FIRST FRIDAY BOOK CLUB | MISS AUSTEN by Gill Hornby

Join The Friends for another lively First Friday Book Club.

Twenty-three years after Jane Austen’s death her sister Cassandra burnt much of her sister’s correspondence, much to the horror of Jane’s fans and literary historians.   In Miss Austen, Gill Hornby attempts to solve mysteries with a fictional interpretation of Cassandra’s motives and what those letters may have contained.

For the two decades following the death of her beloved sister, Jane, Cassandra Austen has lived alone, spending her days visiting friends and relations and quietly, purposefully working to preserve her sister’s reputation. Now in her sixties and increasingly frail, Cassandra goes to stay with the Fowles of Kintbury, family of her long-dead fiancé, in search of a trove of Jane’s letters. Dodging her hostess and a meddlesome housemaid, Cassandra eventually hunts down the letters and confronts the secrets they hold, secrets not only about Jane but about Cassandra herself. Will Cassandra bare the most private details of her life to the world, or commit her sister’s legacy to the flames?

Moving back and forth between the vicarage and Cassandra’s vibrant memories of her years with Jane, interwoven with Jane’s brilliantly reimagined lost letters, Miss Austen is the untold story of the most important person in Jane’s life. With extraordinary empathy, emotional complexity, and wit, Gill Hornby finally gives Cassandra her due, bringing to life a woman as captivating as any Austen heroine. 

For those who love Jane Austen and everything in that period, this will be a chance to explore another side of history.