Austen at Sea
A Novel
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4.0 • 5 Ratings
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- $14.99
Publisher Description
Two pairs of siblings, devotees of Jane Austen, find their lives transformed by a visit to England and Sir Francis Austen, her last surviving brother and keeper of a long-suppressed, secret legacy.
In Boston, 1865, Charlotte and Henrietta Stevenson, daughters of a Massachusetts Supreme Court Justice, have accomplished as much as women are allowed in those days. Chafing against those restrictions and inspired by the works of Jane Austen, they start a secret correspondence with Sir Francis Austen, her last surviving brother, now in his nineties. He sends them an original letter from his sister and invites them to come visit him in England.
In Philadelphia, Nicholas & Haslett Nelson—bachelor brothers, veterans of the recent Civil War, and rare book dealers—are also in correspondence with Sir Francis Austen, who lures them, too, to England, with the promise of a never-before-seen, rare Austen artifact to be evaluated.
The Stevenson sisters sneak away without a chaperone to sail to England. On their ship are the Nelson brothers, writer Louisa May Alcott, Sara-Beth Gleason—wealthy daughter of a Pennsylvania state senator with her eye on the Nelsons—and, a would-be last-minute chaperone to the Stevenson sisters, Justice Thomas Nash.
It's a voyage and trip that will dramatically change each of their lives in ways that are unforeseen, with the transformative spirit of the love of literature and that of Jane Austen herself.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
The latest from Jenner (Every Time We Say Goodbye) is a fun if implausible tale about Jane Austen's Victorian admirers. Charlotte and Henrietta Stevenson, the unmarried daughters of a Massachusetts judge, write a letter praising Austen, their literary idol, to her last surviving sibling, Francis "Frank" Austen. Now elderly and frail, Frank writes back that he's unsure what to do with Jane's letters. Over the course of their ensuing correspondence, he accepts the sisters' offer to help, prompting them to defy their father's wishes and board a steamship to England in June 1865. Also aboard are two other Jane Austen devotees whom Frank invited to visit: bookseller brothers Nicholas and Haslett Nelson. Charlotte, an aspiring actor, attracts the attention of a theatrical producer during the voyage, while Henrietta meets up with British journalist Denham Scott , who, unbeknownst to her family, had been courting her in Boston. During the crossing, they are married by the ship's captain. In England, the Americans learn that Frank's daughter Fanny-Sophia wants to burn Jane's letters, which she deems indiscreet. Frank's decision to involve four young American strangers in his sister's posthumous reputation strains credulity, as does a plotline involving Denham's attempt to divorce Henrietta only a month after their wedding. It's not Jenner's best work, but her fans will still enjoy the mix of fact and fiction.
