First Impressions
A Novel
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5.0 • 1 Rating
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- $17.99
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- $17.99
Publisher Description
Charlie Lovett first delighted readers with his New York Times bestselling debut, The Bookman's Tale. Now, Lovett weaves another brilliantly imagined mystery, this time featuring one of English literature's most popular and beloved authors, Jane Austen.
Book lover and Austen enthusiast Sophie Collingwood has recently taken a job at an antiquarian bookshop in London when two different customers request a copy of the same obscure book: the second edition of Little Book of Allegories by Richard Mansfield. Their queries draw Sophie into a mystery that will cast doubt on the true authorship of Pride and Prejudice and ultimately threaten Sophie's life.
In a dual narrative that alternates between Sophie's quest to uncover the truth - while choosing between two suitors - and a young Jane Austen's touching friendship with the ageing cleric Richard Mansfield, Lovett weaves a romantic, suspenseful and utterly compelling novel about love in all its forms and the joys of a life lived in books.
Charlie Lovett is a writer, teacher, and playwright whose plays for children have been seen in over 3000 productions worldwide. He served for more than a decade as writer-in-residence at Summit School in Winston-Salem, NC. He is a former antiquarian bookseller, and he has collected rare books and other materials related to Lewis Carroll for more than 25 years. He and his wife split their time between Winston-Salem and Kingham, Oxfordshire.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Lovett (The Bookman's Tale) weaves two plots together in this well-designed, ingenious novel. One is the story of Jane Austen's relationship with the Rev. Richard Mansfield, set in Hamphire, England, in 1796; the other follows Sophie Collingwood, lovingly described by her family as having an overactive imagination, in present-day England. Sophie is shocked to hear that her uncle was found dead with a broken neck at the bottom of a flight of stairs. Willed all his assets, she prepares to settle into his London home only to discover that his extensive library has been sold to pay off debts. She resolves to buy back as many of his books as possible and gains employment in a bookshop. While taking orders for rare books, she encounters two customers obsessively seeking the same edition of an obscure work by Mansfield. She is determined to find out why the book is so valuable to them and why one customer is desperate enough to threaten her and perhaps even willing to commit murder to gain possession of it. Ardent fans of Jane Austen and lovers of a gripping stories will enjoy following Sophie's pursuit of the truth.
