Miss Austen by Gill Hornby
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

As a companion piece to Jane Austen's life, as told through her sister Cass, this novelization performs a kind of alchemy, a pretty recollection of biography told in a proper regency-romance style.

For everything it achieves, bringing Jane and her sisters to life, it does well, but I have a single quibble:

As fans, we're ALL set to sink our teeth into the juiciest mystery of all: the reason why the personal letters were burned!

No spoilers. But I will mention that I was slightly... let down. For how well the characters of these real-life personages were portrayed, I think I rather expected something a bit more extraordinary. On the other hand, it DOES fit.

No real complaints here, but I will mention that I prefer Jane Austen's actual novels more. :)

View all my reviews