With this cast and creative team, expectations are understandably high.

2. Pride and Prejudice — The Netflix Limited Series

Expected: Mid-to-late 2026

Netflix enters Austen territory with a multi-part Pride and Prejudice series written by Dolly Alderton (Everything I Know About Love). Any new adaptation must contend with two near-canonical screen versions, but this one is clearly aiming for depth rather than novelty alone.

The Cast:

Emma Corrin (The Crown) will lead as Elizabeth Bennet, with Jack Lowden (Slow Horses) as Mr. Darcy. The Bennet parents are played by Olivia Colman and Rufus Sewell — a pairing that alone has fans buzzing. Daryl McCormack is confirmed as a charming Mr. Bingley.

The Vibe:

Alderton has spoken about leaning into Austen’s observational wit and moral intelligence, with particular attention to the Bennet sisters’ inner lives. Expect rich character work, social nuance, and plenty for book clubs to unpack.

3. The Other Bennet Sister — BBC Series

Expected: Early 2026

Based on Janice Hadlow’s acclaimed 2020 novel, this ten-part BBC adaptation shifts the spotlight to Mary Bennet — long dismissed as the dullest sister, yet perhaps the most overlooked.

The Story:

This series traces Mary’s journey from the margins of Longbourn to a life shaped by self-knowledge, intellectual curiosity, and unexpected romance. It’s a thoughtful expansion of Austen’s world rather than a retelling.

The Cast:

Ella Bruccoleri (Bridgerton) stars as Mary, joined by Richard E. Grant and Ruth Jones as Mr. and Mrs. Bennet.

My Jane Austen Book Club Take

With the momentum of the 250th anniversary still carrying us forward, it’s clear that Austen’s work continues to invite reinterpretation. While some may question whether we need yet another Pride and Prejudice, I firmly believe that each generation deserves its own Elizabeth and Darcy — provided the adaptation approaches the material with intelligence, care, and respect.

Here’s hoping 2026 gives us not just more Austen, but good Austen.

Which adaptation are you most excited — or most nervous — about? Let’s talk in the comments.

OUT TODAY! TO MARK THE OCCASION: BIRTHDAY TALES FOR JANE AUSTEN'S 250TH

2025-12-15T09:00:00.001+01:00

Celebrate Jane Austen’s 250th with “To Mark the Occasion: Birthday Tales for Jane Austen’s 250th”

This December, literature lovers and Jane Austen fans have a very special reason to celebrate. In honor of Jane Austen’s 250th birthday, a new anthology, To Mark the Occasion: Birthday Tales for Jane Austen’s 250th, brings together ten talented Austenesque authors who reimagine the lives, loves, and festivities of some of Austen’s most beloved characters.

Each story sparkles with wit, warmth, and a touch of surprise, capturing the essence of Austen’s enduring genius. From Mr. Darcy to Elizabeth Bennet, from Mary Crawford to Kitty Bennet, readers will step back into the Regency world with fresh perspectives and delightful twists.

Among the anthology’s highlights:

“Seven and Twenty” by P.O. Dixon: Charlotte Lucas reflects on her life and discovers that even the most ordinary existence can hold extraordinary moments.
“A Momentous Birthday” by Cathleen Earle: Fitzwilliam Darcy faces a life-or-death situation on his birthday, forcing him to confront his deepest feelings.
“Mary Crawford’s Debut” by Christina Boyd: Experience Mary Crawford’s first London season, where hope, vulnerability, and charisma collide in her journey toward the woman we know from Mansfield Park.
“Dancing and Devotion” by Bethany R. Tolson: Georgiana Darcy’s court presentation reveals joy, family love, and the surprises of a birthday forgotten—until it isn’t.
“Return to Northanger Abbey” by Denise Stout: Eleanor Tilney’s birthday and Christmas pass without her late mother’s treasured parure—until hope and miracles intervene.

The anthology also features heartfelt stories about Captain Wentworth, Elizabeth Bennet, young Georgiana Darcy, Jane and Charles Bingley, and Kitty Bennet, each exploring love, growth, and the joys and trials of birthday celebrations in Regency England.

What makes this collection even more meaningful is its cause. All proceeds from To Mark the Occasion go to the Jane Austen Literacy Foundation, supporting literacy and education programs worldwide. And with a foreword by Caroline Jane Knight, the anthology is a true tribute to Austen’s legacy.

Whether you’re revisiting favorite characters or discovering them anew, this anthology offers the perfect combination of humor, romance, and timeless insight into the human heart. As Jane Austen herself might say, “Every year—and every story—is worth celebrating.”

Preorder your copy today and join the festivities on the eve of Austen’s 250th birthday: Amazon link.

COURTING DISASTER BY DR ZOE MCGEE — WHEN COURTSHIP MEETS CONSENT

2025-11-02T14:49:00.000+01:00

Every once in a while, a book comes along that makes you look at familiar novels with completely new eyes. Courting Disaster by Dr. Zoë McGee is one of those rare reads.

At first glance, it’s easy to think that conversations about consent and gender power dynamics belong to our modern world—but as McGee reveals, women writers have been exploring these issues for centuries. From Jane Austen and Frances Burney to their now-forgotten contemporaries, McGee traces how the early novel became a space where women could question, resist, and reimagine the rules of society.

Blending literary analysis with a storyteller’s charm, Courting Disaster uncovers how these authors used their fiction to challenge ideas about marriage, desire, and female agency—long before hashtags or social movements existed. The result is part history, part feminist manifesto, and entirely engaging.

What I loved most is how McGee manages to connect Austen’s delicate irony with the urgent issues we’re still discussing today. She reminds us that beneath the polite dances and witty dialogue, there was always a deeper conversation happening about autonomy and consent. And she does so with warmth, humor, and an infectious passion for her subject.

Courting Disaster invites us to see Austen and her peers not just as chroniclers of romance, but as quiet revolutionaries—women who understood that every novel about marriage is also, in its own way, a novel about power.

Publishing 4 November 2025 with Manchester University Press, this book is a must-read for anyone who loves Austen, feminist history or simply wants to understand how much the past still shapes our present.

Have you ever noticed how Austen’s stories hint at the boundaries of consent and social expectation? I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments below!

check the book on Amazon

GUEST AUTHOR JULIA WINTER – A DELETED SCENE FROM A VERY FINE PLACE, A NEW PRIDE AND PREJUDICE VARIATION

2025-10-23T09:00:00.001+02:00

Today I’m delighted to welcome back Julia Winter to My Jane Austen Book Club! Julia’s new Pride and Prejudice variation, A Very Fine Place, was published on 17 October 2025 by Glass Hat Press. It’s her third variation, rich with atmosphere, family intrigue, and—of course—the promise of love.

Set partly in 1811 Calcutta and later at Pemberley, Julia’s story brings us a Darcy who must navigate inheritance, resentment, and danger in his own home—while finding unexpected understanding with Elizabeth Bennet.

ABOUT THE BOOK

“Once may be chance. Twice may be ill luck. But thrice? Thrice, lad, is malice.”
1811. Calcutta. Fitzwilliam Darcy of His Majesty’s War and Colonial Office is stewing in the humid heat, when word comes that his father is dead. He must return to England immediately to take up his inheritance.
Pemberley.
The great house in Derbyshire that has never been his home. Instead, it’s home to the stepmother and half-siblings, Hugh and Georgiana, whom he barely knows.
Pemberley is his now, but an atmosphere of resentment and anger threads through every room. He isn’t welcome. His stepmother is cool towards him, Hugh hates ‘the usurper’… and when a series of incidents threaten Darcy’s life, the only people he can trust are John Reid, his right-hand man throughout his career; Charles Bingley, his aide in India; George Wickham, his cousin and Pemberley’s steward; and Elizabeth Bennet, his stepmother’s penniless niece.

Who is trying to kill him? Will the visit of the Bingley family frighten off the enemy, or just provide more opportunities to get rid of the new master of Pemberley? Most of all, can Darcy and Elizabeth come to an understanding that will, finally, make Pemberley feel like home?

You can find A Very Fine Place on

📖 Goodreads

🛒 Books2Read | Amazon.co.uk

Amazon.com

DELETED SCENE

It’s a sad truth that not everything makes it into the final version. Sometimes a poor author has to be ruthless in cutting out scenes that, while they were fun to write, don’t advance the plot or show the characters’ development. That is the case with almost three chapters’ worth of a fleeting visit to Pemberley from Lady Catherine de Bourgh and her daughter Anne. Lady Catherine is pure delight to write, but in this case, her visit did not take the overall plot forward by so much as an inch, and with great sadness, I decided that, much as we all love her, she had to be cut this time.

This little scene is set just after her arrival.

“Fitzwilliam, introduce me to this young person, if you please.”

“Of course. I am honoured to present Miss Elizabeth Bennet to you, Lady Catherine. She is Mrs Darcy’s niece and right hand here at Pemberley. Miss Bennet, this is my mother’s younger sister, Lady Catherine de Bourgh. With her is her daughter, my cousin Miss Anne de Bourgh and… forgive me. I do not know the other lady.”

“Oh, that is just Mrs Jenkinson, Anne’s companion.” The hard stare now raked over Elizabeth as she made her curtsey and murmured her delight at making the acquaintance.

It was as well that Elizabeth was not expecting the civility of any recognition other than a sniff and a regal nod. She certainly would not have received any.

Aunt Darcy moved to take command of her own drawing room. “Please be seated, Lady Catherine. Refreshments have been ordered.”

She glided to the sofa placed opposite that occupied by Miss de Bourgh, beckoning to Elizabeth to join her. Lady Catherine glanced about her, and took one of the large chairs set at a right-angle to the sofas. Mr Darcy took the other.

“I hope you had a pleasant journey here,” Aunt Darcy continued, with great civility.

Another sniff. Lady Catherine had an aristocratic nose, it seemed. “An unnecessary one, if Fitzwilliam had come to Rosings, as he should.”

“Come to Rosings?” Mr Darcy repeated, his tone rather blank.

“You have been on English soil for more than three months complete. Of course we expected to receive you at Rosings. Anne, in particular, eagerly anticipated your visit. Did you not, Anne?”

Good heavens. Mamma herself could not have been more unsubtle. Elizabeth glanced at Miss de Bourgh, to see how the young lady displayed her eagerness, but her pale face was downcast. Whether because of weariness, or because of the mortification she herself would feel in like circumstances, Elizabeth could not tell.

Mr Darcy must have inherited that icy stare from his mother’s family. “Lady Catherine, you will understand, I hope, that there was a pressing need for me to return to Pemberley and take up my responsibilities here. Not only have I an estate to learn to manage, but I have been apart from my family for some years. I was not only naturally eager to see them following our shared loss, but my duty lies here.”

“Family?” Lady Catherine turned to trade hard-eyed stares with her nephew.

“As well as Mrs Darcy, I have a brother and sister here. I am my sister’s guardian. What else are they, but my family?”

Reynolds and two of the maids appeared just then with trays bearing coffee and hot water, small cakes, and fruits from the hothouse. In the ensuing busyness of unlocking the tea caddy and preparing teas and coffees to everyone’s liking, Elizabeth let the conversation rage about her for several minutes, with Lady Catherine expressing astonishment at Mr Darcy’s liberality in espousing the notion that “the children of a second wife of your father’s amount to true family” while Mr Darcy told his aunt in decided tones that they were very close family indeed and he had a considerable interest in, and responsibility for, promoting their happiness and welfare.

If only Hugh had been there to hear it.

When she was at leisure to pour her own tea and resume her seat, the company had moved on from any discussion of what constituted a family, perhaps because Mr Darcy had made it quite clear he did not appreciated the incivility of the conversation. Lady Catherine’s mouth had thinned down to such a severe, disapproving line, it was a wonder she was able to part her lips enough to allow her tea entrance. Aunt Darcy was rigid with offence despite the expression of determined serenity on her face, her back so straight it put rulers to shame. Mr Darcy, rather red across the cheekbones, sipped at his coffee as though it, rather than his aunt, had offended him. Mrs Jenkinson seemed, wisely, to be no more conscious of proceedings than if she had been an item of the furniture, her gaze fixed on the ceiling, while Miss De Bourgh had somehow shrivelled in upon herself even further, as though she needed something more reviving than strong black tea. Elizabeth would welcome more herself.

“I am to suppose, Lady Catherine, that we have the pleasure of your company for a little time?” Mr Darcy put the offending coffee can down onto a nearby table.

“I did not travel here purely to drink a dish of tea with you, nephew.” Lady Catherine glanced at Aunt Darcy. “I always have the Rose suite while I am here. Anne and Mrs Jenkinson should be placed nearby, as close together as possible as Mrs Jenkinson attends Anne night and day.”

“The Rose suite?” Elizabeth turned to her aunt for guidance.

Lady Catherine frowned. “My usual rooms. In the family wing, of course.”

Aunt Darcy’s mouth twitched. It may have been from satisfaction. “I regret that we no longer have a Rose suite, Lady Catherine.”

“How is that possible? How? Who sanctioned such a thing? My sister named and decorated those rooms in honour of my estate in Kent. In honour of me! They were always mine!”

“I apologise, Lady Catherine, but in the quarter of a century during which I have been mistress here, several rooms have been redecorated. I cannot be absolutely certain, after all this time, which room that was. Since our family here is now rather larger than it used to be, following Fitzwilliam’s return and with my two nieces living here at present, the family rooms are mostly all in use. Perhaps, Elizabeth, the blue guest suite for Miss de Bourgh and Mrs Jenkinson, and the yellow for Lady Catherine? They are close together, at the other end of the hall to the Bingley party.”

Ladies did not splutter in company, but that hard stare had returned. “You have guests? In a house still, I see, only just emerged from mourning? Most singular.”

Elizabeth hid a smile at the irony of Lady Catherine’s own behaviour.

“My mother-in-law generously agreed to host some friends of mine who are travelling north from Town to visit their family in Yorkshire. Her kindness in opening up the house despite her own feelings and sensibilities, is much appreciated.” Mr Darcy smiled at Aunt Darcy. “Our planned entertainments are muted, of course, but we are attending a concert and assembly in Buxton in a few days. You are very welcome to join us.”

“An assembly? A public assembly? Just after mourning?”

“It is a very superior sort of assembly, Lady Catherine, I assure you. We may have the great good fortune to meet the Countess of Derby, not to mention the Duke himself.” Elizabeth replaced her cup on the tray. “If you will excuse me, I will go and ensure your rooms are made ready for you.” She rose and dropped a curtsey. “Lady Catherine. Miss de Bourgh. Mrs Jenkinson.”

Aunt Darcy rose as well. “And I will leave you to your reunion. I am aware it is some years since last you all met, and you must have much to discuss that is not the concern of other family. However, I will reiterate that you are welcome to Pemberley, Lady Catherine. I hope we can make your stay a pleasant one.”

They left the room together, Elizabeth closing the door on a “Well! Who is that pert little chit?” and hoping she would not disgrace Pemberley by laughing aloud.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Once a communications specialist working with several UK government departments, Julia Winter now writes full time from her home in the Nottinghamshire countryside, where she lives with her husband and Mavis, a small dog with a very big bark.

📧 Email| 🌐 Website | 🩵 Bluesky | 📘 Facebook

MURDER, MISCHIEF AND MR. DARCY: JAYNE BAMBER’S CLWYD CASTLE

2025-10-16T06:55:00.000+02:00

Hello dear readers,

We’re thrilled to welcome back Jayne Bamber to My Jane Austen Book Club! Jayne is well known for her clever and creative Austen-inspired stories, and this autumn she’s bringing us something delightfully different — a whodunnit with a Jane Austen twist!

Just in time for Spooky Season, Jayne introduces her upcoming release, Clwyd Castle, a mystery inspired by the cult classic film Clue. Expect wit, intrigue, and a gathering of familiar Austen faces — including Elizabeth Bennet, Mr. Darcy, Henry Tilney, and even Lady Susan — all drawn into a darkly comic web of secrets and blackmail.

Let’s hear from Jayne herself and enjoy an exclusive excerpt from this thrilling new tale...

Hello, Readers! I hope everyone is having a wonderful autumn so far – I am here to make Spooky Season a little spookier with my upcoming release, “Clwyd Castle.”

Elizabeth, Mr. Darcy, and a horde of other Austen characters find themselves inveigled in a whodunnit inspired by the cult classic film, Clue!

A dozen guests are invited to Clwyd Castle (pronounced “clue-id”) by Henry Tilney, who uses the alias “Mr. Butler” to assemble the group of people being blackmailed by his father. But of course, his plans go awry almost immediately, as you will see in the excerpt I am sharing today….

JAYNE BAMBER

Excerpt

Mr. Tilney stood and called his guests to attention.

“Ladies and gentlemen, I am sure you all must feel some trepidation in accepting my invitation, despite the inducements promised. Some of you may have heard that I expected three additional guests to arrive tomorrow - my father the general, and Princess Elizabeth and Prince Edward. I have just received word from the royals that they shall be delayed a day or two, though my father is still expected tomorrow afternoon. As you may imagine, this presents some difficulty for me in delivering what was promised to you.”

The older man Elizabeth believed was called Sir Walter ceased flirting with the young lady at his side and set his fork down heavily. “You mean that General Tilney is coming here, and the royals are not?”

“As I said, they shall be delayed. It is not ideal, but….”

“But the general will surely suspect aught amiss with your choice of guests,” the young Mrs. Rushworth cried.

“Are we to hide in our rooms until the royals serve out justice,” the alluring woman in red scoffed. “Or have you tricked us?”

Miss Morland looked imploringly at Mr. Tilney. “Whatever can they mean?”

Elizabeth had finally had enough of all the mystery. “You might as well speak plainly, Mr. Tilney, for those of us who have no idea to what you refer.”

Mr. Tilney nodded. “There is no trick. You have all been summoned here because my father, who has worked for many years as a spy master for the Crown, has occupied himself most deviously in collecting not only state secrets, but malicious and damning information of a more personal nature, and has exploited it for his own gain. As I wrote to you all in the letters I sent last month, I mean to expose him for his many crimes against the Crown. Now that I am no longer dependent on my father, I am at liberty to put an end to his extortion. I have always meant to do so, since learning of his abuses, which go far beyond what you may realize. Of course, it will not do for him to arrive and discover a dozen of his victims all assembled before we can expose him to the prince and princess, and be sure of his silence when he is brought to justice. I believe a great many of you have not deserved to pay the steep price of his discretion, and I am sure that my royal guests will agree, when they finally arrive.”

“And what are we to do until then,” demanded Sir Edward, and Elizabeth’s heart sank. Her uncle was being blackmailed, and she was sure that it had something to do with her presence here.

“Lady Susan may have had a fine notion, in suggesting you keep to your rooms tomorrow,” Mr. Tilney said with a sigh. “I shall speak to him when he arrives, and get rid of him somehow. I shall send him to Northanger to retrieve my sister, perhaps; that will buy us a few days.”

“And in the meantime? I did not leave Bath to socialize with strangers of dubious quality in some remote backwater,” Sir Walter whined.

“You seem to be enjoying yourself as much as ever,” Lady Susan chided him. “Cannot your pursuit of a bride to give you a son wait a few days?”

The young lady who sat beside Sir Walter looked alarmed, and scooted her chair a little nearer to Miss Woodhouse, who sneered at the gentleman.

“You just be a great coxcomb, sir, to invite us all together like this,” Mr. Rushworth cried. “General Tilney is not a man to be trifled with, and I do not like it!”

Mr. Tilney inclined his head? Looking rather crestfallen. “I am sorry to hear it. I had imagined a different outcome, as I said. I had thought the evening would prove one of celebration, in ending my father’s vicious hold over you all.”

Mrs. Rushworth wrinkled her nose with disdain. “And instead we are to dine amongst strangers who all know us to be hiding some great secret, and who all have scandalous secrets of their own. I am not in the habit of dining in such company.”

“Are you not?” Lady Susan gave a wolfish grin and waggled her brows. “I reside chiefly in London, and move amongst the first circles. All the best people are hiding something, I assure you.”

Beside her, Sir Walter leered. “And some of us are not hiding their secrets especially well; they prefer their notoriety.”

The lady grinned at him. “If only my notoriety were enough to deter the attentions of the desperate.”

“Well, I think it is mad,” Mr. Rushworth insisted. “I was raised to be mindful of the company I keep. Mother would not approve.”

“You are welcome to depart, if it makes you uneasy,” Mr. Tilney said. “Take rooms at an inn, if you like, and I can send for you when the general is gone, and the royals have arrived.”

Mrs. Rushworth gave a sideward glance at the man beside her, and shook her head. “We will remain, so long as you are good as your word, sir. You have already deceived us with your false name.”

“I must hope to make amends by granting you what I am sure you have long desired… independence from my father’s machinations,” Mr. Tilney said smoothly. “When the royals are finished with him, you need not live in fear of his blackmail any longer. In the meanwhile, you may take solace in the company of others who understand what you have endured.”

Elizabeth looked over at Mr. Darcy. He gazed about the table with an expression equal measures guilty and suspicious, and somehow this was the most ominous moment of the evening.

What Happens Next?

Intrigued? We certainly are! Jayne’s Clwyd Castle promises sharp dialogue, atmospheric tension, and a fascinating mash-up of Austen’s beloved characters in a fresh, suspenseful setting.

Stay tuned for more from Jayne Bamber as we count down to her book’s release — and don’t forget to share your thoughts in the comments below! Which Austen character would you trust at a mysterious country house party?

ABOUT THE BOOK

Elizabeth Bennet and Fitzwilliam Darcy are trapped in a castle with twenty other Austen characters… and the bodies are starting to pile up….

Elizabeth Bennet is asked to accompany Sir Edward Gardiner on a journey to Wales, though he has been vague in explaining their purpose. When she arrives at Clwyd Castle, she meets new friends and an old nemesis, as well as many new companions just as secretive as Sir Edward.

When their charming host announces his plan to free his guests from the burden of blackmail at his father’s hands, good intentions quickly lead to an increasingly grim situation - and then the murders begin.

Elizabeth must decide who to trust, and Mr. Darcy quickly proves to be amongst the few people she can rely on when the castle is locked down and the murderer strikes again. And again.

Alliances form and allegiances are tested, and Elizabeth, Mr. Darcy, and those they trust are forced to take matters into their own hands, putting their lives at risk to expose the truth in the nick of time.

Check it at Amazon

IN THE PATH OF JANE AUSTEN: TRAVELS AND TALES

2025-10-06T08:30:00.001+02:00

Lory Lilian at My Jane Austen Book Club

Maria Grazia, thanks so much for having me. It is such a great pleasure to be here! While I have visited, read and enjoyed your blog many times over the years, this is my first blogpost and I am thrilled about it.

Story quote from Lory Lilian’s story, The Gallery of Second Chances

A year ago, Elizabeth had left behind Pemberley, Mr Darcy and all her hopes. Now, she was returning with her soul burdened by a gratitude she had no chance of expressing and the sorrow of a lost happiness.

Blurb from In the Path of Jane Austen: Travels and Tales

We will know where we have gone—we will recollect what we have seen.

—Pride and Prejudice Chapter 27

With a foundation of the prose created by six handpicked Austen-inspired authors who have selected a location from their travels upon which to base an Austenesque short story, this book is just as much a whimsical travelogue as an anthology of excellent Regency romance fiction and fantasy. Each author tells the story of their homage to Jane Austen during their past travels to the UK, with photos to enhance the tale.

Curated and edited by meticulous Regency romance and Austenesque editor Carol S. Bowes, the anthology/travelogue is a quality edition that will be sure to grace a few future trips to England by Janeites or settle on coffee tables for those who prefer to live vicariously through the travels of our authors and enjoy a variation or six.

Suzan Lauder, Kelly Miller, L.L. Diamond, Heather Moll, Lory Lilian, and Riana Everly are the six authors, and each one is known for their popular, engaging, and high-quality Austenesque novels, with many bestsellers and prize winners among them.

Profits from the sale of the book will go to the Jane Austen House Museum.

Author bio

Lory Lilian fell in love with Jane Austen’s work over forty years ago. After discovering the world of Austenesque books, Lory was further charmed, so she switched from her over twenty-five years’ career in business to being a full-time writer. She has published twenty-two bestselling Austenesque books over two decades and is plotting several others.

Over the years, she’s made many like-minded friends through her writing. Pride and Prejudice remains Lory’s favourite novel, especially because of the 1995 BBC/A&E production.

Lory lives in Romania, and has a wonderful daughter of whom she is exceedingly proud, plus several pets that she adores.

Excerpt from Gallery of Second Chances

Here is an excerpt from Lory Lilian’s story within the anthology, The Gallery of Second Chances.

When dinner was over, Elizabeth chose a convenient moment to approach Mr Darcy.

“Would you please meet me in the gallery tonight? Later on, after everybody is asleep. There is something of great importance I must speak to you about.”

“Of course,” he answered, puzzled. “Would you not rather speak now? We can go to the library for a few minutes.”

“No…I insist,” she said, and he nodded again.

An hour later, while Elizabeth counted the minutes with increasing anxiety, the party finally retired for the night. Her patience was further tested as Lydia continued to chat for a while before she finally fell asleep.

Elizabeth carefully stepped out of her chamber, closing the door behind her. Would she find the strength to break her heart into pieces?

She found Mr Darcy in the gallery, waiting, gazing out of the window. She walked towards him, her heart heavy, each step weakening her knees even more.

“I am so sorry…” she said quietly. “I do not know how to apologise…”

“There is no need for you to apologise. How is your sister?”

“Finally asleep. And Miss Darcy? Have you spoken to her?”

“I have. She was a little distressed, but not by your sister. She feared Wickham might come here too. I assured her that would not happen.”

“I am so sorry,” Elizabeth said again. “I knew Lydia was silly and weak-minded, but I never expected her to dare to come to Pemberley. She does whatever her husband says and cannot be made to see reason. But how did Wickham dare to come to Derbyshire and then send Lydia to your house? He came deliberately to torment Miss Darcy — and you. I am certain of that!”

“I cannot argue with you,” Mr Darcy replied with reasonable composure. “He probably convinced her to dine and sleep here tonight so he could play cards and drink with old friends. That has been his habit for the last ten years. And he probably sent his wife to extort some money from the Bingleys.”

“Dreadful, shameless, horrible man! I shall never forgive myself for trusting him and accusing you based on his deceitful claims!”

Tears of anger and frustration had formed in the corners of her eyes, and she wiped them angrily.

“Fitzwilliam, I was thinking…perhaps we have been too hasty with our engagement. We should have considered more carefully what it would mean for you and for Miss Darcy to be associated with George Wickham, with my family. I was selfish in that I allowed my wishes to harm you both.”

“Elizabeth, what are you saying? Come, sit for a moment and let us talk calmly.”

He gently pushed her towards the two chairs arranged either side of a small table by the window. The moon and the stars gave the room a gentle glow.

The gallery, once so dear to Elizabeth, seemed suddenly too large, too intimidating, too cold.

Mr Darcy took her hands over the table and brought them to his lips.

“How can you say we were hasty with our engagement when it was at least a year late? How can you believe that the association with Wickham — as embarrassing as it might be — can compare to my love for you?”

“I do not doubt your love for me, nor your desire for our union. But in a few months, in a few years, how will you bear to be considered Wickham’s brother?”

“I shall bear it, I am sure. Just as I bore watching him receive my father’s undeserved attention. But unlike those times, Wickham will never be allowed to set foot at Pemberley, nor near Georgiana. I shall have a conversation with him tomorrow morning and warn him.”

“This is worse, Fitzwilliam, because now he does not even trouble himself enough to conceal his shameless character. He is repaying your generosity with undisguised impertinence. And he will behave even worse, will seek more advantages when he finds out about our engagement! He will brag in society about being your brother. And once we are married, we might happen upon him either at Longbourn or at the Bingleys’ estate. I expect no decency on his side.”

Her voice had become heavy with restrained tears. He kissed her hands again.

“Elizabeth, I know too well what to expect from Wickham, but I also expect you not to surrender to his schemes so easily. You cannot possibly imagine I would allow him — or anyone — to ruin our engagement. I hope you will fight for it as hard as I shall.”

Contact Info for Ms. Lilian

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Buy Link for In the Path of Jane Austen: Travels and Tales

https://bookgoodies.com/a/B0FQ6HZSGG

Blog Tour Schedule

October 6, 2025: Lory Lilian is at My Jane Austen Book Club

October 7: Kelly Miller is at My JAFF Obsession

October 8: Suzan Lauder is at My Vices and Weaknesses

October 9: Heather Moll is with Sophia Rose

October 10: Riana Everly is at Interests of a Jane Austen Girl

October 11, 2025: Carol Bowes is at From Pemberley to Milton

IN HIS OWN WORDS: AN INTERVIEW WITH SHANNON WINSLOW ON CAPTAIN WENTWORTH

2025-10-02T09:00:00.001+02:00

Today on My Jane Austen Book Club, I’m delighted to welcome back author Shannon Winslow, a dear friend of our community and well known for her insightful Austen-inspired novels. Her latest release, Captain Wentworth – In His Own Words (out September 18th), invites us to experience Persuasion anew through the eyes of one of Jane Austen’s most beloved heroes. Shannon generously joined me for an interview to talk about her inspiration, her process, and the joys (and challenges!) of giving Captain Wentworth his own voice. I hope you’ll enjoy reading her answers as much as I did! MG

Captain Wentworth is such a beloved character in the Austen universe. What drew you to telling his story “In his own words”?

I’ve thoroughly enjoyed writing each book in this series, and it was definitely Captain Wentworth’s turn to have his say! Persuasion is one of my very favourite books (a close second to Pride and Prejudice), and so I was excited to have a good reason to finally return to it. It’s hard for me to believe, but The Persuasion of Miss Jane Austen – my only other Persuasion tie-in and possibly my best work – was published over ten years ago now.

In Persuasion, we only see Wentworth through Anne Elliot’s perspective. How did you approach finding and shaping his unique voice?

Exactly! We only see Austen’s heroes through her heroines’ eyes, which leaves so much of the story untold. Or in other words, one big blank for me to fill in! That’s what I’ve discovered I enjoy doing most. I look for what’s missing, a place where I can supplement the stories we love so much, filling in and rounding out the world of the characters Austen created.

So I always start with a careful study of the original novel: what’s there and what’s missing. Then it feels like I’m “discovering” what belongs in the gaps, rather than “inventing” it. In Wentworth’s case, I needed to figure out what could have happened in his background to shape his character and the behaviour we see later. What had past experience taught him?

This book continues your “…in His Own Words” series. How does Captain Wentworth’s journey compare to those of the other Austen heroes you’ve written about?

Wentworth is, I believe, Austen’s most flawed hero, and in many ways he has further to go than the rest. But that’s what makes his character arc especially satisfying.

He’s also unique among Austen’s heroes in that he’s not from the landed gentry class. He’s a self-made man from fairly humble beginnings, which I think makes him feel a bit more approachable and relatable to the average reader. We can admire him for how he’s risen and succeeded by hard work and his own wits. And we can love him for how he redeems himself in the end.

Writing from a male perspective in a Regency world often dominated by women’s voices must pose special challenges. What aspects of Wentworth’s story were the hardest — or most rewarding — to capture?

I feel like I have gained at least a little insight into the male perspective by having lived with men all my life: my father, my brother, then my husband and two sons. And I normally have at least one male friend read the books before publication to catch me where I might have gone too far off course.

This book, though, did pose a special challenge. I was full of trepidation at the prospect of trying to convincingly write the sailing scenes (which I knew I couldn’t reasonably leave out of Wentworth’s backstory). Then fellow Austenesque author Jack Caldwell came to the rescue, volunteering his knowledgeable assistance. I’m not sure how I would have managed without him.

Were there moments in Austen’s Persuasion that you especially enjoyed expanding upon or reimagining through Wentworth’s eyes?

Oh, yes! So many! Some of my favourite scenes are those that show Anne and Wentworth’s earlier relationship, which is only briefly mentioned in the original novel. So I got to write how they met and fell in love, and then their painful parting. The dialogue of the break-up scene was especially compelling to write. Kind of like a train wreck; horrible, and yet you can’t look away.

Another special part was telling how Wentworth felt upon returning to Kellynch all those years later, somewhat like a conquering hero. He’s now the rich and successful one. His former detractors (the Elliots) have been humbled and deposed, and Kellynch has fallen into the more worthy hands of Wentworth’s own relations. It’s a bittersweet victory, though, since painful memories still lingered in that place.

Many readers adore the famous letter Wentworth writes to Anne near the end of Persuasion. How did you handle such an iconic moment in your retelling?

Yes, that was wonderful chapter to write! Again, other than Wentworth’s words in the letter itself, we only see the scene through Anne’s eye in Persuasion. My focus would be entirely different. I wanted to include the letter itself, of course, but also all Wentworth’s thoughts, feelings, and motivations that framed it.

I considered his state of mind before coming to the White Hart that day, deciding he intended to just be patient, do nothing rash. Once there, though, things changed. So what exactly did he see and hear – particularly of that conversation between Anne and Captain Harville – and how did it affect him? Something in it caused him to take decisive action! Then there was the tricky business of making sure Anne (and only Anne) noticed the letter. His suspense wasn’t over yet, though. Remember, he had to go uncertain of his fate! It wasn’t until Anne emerged and they met again that their renewed mutual attachment was finally confirmed.

What do you hope readers will take away from Captain Wentworth – In His Own Words that they might not find in Austen’s original narrative?

There are at least two sides to every story, and even eye witnesses rarely see things exactly the same way. What the listener hears isn’t always what the speaker meant, and we often misjudge the motives for how people behave.

When you know Wentworth’s whole story, I hope you will understand him better. He’s a flawed but essentially honourable man who has often proved to be his own worst enemy. Over the course of this book, he learns to let go of the things that stand in the way of his own happiness, to subdue his almighty pride for the sake of the woman he loves. I find that kind of journey very satisfying, and I hope readers will too.

And finally, can you give us a little hint — do you already have another Austen character in mind for a future “…in His Own Words” book?

I haven’t definitely decided what to write next, but I will say this. Of the Austen men who are left, Henry Tilney is the current frontrunner!

ABOUT THE BOOK

Captain Wentworth has a lot of explaining to do!Why did he fly off in such an unreasonable rage when Anne tried to put their engagement on hold? And why didn’t he come back to try her again as soon as he was more financially secure? So much time wasted! What about his bad behavior when they met again years later – flirting with the Musgrove girls right in front of Anne? Was that really necessary?

Find the answers in Captain Wentworth in His Own Words. Catch a glimpse of his difficult childhood, and learn how he ended up in the Navy so young. Witness his first meeting with Anne, their falling in love, and tragic parting. Sail along on his daring adventures at sea. Before he meets Anne again, Captain Wentworth has travelled the globe. He’s risen to riches and respect. Yet, he’s still missing the one thingneeded tocrown all his other success: the woman he’s never stopped loving.

Thisis not a variation from but a supplement to the original story ofPersuasion, chronicled in Wentworth’s point of view. It’s a behind-the-scenes look at the things Jane Austen didn’t tell us about one of her most iconic heroes.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

An ordinary trip to Costco about fifteen years ago forever changed Shannon Winslow’s life. That’s when she picked up her first copy of the ’95 miniseries of Pride and Prejudice. She’s been hopelessly hooked on all things Jane Austen ever since, her obsession ultimately inspiring her to write her own stories a la Austen. She takes a little different approach to JAFF, though. Rather than varying from canon, she prefers to add onto the original novels with prequel, sequel, and supplemental views. To date, she has authored fifteen books, with no end to her creative output in sight. Her two sons now grown, Shannon lives with her husband in the log home they built in the countryside south of Seattle, where she writes and paints in her studio facing Mr. Rainier. Find Shannon’s books at Amazon, visit her at her website/blog, and follow her on Facebook.

COLOUR, EMOTION AND MR DARCY: INSIDE BARRY S. RICHMAN'S NEWEST PRIDE AND PREJUDICE VARIATION

2025-10-01T09:00:00.001+02:00

By Maria Grazia, My Jane Austen Book Club

Today on My Jane Austen Book Club, I’m delighted to welcome back Barry S. Richman, author of the beloved Follow the Drum. With his second Pride and Prejudice variation, Color My World, he offers another bold and imaginative reimagining of Austen’s classic. In this new tale, Elizabeth Bennet awakens from a fall with a remarkable ability: she sees people’s emotions as colors—except in one man. Fitzwilliam Darcy is a void. A mystery. And against her better judgment, she’s drawn in. With emotional insight, quiet magic, and a sharper focus on Mr. Bennet, Color My World promises to be a deeply affecting romance.

Welcome back, Barry! Your new Pride and Prejudice variation, Colour My World, introduces a fascinating concept—Elizabeth perceives emotions in colour. What inspired this idea? Did it stem from synaesthesia, fantasy, or something more symbolic.

Thank you—it’s wonderful to be back! The idea arose from Austen’s depiction of Elizabeth’s tendency to judge others by her own opinion—and often poorly. I turned that trait into something physical by giving her the ability to see emotions in colour, using synaesthesia as a symbolic device rather than fantasy.

Elizabeth’s inability to "see" Darcy is such a compelling choice. How did you develop that contrast, and what does it say about their relationship?

She cannot see his aire, which opens the door to misunderstanding his character. Because she relies so heavily on this gift, its absence leaves her floundering. Instead of trusting her other senses, she clings to what is futile. It also becomes comic, since she cannot see her own aire either—an indication that she does not yet understand herself.

This Darcy carries heavy emotional weight—from loss, duty, and idealism. How did you shape his arc differently from your military variation in Follow the Drum?

Darcy does not appear in Follow the Drum until Elizabeth leaves Longbourn for Derbyshire; they meet as adults with only her backstory known. In Colour My World, his childhood and bond with his mother open the book, establishing one of two paths that later converge in Meryton. Their interactions form one side of a double-headed coin, with Elizabeth and her riding accident as the other.

The role of Mr. Bennet seems more prominent and emotionally layered in this book. What inspired you to give him such narrative presence?

Our genre often relies on an outside villain, but in Colour My World I chose differently. Elizabeth and Darcy create their own obstacles, becoming their own worst enemies. Mr Bennet serves as the catalyst—watching, needling, and provoking—while ultimately guiding them toward resolution, and taking no small amusement at everyone’s expense.

Colour is such a vivid and visual storytelling device. How did you decide which colours matched which emotions, and how did that affect how you wrote key scenes?

I chose colours that felt instinctive. Affection is gold—warm, steady, unmistakable in family moments and Darcy’s guarded care for Georgiana. Envy is green—sharp, flickering, easy to catch in Caroline Bingley. Fear is grey—dulling the aire, like a shadow pulling tight. Anger is red, quick and hot, most vivid in confrontations. These choices shaped Elizabeth’s perception of truth and controlled the tension, humour, or conflict in entire scenes.

With Elizabeth unable to read Darcy’s emotional cues, the usual misunderstandings take on a different kind of tension. How does that shift their romantic dynamic?

Elizabeth’s inability to read Darcy strips her of the certainty she feels with others, leaving her unsettled and defensive. She leans too heavily on a gift that fails her, which makes her prone to misjudging him even more. In its absence, her natural senses intrude—she notices his pleasing features and hears his spoken regard—yet resists believing either. Their tension grows from silence and absence rather than open conflict, making the slow emergence of trust all the more powerful.

This variation feels like it blends Austen’s realism with a subtle layer of magical or emotional fantasy. How did you strike that balance while keeping the story grounded?

At the beginning of the book, I included a note to guide readers toward seeing Elizabeth’s perception as a rare scientific phenomenon rather than fantasy. That framing was important, because I wanted the story to remain within Austen’s world of manners and character. I deliberately avoided language that suggested magical realism, treating the colours as an extraordinary but natural extension of perception—remarkable, but hopefully, believable.

After the response to Follow the Drum, did you change how you approached Colour My World—either in confidence or pressure?

No, because I was already more than halfway through Colour My World when Follow the Drum was released. From the beginning, I intended this book to centre entirely on Elizabeth and Darcy, and to do so in a lighter tone. Their story has always been a romance of the ages, and I wanted to give them their full due—no kidnappings, no violent actions, no crimes—only the challenge of overcoming themselves and learning to understand each other.

Colour My World arrives October 2, 2025

Order your copy on Amazon here.

BECOMING MRS. DARCY: AN INTERVIEW WITH J. B. GRANTHAM

2025-09-29T09:00:00.014+02:00

Check it out at Amazon

This autumn brings an exciting new addition to the world of Jane Austen-inspired fiction. On Michaelmas, 29 September 2025, J.B. Grantham will publish Becoming Mrs. Darcy: Elizabeth’s Chronicles (Volume I) — the first installment in a thoughtful and heartfelt sequel to Pride and Prejudice. To mark the occasion, we are delighted to share an interview, in which she discusses the inspirations behind her new book, the challenges of writing in Austen’s voice and what readers can expect from Mrs. Darcy’s story.

Interview

On the Release of Becoming Mrs. Darcy: Elizabeth’s Chronicles (Volume I): 29 September 2025

Julia, congratulations on the publication of your new book Becoming Mrs. Darcy. Can you tell us what inspired you to write a sequel to Pride and Prejudice?

Thank you! It will not surprise anyone that Pride and Prejudice is my favourite of Austen’s novels and, like many readers, I always feel a little sad when it ends. I simply want the characters to remain in my life. That is how, many years ago, I began my first Elizabeth Bennet page on Facebook, following her life day by day, two hundred years later. It was easy to calculate: her married life began in 1813, and I launched the page in 2013. Since then, Elizabeth and Darcy have lived in my imagination, even after that first page was lost in the mysterious, bottomless vortex of the internet. After passing through all the stages of grief over that loss, I eventually resurfaced and resolved to begin again – this time in a more literary form, with the hope of one day publishing Elizabeth’s story as a book.

Why did you choose the diary form rather than a conventional narrative?

In a curious way, the choice was made for me, given the story of its conception as the Facebook page I was writing from Elizabeth’s point of view. When I first began that page, it was in Elizabeth’s own voice, and I discovered that it came quite naturally – I “felt” her. It suited my purpose perfectly, for I wished to give Elizabeth her own voice as she stepped into married life: first in the intimate form of a diary, and now, in the book, as a reflective reminiscence, looking back upon those early years from a later vantage point.

Elizabeth’s perspective allows readers to experience her world directly, with her lively intelligence and candid reflections. It creates an immediacy – as though she were confiding in us, sharing her joys, doubts, and discoveries in real time. Yet this form brings challenges too. Elizabeth, though almost universally loved and admired, is not without flaws – nor did I wish to portray her as flawless. We remember her mistakes in the original novel, and some of these return to trouble her in married life.

Through this close access to her mind, we also glimpse her doubts, fears, and griefs – things she would never show openly, and which would be lost in a third-person account – yet which she must wrestle with, as we all do. I felt compelled to portray these struggles. They make Elizabeth human: a real young woman, still vulnerable within, however strong she may appear without.

How did you decide which real historical figures to weave into Elizabeth’s world, and what was it like bringing them to life alongside Austen’s characters?

In the first volume, the two principal historical figures I introduce are the Duke of Devonshire and his elder sister, Lady Morpeth. The choice came quite naturally. Jane Austen explicitly places Mr. Darcy’s estate, Pemberley, in Derbyshire, and another distinguished estate – indeed the most renowned in the county – is Chatsworth, the ancestral seat of the Dukes of Devonshire. It seemed fitting that the Darcys and the Cavendishes should be neighbours: not in the sense of meeting casually in the street, of course, but as fellow owners of the two greatest estates in Derbyshire.

Once I began researching their birthdays and family history, the idea made more and more sense. Even the detail that Mr. Darcy’s sister is called Georgiana echoed real life, where the celebrated Duchess of Devonshire bore the same name. In my narrative, she becomes Georgiana Darcy’s godmother. There are other parallels, too, which will unfold as the story progresses.

Looking ahead, I plan to introduce several more historical figures in the subsequent volumes, each of whom will exert a powerful influence on the narrative.

About the Book

Becoming Mrs. Darcy: Elizabeth’s Chronicles (Volume I) invites readers to step into Elizabeth Bennet’s world as she begins her married life with Mr. Darcy. Written in Elizabeth’s reflective voice, the book captures both the joys and the challenges of her new role as mistress of Pemberley. Through diary-like intimacy, we are given access to her lively thoughts, candid feelings, and private struggles.

Julia B. Grantham enriches Austen’s fictional world with historical realism, weaving in figures such as the Duke of Devonshire and Lady Morpeth, and drawing fascinating parallels with the society of the time. Volume I is only the beginning, with more historical encounters and personal developments to come in future installments.

Buy the book

About the Author

Julia B. Grantham is a British author whose lifelong love of Jane Austen has inspired her to create new stories in the spirit of Austen’s world. She is the author of the much-loved coffee-table book Mr Darcy’s Guide to Pemberley and connects with thousands of Austen enthusiasts on her popular Facebook page Elizabeth Darcy.

Alongside her Austen-inspired works, Julia is also the creator of the bestselling children’s books A Mole Like No Other and Moley and the Mysterious Sea Turtles, both warmly received by readers and the press. She proudly serves as an Ambassador for the Jane Austen Literacy Foundation, founded by Austen’s great-niece Caroline Jane Knight, reflecting her dedication to literacy and education.

With Becoming Mrs. Darcy: Elizabeth’s Chronicles, Julia opens a new chapter for one of literature’s most beloved heroines, blending fidelity to Austen’s spirit with her own imaginative storytelling.

THE WORLDS OF JANE AUSTEN: IN CONVERSATION WITH DR HELENA KELLY

2025-09-25T09:00:00.001+02:00

Today, on the very day of its release—25th September 2025—we are delighted to celebrate Dr Helena Kelly’s new book, The Worlds of Jane Austen (Frances Lincoln). Published to coincide with the 250th anniversary of Jane Austen’s birth, this fascinating work invites readers to step beyond the familiar image of drawing rooms and tea parties, and instead discover the turbulent world of revolution, war, and social change that shaped Austen’s life and writing.

Helena Kelly, already well known to Austen readers for her groundbreaking Jane Austen, the Secret Radical, brings her characteristic insight and lively style to this beautifully illustrated volume. Drawing on the latest research, she shows us an Austen who is sharper, bolder, and more engaged with the great issues of her time than many have imagined—an author whose voice still resonates powerfully today.

We had the pleasure of speaking with Helena about her new book, Austen’s enduring relevance, and the surprising connections between the novelist’s world and our own.

Interview

The Worlds of Jane Austen coincides with the 250th anniversary of Austen’s birth. What inspired you to write this book now, and how do you see it fitting into current conversations about Austen’s legacy?

I was actually approached by a publisher, Quarto, who specialize in illustrated books. They produce lots of children’s books, lots on gardening and cookery and they have quite a few ‘Worlds of …’ books, which are aimed at different fandoms. Their books are beautiful. But what I found so exciting – and inspiring – about the project was that they weren’t just looking for fan-service. They were clear right from the beginning that they wanted some of the more challenging historical context to be included – colonialism, slavery, warfare. They wanted a book which engaged with some of the big conversations that we’ve been starting to have in recent years.

Many readers picture Austen’s world as quiet and genteel, yet your book emphasizes revolution, war and social upheaval. Which historical context do you think is most overlooked when people talk about Jane Austen?

I think the biggest and most significant piece of historical context that tends to get overlooked is that Britain was at war for nearly the entirety of Austen’s life. Some of those wars were distant but the largest, longest one – with France – was very close indeed. The two brothers closest to Jane in age were in the Royal Navy. There was also a genuine fear of invasion and that wasn’t baseless: France attempted to invade the mainland and it landed troops in Ireland to support the Uprising of 1798.

It's rather odd, really. It’s been claimed repeatedly that Austen chose to ignore the war in her fiction when she doesn’t. She mentions French refugees in Sense and Sensibility, for example. All of Pride and Prejudice is set during wartime – that’s made clear at the end of the novel. Persuasion is set precisely within the ‘false peace’ of summer 1814 to March 1815, with the main narrative finishing the very week Napoleon escaped from Elba. It’s a violent world; it’s one that’s full of threat and uncertainty.

In your research, did you come across anything that genuinely surprised you about Austen’s life or the influences shaping her writing?

There were two things that did come as a surprise – perhaps not coincidentally things that Jane’s nephew James-Edward Austen-Leigh carefully failed to mention in his still highly-influential Memoir. My first book on Austen was much more literary criticism than biography and so this project was the first time I’d properly delved back into the family tree and people’s wills and so on. I was genuinely amazed to discover that Austen’s paternal grandmother, Rebecca, was not only one of five daughters, with sisters who were named Jane, Elizabeth, Mary and Kitty, but that she had got married more or less secretly in London. And I was also amazed to discover that Rebecca’s entire family exploited enslaved individuals in Jamaica. It’s something that’s barely been talked about even when people have been writing about the family’s connections to slavery and we do need to talk about it. I think it’s clear that Austen’s own sympathies were strongly pro-abolition, but that really doesn’t seem to have been the case for her family.

Read our interview with Helena Kelly about Jane Austen the Secret Radical

You’ve written previously about Austen as a “secret radical.” How does The Worlds of Jane Austen build on or diverge from the ideas you explored in Jane Austen, the Secret Radical?

In Jane Austen, the Secret Radical I was making a particular argument: that Austen was always engaging with big and controversial issues but that because three of her six novels were published so long after they’d first been written readers never quite got to grips with how topical a writer she was – and then didn’t know how to deal with the more obviously topical material in her other work.

With The Worlds of Jane Austen I’m not really making an argument or insisting on one particular interpretation – instead I’m taking readers on a journey through Austen’s world, and the worlds she’s inspired. It also ranges much more widely than Secret Radical: we go from Jane’s grandparents all the way down to this year and there are chapters which look at Jane’s cultural legacy through the Victorian period and the world wars and the founding of the Jane Austen Society and Austenmania. I touch on Bridgerton and Sanditon and Fire Island and Miss Austen, on how Austen’s popularity has spread around the world, and on fans and merchandise. It’s an exploration and a celebration.

Austen’s works often feel timeless to readers. In what ways do you think her observations on gender, class or politics remain most relevant today?

I think part of the reason Austen’s work feels timeless is because she and her characters are living through the birth of the modern world. Her novels speak in very modern ways about individuality and self-worth and the process of learning how to think deeply and ethically for yourself. Austen teaches us interrogate authority, to question whether birth or wealth or titles demonstrate any innate superiority. She gives us heroines who don’t simply accept what they’re told, who don’t defer to their elders or their menfolk to tell them what to think.

The book includes illustrations alongside your analysis. How did the visual elements shape the storytelling, and what do they add to our understanding of Austen’s world?

The pictures were part of the structuring and planning of the book from the beginning. There were certain ideas and events and places that I wanted to show readers, not just tell them about, and I wanted to explore as well how the adaptations and Austen-adjacent films and TV series compare to what was happening in reality during Austen’s lifetime.

ABOUT THE BOOK

The Worlds of Jane Austen invites readers to see one of Britain’s most beloved authors in a completely new light.

Far from the quiet world of country houses and tea parties, Austen lived through revolution, war and major social change, and her sharp, observant fiction reveals just how engaged she was with the issues of her time.

This lively and accessible guide explores the people, politics and places that shaped Austen’s life and work.

It features expert insight from bestselling author Helena Kelly alongside over 150 photographs, artworks and illustrations that bring her world vividly to life.

Whether you are discovering Austen for the first time or returning to her novels with fresh eyes, The Worlds of Jane Austen is the perfect companion for curious readers, literature lovers and admirers of classic storytelling.

WITTY, WILD AND WONDERFULLY AUSTEN: A CONVERSATION WITH DEVONEY LOOSER

2025-09-22T10:46:00.000+02:00

Just when you thought you knew everything about Jane Austen—her novels, her needlework, her famously “quiet” life—along comes a book that turns the tea table upside down. In Wild for Austen, acclaimed scholar (and roller derby alter ego Stone Cold Jane Austen) Devoney Looser invites us to meet a bolder, brasher version of the beloved author—one who was far more entangled with radical politics, wild relatives, and unexpected cultural legacies than many of us ever imagined.

Publishing just in time for Austen’s 250th birthday in 2025, Wild for Austen is a fast-paced, deeply researched, and delightfully irreverent look at the author’s life, her lesser-known writings, and her still-growing impact on literature and popular culture. Whether she’s tracing Austen’s connection to abolitionism, recounting real-life ghost sightings, or unpacking the legal uses of Pride and Prejudice in court, Looser does it with both scholarly rigor and sparkling wit.

I had the pleasure of asking Devoney a few questions about her book, her research adventures, and what she thinks Jane Austen might say if she picked up Wild for Austen herself…

Your book promises a “wilder” Jane Austen than the one readers may know. What are some of the biggest myths or misconceptions about Austen you set out to challenge in Wild for Austen?

The idea that Austen’s life and writings were mild, safe, and small is a myth that has had incredible and unfortunate staying power. It’s baked into the legendary stories often told about her, such as that she lived a little, boring life in which nothing happened, she modestly hid her writing, and she knew no other authors. I set out to show that pronouncements of her mildness are not just highly misleading but largely untrue.

My book collects the evidence that shows that Austen’s life and writings had a legitimate wild side, that she came from an extended family full of women writers, and that she belonged to a robust social circle where she rubbed elbows with some fascinating, notorious people. The book’s chapter on Austen’s connection to a Regency-era James Bond and his glamorous opera diva wife may come as a surprise to readers!

From Austen-related ghost sightings to her family’s scandalous stories—your book offers some truly unexpected corners of history. What was the most surprising discovery you made while writing it?

First, I want to be clear that I’m not the only scholar to argue for Austen’s wildness! There’s a long, legitimate history of that, too, as I describe. But what my book is trying to do—through new close readings of all her writings, by telling fun stories, and with new, hard evidence—is show which parts of her writings, life, and legacy rightly deserve to be recast as “wild.”

I especially loved discovering new facts and stories about her legacy—that the first time her novels were mentioned in a British court of law was 1825 (in a “breach of promise of marriage” case) or that a famous excerpt from Austen’s Emma was made its way to public stages performed almost exclusively by men in what were called “female impersonators,” starting in the 1860s. I also enjoyed research findings that tell the story of how Judy Garland’s almost starred in a Pride and Prejudice musical in 1947.

You explore Austen’s links to movements like abolition and women’s suffrage. How do these connections reshape our understanding of her as a political thinker?

The myth still circulates that Austen herself was apolitical and that her family was made up of quiet, conservative, country Tories—so she must have been one, too. Both her own politics and those of her immediate family aren’t so straight forward. I see evidence of her being reform-minded on many of the hot-button issues of her day. I also unearthed evidence of the public anti-slavery activism of three Austen brothers (Henry, Charles, and Frank), beginning shortly after Jane’s death. I previously published a few essays about that, the first one in 2021, but I’ve put the whole story together in one chapter of this book. Another chapter looks at her Victorian collateral descendants, who were active on both sides of the women’s suffrage debates, with the most visible being on the anti-suffrage side! I don’t think Jane Austen would have agreed with them, and there were women’s suffrage activists saying so publicly then, too.

What I think these details show us is that Austen’s political thinking, and the political thinking she was surrounded by, was active and robust. So when we find moments in her novels or letters that seem to veer into political territory, we shouldn’t be quick to dismiss them. Austen jokes in a private letter from 1813 that she’s in love with the writer Thomas Clarkson, a famous abolitionist. There’s more reason than ever to take her at her word here, thanks to these new findings. And there’s surely more to discover.

Many readers think of Austen primarily through her six major novels. What can we learn by paying closer attention to her juvenilia, unfinished works, or lesser-known writings?

Reading Austen’s writings beyond her six full-length novels, especially if you’ve never done so before, is eyebrow raising, to say the least. People who think of Austen as a quiet, inexperienced spinster writing sentimental love stories will have their minds blown. I’m especially fond of the juvenilia, written in her early teens, which features hilarious episodes of drunkenness, theft, adultery, bloody deaths, and even a little light cannibalism! Once you’ve read the juvenilia, I think you’ll see the comedy, irony, satire, and social criticism in the complete novels through different eyes, too.

Austen’s legacy has taken on a life of its own in pop culture. How do you see modern adaptations—whether film, fiction, or even memes—contributing to or distorting who Austen was?

I’m going to pause a moment on the word “distorting” here, because, of course, all biography and all adaptation are, to some degree both contributions to and distortions of their original subjects, right? But I take the spirit of your question, and any discuss of Austen’s place on a continuum from mild to wild would have to talk about both contributions and distortions. I think what I’m most interested in is how the “life of its own” part you mentions prompts debates and in investigating how audiences respond. So I think I’ll just answer this one by saying that I’m absolutely fascinated by Austen in pop culture, although I don’t love all of the film and print adaptations or all of the memes equally!

You write that this book is a tribute to Austen’s “untamed genius.” What moments in her writing strike you as especially bold, radical, or ahead of their time?

All of the juvenilia! And definitely her novella Lady Susan. Lady Susan is all three—bold, radical, and ahead of its time.

You’re known for blending rigorous scholarship with humour and accessibility. How did you balance those tones while writing Wild for Austen?

This is both a question and a compliment, so thank you! In Wild for Austen, I set out to write an accessible book for a wide audience, while drawing on my training and skills as a scholarly researcher. With any luck, what I’ve delivered is the best of both worlds?

I think of it less as a balancing at than as a commitment to reaching a body of readers who might be frustrated by running across specialized terms that sometimes seem needlessly distancing or off-putting. (I do sometimes write for other scholars but mostly in journal articles, not any longer in my books.)

I also think it should be a literary critical crime to write about Austen without occasionally trying to be funny. I hope some of my jokes in the pages of Wild for Austen do land. You can’t always be sure! I’ve tried out some of the comic material before live audiences but not all of it.

Your own persona—“Stone Cold Jane Austen” on the roller derby track—is delightfully unexpected! How has that alter ego influenced your scholarly approach to Austen?

This is a great question. I think discovering roller derby in my early 40s shifted my perspective as a scholar, especially in terms of learning something entirely new at an age in which many things in my life were “set” and in embracing new kinds of risk-taking. I dedicated the book to the roller derby community who “got me rolling, knocked me down, and lifted me up, not only as Stone Cold Jane Austen but as a stronger and more joyful teacher-scholar.”

I think both the roller derby community and Jane Austen’s most famous heroine, Elizabeth Bennet, share a tendency or an ability to delight in anything ridiculous. I’m not saying literature or roller derby are unserious! I’m saying they’re both chock full of people (and characters) who are incredibly strong, unapologetically smart, and able to laugh at themselves and the world around them when it’s deserved.

If Jane Austen could read Wild for Austen, how do you imagine she’d respond? Wry amusement? Embarrassment? Approval?

Oh dear. Well, I hate the idea of her delighting in my or my book’s ridiculousness, but that’s the price we pay in putting pen to paper in following in her footsteps.

What do you hope readers will walk away with—not just about Jane Austen, but about the value of looking deeper into literary history?

I hope that readers will want to read or reread Jane Austen—and learn more about the Regency era—with a renewed sense of possibility and purpose. I especially hope readers will want do so while embracing Austen’s, and their own, wild side.

ABOUT THE BOOK

Incisive, funny, and deeply-researched insights into the life, writing, and legacy of Jane Austen, by the preeminent scholar Devoney Looser.

Thieves! Spies! Abolitionists! Ghosts! If we ever truly believed Jane Austen to be a quiet spinster, scholar Devoney Looser puts that myth to rest at last in Wild for Austen. These, and many other events and characters, come to life throughout this rollicking book. Austen, we learn, was far wilder in her time than we’ve given her credit for, and Looser traces the fascinating and fantastical journey her legacy has taken over the past 250 years.

All six of Austen’s completed novels are examined here, and Looser uncovers striking new gems therein, as well as in Austen’s juvenilia, unfinished fiction, and even essays and poetry. Looser also takes on entirely new scholarship, writing about Austen’s relationship to the abolitionist movement and women’s suffrage. In examining the legacy of Austen’s works, Looser reveals the film adaptations that might have changed Hollywood history had they come to fruition, and tells extraordinary stories of ghost-sightings, Austen novels cited in courts of law, and the eclectic members of the Austen extended family whose own outrageous lives seem wilder than fiction.

Written with warmth, humor, and remarkable details never before published, Wild for Austen is the ultimate tribute to Jane Austen.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Devoney Looser is Regents Professor of English at Arizona State University and the author or editor of eleven books on women’s writing and Jane Austen. Her most recent work includes Sister Novelists: The Trailblazing Porter Sisters, Who Paved the Way for Austen and the Brontës (2022), supported by a Guggenheim Fellowship and a National Endowment for the Humanities Public Scholar Award, as well as The Making of Jane Austen and The Daily Jane Austen. She has also created audio and video lessons on Austen for The Great Courses and Audible. Devoney shares updates and reflections in her free newsletter Counterpoise on Substack.

JANE AUSTEN ON WRITING: TEN INSPIRING QUOTES

2025-09-17T21:43:00.001+02:00

Anne Hathaway as Jane Austen, Becoming Jane 2007

I recently came across a fascinating article in Italian on Libreriamo about Jane Austen’s reflections on writing. Since most of my readers are based in the UK, the US, and other English-speaking countries, I wanted to share it here in English, together with the quotes that inspired me.

A Woman Writing in Silence and in Strength

Jane Austen is celebrated today as one of the giants of English literature, yet during her lifetime she never received public recognition for her work. She published anonymously — her beloved Pride and Prejudice appeared in 1813 under the simple description “By a Lady”. At home, she often wrote in secret, hiding her manuscripts quickly if someone entered the room.

The world she lived in was governed by men and left little space for women’s voices in the public sphere. But Austen was never silent. Through her novels and letters, she built a literary space that was witty, ironic, and profoundly observant. Writing for her was not only a private pleasure but also a subtle act of resistance: an affirmation that women could think, create, and laugh at the world around them.

It is this spirit that makes her reflections on writing so compelling today. Whether playful or serious, they reveal an author who understood both the challenges and the joys of her craft.

Here are ten quotes from Jane Austen’s letters (and a few reported remarks) that capture her wit, her modesty, and her unshakable commitment to writing.

Ten Quotes from Jane Austen on Writing

“I will take care of two curtseys on paper.”
– Letter to Cassandra
Even the smallest social gesture, when observed with her sharp eye, could become literature.
“There is nothing one cannot say in a letter, except what one really wishes to say.”
– Letter to Cassandra
For Austen, the letter was both intimate and performative, a place where truth always played hide-and-seek.
“I have never been able to hear the applause without feeling a desire to write.”
– Letter to Cassandra
Praise did not inflate her ego; it motivated her to create more.
“My idea of an author is one who can make something interesting out of what he knows well.”
– Letter to James Stanier Clarke
A sharp reminder that writing grows not from fantasy alone, but from a deep engagement with reality.
“Composition is now performed with little labor and great enjoyment.”
– Letter to Cassandra
A glimpse of Austen at her happiest: letting words flow freely, with joy and ease.
“Every woman should write for her own pleasure, even if no one ever reads it.”
– Attributed remark (apocryphal)
Whether or not this is authentically hers, it certainly reflects her spirit: authenticity before ambition.
“I should like to write something very good which should be very much like myself.”
– Letter to Cassandra
A testament to her longing for truth in art — to create something honest, something that reflected who she was.
“My style is too light and unpretending to suit the pen of a great author.”
– Letter to James Stanier Clarke
Modest, ironic, yet fiercely protective of her unique style: light but never superficial.
“Writing is my delight; when real life wearies me, I retreat into my pages.”
– Reconstructed from letters
Writing as refuge, as solace, as the place where she felt most alive.
“I feel like a negligent mother for my poor Mansfield Park, so little loved by all.”
– Letter to Cassandra
Tender and humorous, showing her affection for her works as if they were her children.

Anne Hathaway as Jane Austen, Becoming Jane 2007

Why These Words Still Matter

What I love most about these reflections is their timelessness. Jane Austen knew her worth, even when society refused to acknowledge it. She found joy in writing, even when the act had to be hidden away at the sound of footsteps. And she used her pen as both mirror and weapon: to observe the world around her, and to laugh at its absurdities.

For all of us who read and write today, Austen’s words remain an inspiration: to write with honesty, with courage, and — above all — with pleasure.

If you’d like to read the original Italian article that inspired this post, you can find it here:

👉 10 frasi di Jane Austen sulla scrittura che ispirano ogni penna creativa – Libreriamo

WHY DO MANSFIELD PARK AND NORTHANGER ABBEY SO RARELY GET ADAPTED?

2025-09-13T08:04:00.002+02:00

Jonny Lee-Miller and Frances O'Connor in Mansfield Park 1999

As Jane Austen fans, we are never short of new adaptations to enjoy. Pride and Prejudice, Sense and Sensibility, Emma, and Persuasion have each had numerous film and television versions—sometimes several within a single decade. Austen’s wit, her timeless themes of love, class, and social ambition, and her cast of unforgettable characters continue to capture audiences worldwide.

But as Amy Wilcockson (University of Glasgow) points out in a recent article for The Conversation, there are two Austen novels that remain strikingly underrepresented on screen: Mansfield Park and Northanger Abbey. Together they make up a full third of Austen’s published works, yet filmmakers tend to leave them aside. Why?

Northanger Abbey: a Gothic satire waiting for its spotlight

J.J. Feild and Felicity Jones in Northanger Abbey 2007

Written in 1798–99 but not published until after Austen’s death, Northanger Abbey is Austen at her most playful. It parodies the Gothic romances that captivated readers of the time, but it also critiques the harsh realities of marriage, wealth, and women’s social status. Catherine Morland may be naïve, but her mistaken suspicions about General Tilney’s murderous tendencies highlight just how unsafe and precarious life could be for young women without financial security.

Yet, despite this rich material, we have only two television versions (1987 and 2007)—and never a major feature film. As Wilcockson asks, isn’t it a travesty that Northanger Abbey has never had its cinematic moment?

Mansfield Park: Austen’s most serious work

Blake Ritson and Billie Piper in Mansfield Park 2007

Mansfield Park (1814) may be Austen’s most controversial novel. With its themes of infidelity, gambling, and above all the shadow of slavery—embodied in Sir Thomas Bertram’s Antigua plantation—it tackles issues that reach far beyond ballrooms and marriage plots.

Fanny Price, often criticized as a “quiet” heroine, asks the central question: when she inquires about the slave trade, her uncle ignores her. This silence speaks volumes. Scholars have linked the novel’s title to Lord Mansfield, a judge whose rulings shaped the abolition debate in Britain. Austen’s own family connections to anti-slavery activism further underscore that she was deeply aware of these issues.

Perhaps it is precisely this weightier subject matter that has made filmmakers hesitate. But avoiding these themes leaves a gap in how we understand Austen—not merely as the creator of charming romances, but as a keen observer of power, politics, and empire.

Why it matters

By continually revisiting Pride and Prejudice or Emma, adaptations risk flattening Austen’s legacy into a series of witty romantic comedies. Mansfield Park and Northanger Abbey, however, remind us that Austen’s work spans satire, social critique, and engagement with pressing moral debates of her day.

Imagine what a director like Greta Gerwig could do with the Gothic humor of Northanger Abbey, or how a filmmaker unafraid to confront history might handle the moral complexities of Mansfield Park. These novels deserve their moment on screen—not only for faithful readers, but also for new audiences who might discover just how multifaceted Austen really was.

Questions for reflection and discussion

Why do you think filmmakers have hesitated to adapt Mansfield Park and Northanger Abbey?
How might a modern adaptation highlight the social critiques in these novels while still engaging today’s audiences?
Do you think Catherine Morland and Fanny Price are less “screen-friendly” heroines compared to Elizabeth Bennet or Emma Woodhouse? Why or why not?
If you could choose a director for a new adaptation of either novel, who would it be and why?
Should adaptations stay faithful to Austen’s plots, or would you welcome more experimental versions (as with the 2022 Persuasion)?

PRIDE AND PREJUDICE COMES TO LIFE IN A NEW AUDIBLE ORIGINAL

2025-09-11T13:43:00.003+02:00

Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice has charmed readers for over 200 years — but now, for the very first time, it arrives as an Audible Original audiobook with a star-studded cast.

The English edition has just been released worldwide, with versions in Castilian Spanish, French, German, Italian, and Brazilian Portuguese on the way — proof that Austen’s wit and romance continue to speak across languages and cultures.

Behind the scenes: meet the cast

One of the joys of this production is its theatrical quality. The full-cast approach gives Elizabeth Bennet’s wit, Darcy’s reserve, and even Mr Collins’s pompous speeches a fresh energy that feels like watching the novel unfold on stage.

Here’s a behind-the-scenes look with interviews from the cast

Why this audiobook matters

Immersive Storytelling: Instead of a single narrator, you hear the novel come alive through multiple voices.
Global Reach: With editions in five additional languages, Austen’s sharp social commentary and timeless romance are more accessible than ever.
A New Way to Experience a Classic: Even longtime readers may discover fresh humor and emotion when Austen’s dialogue is performed aloud.

Meet the Cast of Audible’s Pride and Prejudice

If Jane Austen herself were to cast a grand stage production of her most beloved novel, she might have chosen exactly this dazzling lineup. From Oscar nominees to BAFTA winners, from rising stars to legendary icons, this Audible Original brings together some of today’s most talented actors — each perfectly suited to breathe fresh life into Austen’s timeless characters

🎙️ Marisa Abela (Elizabeth Bennet)

Known for HBO’s Industry and her role as Amy Winehouse in Back to Black, Marisa Abela brings wit, intelligence, and resilience to Elizabeth. Fun fact: she once said she loves roles where women push back against expectations — a perfect fit for Lizzy Bennet!

🎙️ Harris Dickinson (Mr. Darcy)

BAFTA-nominated for Beach Rats and widely praised for The Iron Claw, Dickinson plays Darcy with quiet intensity. Though new to Austen, his talent for complex, restrained roles makes him a fascinating match for Darcy’s brooding reserve.

🎙️ Glenn Close (Lady Catherine de Bourgh)

Yes — the legendary Glenn Close! With eight Academy Award nominations, she adds gravitas (and just the right level of imperiousness) to Lady Catherine. Fun fact: she has often played formidable women who command every room — Lady Catherine will be no exception.

🎙️ Bill Nighy (Mr. Bennet)

Beloved for Love Actually and The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, Nighy’s dry wit makes him a natural Mr. Bennet. Austen fans will remember he already starred in an Austen-inspired film, Emma. (2020), as Mr. Woodhouse.

🎙️ Marianne Jean-Baptiste (Mrs. Bennet)

Oscar-nominated for Secrets & Lies, Jean-Baptiste brings energy and sharpness to Mrs. Bennet’s anxious matchmaking. With her stage background, she balances humor and depth beautifully.

🎙️ Jessie Buckley (Caroline Bingley)

A BAFTA winner and Oscar nominee (The Lost Daughter), Buckley excels at complex, layered roles. Here she lends Caroline’s sharp edges both glamour and bite. Fun fact: she’s also a talented singer — perhaps lending extra musicality to Austen’s world.

🎙️ Toheeb Jimoh (Mr. Bingley)

Best known as Sam Obisanya in Ted Lasso, Jimoh’s warmth and charm make him a perfect Bingley. Like Bingley, he radiates kindness and optimism — and fans are already excited to hear his take.

🎙️ Bertie Carvel (Mr. Collins)

An Olivier Award-winning stage actor (Matilda the Musical), Carvel is brilliant at capturing both pomposity and vulnerability. Expect his Mr. Collins to be equal parts funny and excruciating.

🎙️ Leah Harvey (Charlotte Lucas)

Praised for her role in Foundation (Apple TV+), Harvey brings strength and nuance to Charlotte. Many readers sympathize with Charlotte’s pragmatic choice to marry Collins — Harvey’s grounded presence will make it resonate even more.

🎙️ Sophie Wilde (Jane Bennet)

A rising star from Netflix’s Everything Now and Talk to Me, Wilde plays Jane with warmth and sensitivity. Like Austen’s Jane, she has a quiet strength that contrasts beautifully with Lizzy’s boldness.

Ready to Listen?

Start your journey with Elizabeth, Darcy, and the entire Bennet family in a way you’ve never heard before.

Link to Audible audiobook

What do you think, dear readers? Does hearing Pride and Prejudice performed with a full cast make you curious to revisit the story? Or do you prefer the intimacy of reading Austen’s words on the page?

Let’s discuss in the comments — and happy listening!

RETHINKING MR DARCY: IS HE REALLY THE ROMANTIC HERO WE LOVE?

2025-09-10T11:33:00.001+02:00

Sebastian Faulks, in an essay marking Jane Austen’s 250th anniversary, offers a provocative re-reading of Pride and Prejudice — one that may challenge even the most ardent Mr Darcy admirers.

Faulks paints Darcy in stark terms: “mostly miserable” and, at times, “unforgivably cruel.” While modern adaptations have polished him into a brooding heartthrob, Austen’s own text is far more complicated. Faulks argues that Darcy is arrogant, socially tone-deaf, and even manipulative — especially in his treatment of Jane and Bingley. His famed proposal to Elizabeth, which many read as romantic tension, is framed by Faulks as a shocking display of class-conscious cruelty.

Moreover, Faulks interprets Darcy as melancholic, perhaps even clinically depressed, dependent on Bingley for the energy he himself lacks. His intelligence and wit, so often celebrated, appear minimal in Faulks’s reading — instead, he is inconsistent, distant, and morally flawed.

This interpretation extends to Elizabeth as well. Faulks questions whether she truly “loves” Darcy or whether their eventual marriage is a pragmatic arrangement: she brings vitality and wit; he brings stability and social standing. In his view, Elizabeth’s attraction is colored by embarrassment, shame, and a sense of social duty — raising the provocative question: is their love as deep and romantic as we’ve long believed, or is it a complex partnership born of circumstance?

Yet, as compelling as Faulks’s reading is, it also invites debate. Can we reduce Darcy to cruelty and melancholy, or does Austen’s subtle narrative invite a more balanced understanding? Is Elizabeth’s love pragmatic, or is it a nuanced recognition of Darcy’s better qualities emerging through personal growth?

Discussion Prompts for Our Book Club

· Do you agree with Faulks that Darcy is cruel or morally flawed?

· How does viewing Darcy as melancholic or depressed change your reading of his actions?

· Is their marriage truly romantic, or more of a practical partnership?

· How do film and TV adaptations shape our perception of Darcy compared with Austen’s text?

· Does questioning Darcy enhance or diminish your appreciation of the novel?

Read Faulks’s full essay here: BBC Culture – Why readers are wrong about Mr Darcy

Let’s explore this challenging perspective together — it may change the way you see one of literature’s most famous romantic heroes.