Natalie Jenner's Blog

I wrote my first book THE JANE AUSTEN SOCIETY from hope, my second BLOOMSBURY GIRLS from excitement, my new May 14, 2024 release EVERY TIME WE SAY GOODBYE from gratitude, and this one — well, this one I wrote for Jane and me. The title AUSTEN AT SEA is what they call a working title — we’ll see!

Many of you know from my social media accounts that I am notoriously impatient to share my stories with the world. For now, I share below some background on AUSTEN AT SEA, as well as a list of the many characters who kept me company during its writing.

First, it is important to note that two real-life stories inspired this fictional work: an 1848 correspondence between Admiral Sir Francis Austen and two Boston sisters, whose Harvard President father had been introduced to the works of Jane Austen by members of the United States Supreme Court; and the life and work of Abraham and Philip Rosenbach, Philadelphia book collectors and founders of the present-day Rosenbach Museum & Library. Two books that aided me greatly in my research of these historical figures, and which I would press into your hands if I could, are JANE AUSTEN'S BEST FRIEND: THE LIFE AND INFLUENCE OF MARTHA LLOYD by Zoe Wheddon, and READING AUSTEN IN AMERICA by Professor Juliet Wells.

Otherwise, this book is entirely a work of fiction. The rest of the characters are sometimes inspired by real people (hello, Sir Cresswell Cresswell!); mostly they are not. And there are a LOT, as you will see below :)

________________________________

CHARACTERS

The Bostonians

WILLIAM STEVENSON, widower & Massachusetts Supreme Court Justice
THOMAS NASH, bachelor & Massachusetts Supreme Court Justice
CHARLOTTE STEVENSON, disaffected youngest daughter of Justice Stevenson
HENRIETTA STEVENSON, disaffected eldest daughter of Justice Stevenson
ANNA DICKINSON, known on stage as the Girl Orator
CONSTANCE DAVENISH, Boston bluestocking
FRANCIS CHILD, Ph.D., Harvard professor of rhetoric & oratory
SAMUEL CARTER, coachman to the Stevenson household
LOUISA MAY ALCOTT, writer & travel companion
PHILIP MACKENZIE, EZEKIEL PEABODY, ADAM FULBRIGHT, RODERICK NORTON & CONOR LANGSTAFF, justices of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court
GRAYDON SAUNDERS, Southerner & Boston barrister
LITTLE BOBBIE ACHESON, street waif & newspaper boy


The Philadelphians

NICHOLAS NELSON, rare book dealer & Civil War soldier
HASLETT NELSON, rare book dealer & Civil War soldier
SARA-BETH GLEASON, state senator’s daughter & occasional gambler


The British

DENHAM SCOTT, correspondent for The Reynolds Weekly Newspaper
SIR FRANCIS AUSTEN, Admiral of the Fleet & brother to Jane Austen
GEORGE FLINT, manservant at Portsdown Lodge
FANNY-SOPHIA AUSTEN, daughter & caretaker of Admiral Austen
RICHARD FAWCETT ROBINSON, London theater impresario
MRS. BERWICK, housekeeper at Chawton House
PETER WRIGHT, tenant at Chawton Cottage
SIR CRESSWELL CRESSWELL, judge & Privy Councillor
DR. RICHARD PANKHURST, barrister at Lincoln’s Inn

I hope that if you do get the chance to read AUSTEN AT SEA one day, you will find yourself wanting to tread the boards of an 1860s transatlantic steamship and act out A TALE OF TWO CITIES alongside my characters, play vingt-et-un with the four heroines (including Louisa May Alcott) in the ship's Ladies' Saloon, spend a day in Chawton, Hampshire, walking in Jane Austen's footsteps, listen to the entire bench of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court debate each of her works at their literary circle, and many other adventures.

Thank you, everyone, for your continuing interest and generous readership. My stories only exist because of you xo

This cover is so glam. It reminds me of a vintage 1950s Italian movie poster and captures the "la dolce vita" vibe of much of my next book, which is primarily set in 1950s Rome and its famed Cinecittà movie studio. As with BLOOMSBURY GIRLS, there are famous cameo appearances again, this time by Sophia Loren, Ava Gardner, and Gina Lollobrigida, so plenty of film references abound. And then there's the spectre of the Vatican hanging over it all...

My North American publisher, St Martin's Press, will be running a promotional campaign this fall whereby if you upload proof of pre-order, they will send you a digital PDF of a special "bonus" chapter that I wrote about Vivien Lowry as a thank-you to those who pre-order. The chapter explores how on earth someone like Viv ended up working for someone like Mr. Dutton (from BLOOMSBURY GIRLS), and her ill-fated love affair with Lord David St. Vincent that figures at the heart of this new book. Here is a little snippet from that bonus chapter:

~


Bloomsbury, London
Summer 1945


There were two vacancies at the bookshop as a result of the war. Following his interview, the blond man (the “boy,” Vivien dismissively thought) left the back office and strode right past her, victorious. This made her want the second position even more.

She was now the only other person in the store save for the elegant man behind the cash counter, who looked quite bored. Bloomsbury Books & Maps was never going to set the literary world on fire by the looks of things, but nonetheless had a charm of its own. Vivien had been forced to leave her prior employment for reasons she refused to dwell on or repeat; a decent, unassuming, and uninterested employer was now her primary goal. That, and a chance to get even one inch closer to the world of publishing, a world that so far showed no interest in her work.

“A Miss, um, Lowry?” she heard a voice call from the back of the shop. Herbert Dutton, the general manager conducting interviews for the two sales assistant positions, sounded both nervous and overly formal—a temperament of novel appeal to Vivien after what she had just been through. Later, she would decry this as her own Churchillian beginning of the end.

Vivien straightened the jacket of her beige Victory suit, with its chocolate-brown cuffs and lapels and no need for shoulder pads given her striking figure. Marching down the corridor, she spied Mr. Dutton through the window to the back offices, sitting forlornly at a large banker’s desk, staring at the papers on his blotter. Vivien herself would have watched an interviewee as they arrived, assessing their style and comportment, the expression in their eyes and face. Vivien made most decisions in life based on the whip-snap judgements that fed her trusty intuition. She could accurately size up a person within the first two minutes of meeting: the blond man with a face like a cherub was an ambitious bloke with little regard for those around him; the gentleman behind the cash counter, possessing the aquiline features of a Roman emperor, was evidently only biding his time.

And Mr. Herbert Dutton, his round face like a placid moon, was exactly the kind of boss she was presently searching for.

~


Releasing in North America on May 14, 2024, EVERY TIME WE SAY GOODBYE is now available for pre-order from your favourite indie bookseller or book retailer!

So grateful to readers everywhere for the support they have shown all my books - wishing you each much happy reading during the very cosy season ahead!

xo Natalie

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1...

Here is the back story for my new book, EVERY TIME WE SAY GOODBYE, plus the cast of characters followed by an excerpt!

Whenever I start writing a new book, I sit down at my laptop and just start typing, and as I do so, I am most motivated by readers' pleas for "more." This is why each of my books, although they stand alone, take place in the same world.

Below are the very first words I wrote two years ago, so they have special meaning for me. I was first inspired to write a book set in the movie industry by an April 2021 family re-watch of Francois Truffaut's movie DAY FOR NIGHT. I remember being impressed by Truffaut's script girls and remarking to my family that I wanted to write a book called SCRIPT GIRLS and oh, how they laughed.

But a few weeks later, I started typing and immediately this very Gilbert Osmond-like character from THE PORTRAIT OF A LADY shows up on Rome's Via Sacra trying to "hit on" a beautiful woman he has noticed before. I wrote the following in one go, showed it to my agent and editor, and they both said, keep going. So I did, for another year. The hardest year I have ever had as a writer. I was terrified the entire time I wrote. I took long - sometimes months-long - breaks (the research material was emotionally harrowing). I showed it only to my husband, in two stages, as I always do. Then I spent the past year editing it, and each day, with each new or different or excised word, I could feel the MS becoming something more special to me than I could ever have conceived. I am stupidly, crazily proud of this book. I will never write a better one.

As with my first two books, there is another large cast of characters. I have listed them below:

CAST OF CHARACTERS

THE EXPATRIATES

Vivien Lowry … disaffected London playwright
Sir Alfred Jonathan Knox … British industrialist & philanthropist
Lady Browning … bestselling author better known as Daphne du Maurier
Peggy Guggenheim … famous New York heiress & art collector
Levi Bassano … New York scriptwriter & former Field Photo soldier
Douglas Curtis … Hollywood director & former WWII Commander of Field Photo Unit
John Lassiter … an American living in Rome
Claudia Jones … Hollywood movie star
Ada “Bricktop” Smith … Nightclub owner
Ava Gardner … Hollywood movie star
Tabitha Knight … London shopgirl at The Sunwise Turn
Frances Knight … Hampshire wife & mother
Mimi Harrison … London stage actress & former Hollywood movie star
Milko Skofic … former Yugoslavian refugee & doctor

~

THE ITALIANS

La Scolaretta … Cinecittà cutter & resistance fighter
Margarita Pacelli Lassiter … war orphan
Marco Marchetti … Vatican cardinal
Anita Pacelli … Italian movie star
Nino Tremonti … Neapolitan prince & filmmaker
Sister Justina … Canossian Daughter of Charity
Gabriella Giacometti … reporter for LIFE magazine
Sophia Loren … Italian movie star
Gina Lollobrigida … Italian Movie star

I hope you enjoy the excerpt - and most of all, I hope this finds you well and looking forward to the future with hope and peace, in the same way that your readership and support enables me to do.

xo Natalie

_______________________________

Chapter Three
~
The Ides of March, 1955
Rome, Italy

Everything in life was a matter of pacing.

Lassiter had noticed her, or thought he noticed her (could he be slipping?), a couple of times now. The first had been on a mild February day as he had sneaked out of a private meeting at Cinecittà. She had rounded the corner of the studio on a peacock-blue bicycle, the front wicker basket holding a stack of paper weighted down by a pair of tangled high heels. Her feet were bare, and immediately he assumed she was one of the script girls. Or—better yet—an actress, with her wavy raven-black hair and stylish manner.

The second time had been at Peggy Guggenheim’s Carnival party on Mardi Gras a few weeks back. They had both been in costume and that must have slowed him down—either way, by the time he had made the connection, she was gone.

He had not seen her at the studio since. He had certainly not expected to find her here, wandering alone through the Via Sacra. He liked to cut through the Forum as he slipped home from Anita’s apartments, long before the photographers were up. At dawn, the cats had the run of the place and it made him feel positively feral. In his early fifties, he still showed the American athleticism of his lost youth, strolling the sampietrini of Rome’s battered post-war streets with the nimbleness of a man half his age.

When he saw her standing there in her white knotted men’s shirt and bright peasant skirt, pensively taking bites of a maritozzi still in its café wrapper, he wondered if now was the time to say something. In a movie it would have been the perfect moment: minute nineteen out of ninety and the third encounter between the leads.

Then, as with so much in the movie industry, it was taken out of his hands. She turned back to the blue bicycle leaning against a two-thousand-year-old cracked column, finally noticed him, and walked on past. If she recognized him, she gave no sign of it.

“Mi scusi—”

She wheeled around at his words, wiped a bit of cream from the corner of her lips, and gave a smile that bordered on a smirk. “Don’t strain yourself. I’m a foreigner, too.”

He felt the back of his neck tighten. He had been living in Italy for nearly a decade. “Actually, I live here.”

“So do I.”

“I mean I have done, for many years.”

“I don’t think that’s what makes someone Italian, do you?”

He saw that she was joking with him in that very contrarian, British way that he had always found tiring, even in a woman as beautiful as her. He also saw that she was not going to make this easy for him. “I believe we were both at Peggy’s Carnival bash.”

She pitched the now-empty pastry wrapper into the bicycle basket. “I don’t recall being introduced.”

He extended his hand. “John. John Lassiter. Artemis Productions.”

The sun was slowly rising behind him and she shaded her eyes with her right hand to peer more closely at him.

“The warrior goddess,” was all she replied.

“Among other things.” He quickened his pace ahead of her to reach the bicycle and turn it around in his hands, then motioned for her to walk as he gentlemanly steered the bike. Noticing the script in the basket next to the crumpled pastry wrap, he tried again. “You’re in Teatro 5, right? Starring in…?”

“Not in. On.” She looked amused by his reaction. “I’m doctoring the script for When All Else Fails.”

“I hear it’s in rough shape.”

“It’s as crumpled as that wrapper.” She laughed wryly. “I appreciate your directness, at least. None of the Italians on set seem fussed—about anything.”

The words at least did not escape him. He had only a few yards left of Via Sacra to make his pitch. “Do you walk through here often?”

She shook her head. “Only for inspiration—and the history, of course. Today is the Ides of March, as you know.”

He did not know. For all his morning-after walks, Lassiter was unaware that they were standing on the exact spot where Julius Caesar had been condemned by Marc Antony to his unfortunate end. The producer had huge gaps in his education that he had spent a lifetime hiding through almost any means short of actually opening a book.

“Exactly,” was all he said instead.

As they exited onto the pavement alongside the screeching, careening cars of the Via Fori Imperiali, she reached for the bicycle handles. He let his taut, tanned arms brush against hers as she did so, and was pleased that she did not step back as quickly as she could have.

“Well, see you at the studio, Mr. Artemis.”

“Lassiter,” he was pained to have to correct her. But she only smiled, and he realized she was teasing him again. “And you are?”

“Lowry. Vivien.”

She ascended the bicycle and sped off, but he noticed she looked back at the corner. He had paced it well enough in the end.

Hi everyone,

I am so excited to share with each of you the cover for my next book, Bloomsbury Girls, releasing on May 17, 2022! So without further delay …

Here's a little description from my publisher:

One bookshop. Fifty-one rules.
Three women who break them all.

The internationally bestselling author of The Jane Austen Society returns with a compelling and heartwarming story of post-war London, a century-old bookstore, and three women determined to find their way in a fast-changing world.

Bloomsbury Books is an old-fashioned new and rare book store that has persisted and resisted change for a hundred years, run by men and guided by the general manager's unbreakable fifty-one rules. But in 1950, the world is changing, especially the world of books and publishing, and at Bloomsbury Books, the girls in the shop have plans:

Vivien Lowry: Single since her aristocratic fiance was killed in action during World War II, the brilliant and stylish Vivien has a long list of grievances - most of them well justified and the biggest of which is Alec McDonough, the Head of Fiction.

Grace Perkins: Married with two sons, she's been working to support the family following her husband's breakdown in the aftermath of the war. Torn between duty to her family and dreams of her own.

Evie Stone: In the first class of female students from Cambridge permitted to earn a degree, Evie was denied an academic position in favor of her less accomplished male rival. Now she's working at Bloomsbury Books while she plans to remake her own future.

As they interact with various literary figures of the time - Daphne Du Maurier, Ellen Doubleday, Sonia Blair (widow of George Orwell), Samuel Beckett, Peggy Guggenheim, and others - these three women with their complex web of relationships, goals and dreams are all working to plot out a future that is richer and more rewarding than anything society will allow.


Finally, here are some purchase links for those of you in North America who would like to pre-order:
Amazon US: https://www.amazon.com/dp/1250276691
Amazon Canada: https://www.amazon.ca/Bloomsbury-Girls-Novel-Natalie-Jenner/dp/1250276691/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=bloomsbury+Girls&qid=1629916389&sr=8-1
Barnes & Noble: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/bloomsbury-girls-natalie-jenner/1139985334?ean=9781250276698
IndieBound (for a US indie bookshop near you): https://www.indiebound.org/book/9781250276698
Bookmanager (for a Canadian bookstore near you): https://www.bookmanager.com/tbm/?searchtype=keyword&qs=Bloomsbury+Girls&qs_file=&q=h.tviewer&using_sb=status&qsb=keyword
Kobo: https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/bloomsbury-girls
Google Play: https://play.google.com/store/books/details/Natalie_Jenner_Bloomsbury_Girls?id=GbA9EAAAQBAJ

There will be advance reader copies available through Goodreads giveaways starting in November as well! Here's the link to Goodreads for those of you who are members and want to add Bloomsbury Girls to your want-to-reads:
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/58428207-bloomsbury-girls?ac=1&from_search=true&qid=i9TpBHEUWD&rank=1

I can't wait to share this story with readers. If The Jane Austen Society was the book I wrote when I was coming out of sadness, Bloomsbury Girls was written when I was very happy. Despite being on lockdown the entire time I wrote, I had just realized a lifelong dream of being published and, after decades of rejection, felt hope that maybe, just maybe, I had stories to tell that could provide others with entertainment, comfort, and cheer during their own difficult times.

My only wish for this new book is that it do exactly that for each of you.
xo Natalie

Hi everyone,

I am thrilled to share with you the Publishers Weekly announcement of my next novel, Bloomsbury Girls, one of PW's Deals of the Week for June 28, 2021!

You can also now add the book to your Want-to-Read list on Goodreads - here's the link for that!
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/58428207-bloomsbury-girls?ac=1&from_search=true&qid=FzGKd9QhXC&rank=3

Finally, the new paperback edition of The Jane Austen Society releases on Tuesday, July 6th and can be pre-ordered now at your chosen venue for book shopping! This edition, available throughout North America, will have tons of extras including a map of the village in the story, an exclusive essay by me on reading Jane Austen in difficult times, a Q&A and recommended reads, as well as suggested questions for book clubs. I have posted below a picture of the front and back cover!

On a more personal note, I know that it remains a difficult time for everyone, but I wanted to share that my family is now fully vaccinated and comfortable heading back outside despite my husband's highest-risk lung disease. This meant that I was finally able to see my book in a shop for the very first time this past Monday, over a year since its release. I leave you with the final photo below!

Thank you all for your support - I could not have survived this past year without it.

Stay safe & well,
Natalie

Having just finished final edits on my next book which releases in May 2022, I am sharing an exclusive sneak peek with my newsletter subscribers.

My second book picks up with Evie Stone three years after the ending of The Jane Austen Society. Evie has graduated from Cambridge and will soon find herself working in a London bookshop, where a battles of the sexes is raging between the female staff and the male managers. If The Jane Austen Society is my valentine to Austen, this next book is my ode to bookshops (being a former owner of one myself) and their power to bring together people from all walks of life.

If you would like a very early first look at my next book, just subscribe to my newsletter by joining my mailing list here: Contact — Natalie Jenner. I will be sending out the excerpt just in time for Mother’s Day!

Thank you so much for your time and please stay safe and well,
Natalie

I read a lot.

I read a lot of debuts, alternating with a lot of classics, which keeps me in mind of what lasts, and why. Spoiled with advance reading copies as a published author myself, I look back on these five books as essential new additions to my personal collection of great literature. When I read, I want originality of voice, characters to care for (if not like), beautiful and logical prose, a propulsive plot, a richness of theme, and a sense of the potential of the world and our lives in it. These five books gave me all that and more. With no exaggeration, I wept as I wrote these reviews, astonished and humbled by the talent of each of these writers.

"Fire proves gold, adversity proves men."  THE MOUNTAINS SING by Nguyen Phan Que Mai is a beautiful testament to the unbreakable bonds of family. Written in calm—and calming—prose, this heart-wrenching novel is made not only bearable but essential by its brilliant narrative structure. Alternating chapters enable a resilient grandmother and her spirited granddaughter to share a multitude of family stories over many years while always getting to the heart of the matter, enhanced throughout by the author's gift for quick characterization. Each family story is like a different sharp, cutting facet of a diamond which holds in its centre the clarity and peace that so many in this book survive, fight and strive for. As moving and lasting a story as I have ever read, I cannot recommend it highly enough both as a book and as a significant contribution to our collective understanding and humanity. Amazon.com: The Mountains Sing (9781616208189): Nguyễn Phan Quế Mai: Books

Pete Beatty's debut novel CUYAHOGA is as comically genius as a Coen Brothers film; his narrative skill and voice as singular as Faulkner's; his imagination as dizzying and expansive as the tall-tale feats of hero Big Son it recalls. With the most exquisitely sparse, precise and perfect prose, Beatty sets his story smack dab in the middle of a comical and longstanding feud between two towns, divided by the famous Ohio river and glorying in the lack of rules of the wild and wacky 1830s frontier. But the heart of the plot involves the attempts of Big Son to maintain legendary fame for his superhuman strength and prowess and win the heart of his foster sister Cloe Inches. Page by page, I felt like the top of my head had blown off as I read: even the most seemingly thrown-away lines left me astonished at their efficiency and beauty. A startlingly original novel, CUYAHOGA is as close a reading experience to first discovering Salinger and Nabokov as I have ever found. A remarkable debut. Amazon.com: Cuyahoga (9781982155551): Beatty, Pete: Books

THE LOST BOOK OF ADANA MOREAU by Michael Zapata is one of the most stunningly imaginative books I have ever read. I could just sink into the worlds within worlds that Zapata creates: worlds of brothers-in-arms, extended families, beckoning landscapes, and marvellous books so magical-sounding that one feels the very pull to distant shores that lures so many of his characters. I won't give away any of the plot, because the level of creativity here should be experienced fully fresh, from the mesmerizing first chapter ("The Dominicana May 1916-August 1930") through the final pages that tie together the hopes and dreams of a century's worth of living. Zapata is the heir to Robertson Davies, Gabriel Garcia Marquez and Michael Ondaatje, displaying through his dexterous prose a level of both potential and ambition that leaves me breathless. Amazon.com: The Lost Book of Adana Moreau: A Novel (9781335010124): Zapata, Michael: Books

A mesmerizing, disturbing, and heart-wrenching read about loneliness and grief, THE ALL-NIGHT SUN by Diane Zinna follows a troubled young adjunct professor as she embarks on an intense friendship with a Swedish international student, both of them having been orphaned young, and ends up also entangled with the student’s distrusting friends and mysterious older artist brother. Zinna writes sentences that will break you, and then suddenly everything on the page lights up again, and you go on the rollercoaster that is love, and loss, and life. Propelled by a tightly-wound and unpredictable plot, Zinna’s debut novel ingeniously conveys for the reader the fun-house distortion of the human mind as it reels from trauma and yet fights through the pain to try to see clearly again. With poetic and hypnotic prose, THE ALL-NIGHT SUN is an essential addition to fiction on grief and a compelling story about female friendship, its limits and constraints, and the surprising ways it can make us whole. The All-Night Sun: A Novel: Zinna, Diane: 9781984854162: Amazon.com: Books

SIGH, GONE is the ideal memoir: raw, honest, authentic, hard-hitting, hilarious and inspiring. Debut author, teacher and tattooist Phuc Tran describes his travails as a Vietnamese immigrant growing up in small-town Pennsylvania with the perfect balance of insight and self-deprecation. As a child myself of the 70s and 80s, Tran captured for me all the essential truths of that strange era: the power of pop culture at its zenith, the pain of family expectations, the salvation by friends, the exceptional role of the teacher in the life of the North American adolescent, and the awakening of a young mind through books. Reading Tran’s engaging words, I kept thinking how he and I could not have grown up more differently, yet we also grew up very much the same. And that, my friends, is the true power of literature. Amazon.com: Sigh, Gone: A Misfit's Memoir of Great Books, Punk Rock, and the Fight to Fit In (9781250194718): Tran, Phuc: Books 

Hi everyone,

I've never written a blog post before, but it occurred to me that this could be a way to share with you some of the background scoop on my debut book THE JANE AUSTEN SOCIETY.

I often get asked by readers about the connections between my book's characters and events and those in Austen's works. The following are some of the parallels I am consciously aware of (readers often point out to me ones that I hadn't even picked up on yet ;)

JUST PLEASE BE ADVISED OF MAJOR SPOILERS AHEAD!!!:

• Dr. Gray and Adeline’s romance is largely based on that of Knightley and Emma in “Emma”
• The two scenes in which Dr. Gray confronts Adeline – first over firing him as her doctor, and secondly over the nature of her relationship with Adam Berwick – are an homage to the botched proposal scene between Darcy and Elizabeth in “Pride and Prejudice”
• The character of Frances Knight is inspired by both Fanny Price from “Mansfield Park” for her patience and pragmatic resignation, and Anne Eliot in “Persuasion” for her regretful bending to the will of her family as a young woman. Similarly, the love story of Frances and the family solicitor Andrew Harrison is directly based on that of Anne Eliot and Captain Frederick Wentworth in “Persuasion” (hence the letter scene at the very end)
• Andrew Harrison silently working behind the scenes as a member of the society, to try and protect Frances’s interest in the Knight estate, is a reflection of Darcy secretly trying to find Wickham and force his marriage to Lydia, in order to save the reputation of Elizabeth’s family
• Both Adeline and Adam’s mothers are reflections of the character of Mrs. Bennet in “Pride and Prejudice” and her desire to marry off her children
• Mr. Knight’s entailment of his estate away from Frances and his treatment of her in general are direct allusions to the entailment at the heart of “Pride and Prejudice,” as well as to Sir Bertram’s sending away of Fanny Price when she will not consent to marry Henry Crawford
• The character of Colin Knatchbull-Hugessen reflects that of Mr. Collins, the heir of Longbourn in “Pride and Prejudice” due to a similar entailment
• The proposal scene in Chapter Twenty-Four between Frances and Andrew is a direct homage to the wonderful scene at the end of Ang Lee’s film version of “Sense and Sensibility,” when Emma Thompson as Elinor collapses in the single biggest display of emotion she has ever made
• The comic character of Liberty Pascal is based on the Steele sisters in “Sense and Sensibility”
• Mimi Harrison and Jack Leonard’s relationship contains elements of both the siblings Mary and Henry Crawford from “Mansfield Park,” Lizzie Bennet and Mr. Darcy in “Pride and Prejudice,” and Marianne and Willoughby in “Sense and Sensibility,” especially when it comes to themes of the power of physical attractiveness and seduction
• Adam Berwick’s last name is a play on Captain Benwick from “Persuasion,” the grief-stricken sailor who lost his fiancée presumably to illness while away at sea
• The references made to Dr. Gray’s wife falling down the stairs to her death – and several other mentions of his continuing fear of shaky banisters – are a very slight homage to the tumble Louisa Musgrove takes from the steps of the Cobb in “Persuasion”
• Adam and Yardley’s relationship is a direct homage to the secret relationship between Jane Fairfax and Frank Churchill in “Emma” (including the gift of the dog, a la the gift of the piano from Frank to Jane, and the meaning behind the dog’s name of Dixon)
• Just like in the book, there are cats to this day wandering about Jane Austen’s House Museum
 
I hope you enjoyed reading & thank you all for your support,
Natalie

Hi everyone,

I've never written a blog post before, but it occurred to me that this could be a way to share with you some of the background scoop on my debut book THE JANE AUSTEN SOCIETY.

I often get asked through my website www.nataliejenner.com about the parallels between my book's characters and events and those in Austen's works.

Here are some of the parallels (readers often point out to me ones that I hadn't even picked up on yet ;)

JUST PLEASE BE ADVISED OF MAJOR SPOILERS AHEAD!!!:

• Dr. Gray and Adeline’s romance is largely based on that of Knightley and Emma in “Emma”
• The two scenes in which Dr. Gray confronts Adeline – first over firing him as her doctor, and secondly over the nature of her relationship with Adam Berwick – are an homage to the botched proposal scene between Darcy and Elizabeth in “Pride and Prejudice”
• The character of Frances Knight is inspired by both Fanny Price from “Mansfield Park” for her patience and pragmatic resignation, and Anne Eliot in “Persuasion” for her regretful bending to the will of her family as a young woman. Similarly, the love story of Frances and the family solicitor Andrew Harrison is directly based on that of Anne Eliot and Captain Frederick Wentworth in “Persuasion” (hence the letter scene at the very end)
• Andrew Harrison silently working behind the scenes as a member of the society, to try and protect Frances’s interest in the Knight estate, is a reflection of Darcy secretly trying to find Wickham and force his marriage to Lydia, in order to save the reputation of Elizabeth’s family
• Both Adeline and Adam’s mothers are reflections of the character of Mrs. Bennet in “Pride and Prejudice” and her desire to marry off her children
• Mr. Knight’s entailment of his estate away from Frances and his treatment of her in general are direct allusions to the entailment at the heart of “Pride and Prejudice,” as well as to Sir Bertram’s sending away of Fanny Price when she will not consent to marry Henry Crawford
• The character of Colin Knatchbull-Hugessen reflects that of Mr. Collins, the heir of Longbourn in “Pride and Prejudice” due to a similar entailment
• The proposal scene in Chapter Twenty-Four between Frances and Andrew is a direct homage to the wonderful scene at the end of Ang Lee’s film version of “Sense and Sensibility,” when Emma Thompson as Elinor collapses in the single biggest display of emotion she has ever made
• The comic character of Liberty Pascal is based on the Steele sisters in “Sense and Sensibility”
• Mimi Harrison and Jack Leonard’s relationship contains elements of both the siblings Mary and Henry Crawford from “Mansfield Park,” Lizzie Bennet and Mr. Darcy in “Pride and Prejudice,” and Marianne and Willoughby in “Sense and Sensibility,” especially when it comes to themes of the power of physical attractiveness and seduction
• Adam Berwick’s last name is a play on Captain Benwick from “Persuasion,” the grief-stricken sailor who lost his fiancée presumably to illness while away at sea
• The references made to Dr. Gray’s wife falling down the stairs to her death – and several other mentions of his continuing fear of shaky banisters – are a very slight homage to the tumble Louisa Musgrove takes from the steps of the Cobb in “Persuasion”
• Adam and Yardley’s relationship is a direct homage to the secret relationship between Jane Fairfax and Frank Churchill in “Emma” (including the gift of the dog, a la the gift of the piano from Frank to Jane, and the meaning behind the dog’s name of Dixon)
• Just like in the book, there are cats to this day wandering about Jane Austen’s House Museum
 
I hope you enjoyed reading & thank you all for your support,
Natalie