This was a great book giving you a glimpse into the life of Jane Austen's beloved sister. It was nice to hear about Jane from her point of view. Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for the early review copy.

This novel isn’t the story of Jane, as I expected, but her beloved sister Cassandra.

It begins in 1840 two decades after Janes death, where Cassandra returns to a village where she knows the letters between her, Jane and their dear friend Eliza Fowle have been hidden. She is determined the letters should not be found by anyone but her.

The book then then swings between the past, when the letters were written, and when the story is being told.

This is such a beautifully written book, that I highly recommend.

We don’t know a lot about Jane Austen’s life, or even about her thoughts and opinions outside of those she portrays in the narrative of her novels. A big part of that lack of knowledge comes down to the fact that Jane’s sister Cassandra burned a large volume of Jane’s correspondence following the author’s death. While some have speculated that this was to create a disconnect between Jane’s romantic life and that portrayed in her published writings, Gill Hornby gives us a more nuanced view of Cassandra’s motivations. Cassandra is portrayed in this novel while she approaches the end of her life and reviews past events as she continues her mission to preserve the public view of Jane Austen in the most appealing way possible, by hunting down a trove of letters in order to destroy them.

Cassandra is in the village of Kintbury visiting the Fowle family, long-time friends and relatives by marriage (at one remove) to the Austens and their friends, the Lloyds. Both the Austens and the Fowles are ecclesiastical families, with sons succeeding their fathers as rectors of their respective parishes. Now, however, the last Reverend Fowle has died, and the official purpose of Cassandra’s visit is to help the unmarried daughter who nursed him through his last illness to pack up her belongings and move out of the rectory to make way for the new incumbent. Unofficially, Cassandra has set herself two other tasks: to find the letters written by Jane to their friend, the late rector’s wife who predeceased him, and to ensure that his daughter is reconciled with one or other of her two sisters – both of whom live locally – in order that they can set up house together.

Cassandra knows what it is to be a single woman in the times she lives in, with no fixed home and always reliant on the mercy of friends and relatives for a place to stay. Her hostess, however, seems most unwilling to bow to Cassandra’s age and wisdom, and Cassandra’s efforts are further hampered by an unruly servant, who seems determined to deny Cassandra access to both the letters she is seeking to destroy and to any information relating to where her employer is planning to live once the rectory is no longer an option.

There was a lot to like about this book. I loved the author’s theories that Jane was not the demure and hard-working writer that Cassandra’s efforts have helped to establishe in the years since their respective deaths. I also enjoyed seeing Cassandra’s theories about those around her, and her memories of past events being upended by both the goings-on around her and by her reading of the letters she has managed to reclaim. There were moments when the sheer size of the cast of characters was a little overwhelming, and I think I would have preferred to have read a print version of the book in order to more quickly flick between the main story and the explanatory notes at the beginning. On final reflection, I think I need to reread this one on my next visit to Chawton, in order to gain a better understanding of the individuals involved, and their surroundings.

We are so used to knowing everything about our idols these days. Thanks to social media and tabloid journalism we know what our favourite actors, musicians and authors are doing at any time (even if we then have to try and work out how much of what we are told about them is actually true…) – we sometimes feel that we know them as well as we know our own family. But authors from before the age of Twitter and Instagram can be a bit more of a mystery – knowledge about them is often the result of meticulous research by academics and close reading of both texts, diaries, letters and other primary source material but what happens when that material isn’t available? In this book Gill Hornby has created an intriguing novel around the fact that many of Jane Austen’s letters were destroyed after her death by her older sister, Cassandra: what secrets were being hidden, what scandal? Or maybe, what sorrows….

The Miss Austen of the title is, of course, Cassandra herself. As the elder she had that title and Jane would always have been Miss Jane Austen – more importantly, she was the older sister whose job was to protect and support the younger and, it seems, that job wasn’t just during Jane’s lifetime. Much of the story is set in 1840, over twenty years after Jane’s death, and sees Cassandra visiting the village of Kintbury and the last members of a family with close ties to the Austens. Cassandra was once engaged to one of the sons, Tom Fowle, before his untimely death and one of the daughters, Eliza was a close friend to both girls. A second sister, Mary, married the eldest Austen brother but was not so popular with the rest of the family. The visit is, on the surface, to help the last of the Fowles, Isabella, to pack up their personal belongings before leaving to allow the next Vicar to take over the living but Cassandra is also searching for some very personal letters which Jane sent to Eliza.

As well as a plausible story about Cassandra’s self-imposed mission to preserve her sister’s memory this is also an insight into the life of unmarried women in that time. As Cassandra finds and rereads some of the letters we also flashback to the 1790s, the engagement to Tom, his death and the ups and downs of the Austen sisters’ lives. Many of our key characters are spinsters and, we discover, those who marry often do so for security rather than love or even affection. We see (as Jane herself wrote in Emma) the difference between single women with no financial security and those who are able to survive with some degree of independence but all the women suffer the stresses of living in a man’s world. We also discover what it is about Jane that Cassandra is so keen to hide – a secret which is not shocking at all to us, I hope, but certainly doesn’t fit the image of an author who writes with a fine brush on her two inches of ivory. A very satisfying read.

★★ 2.5 stars

When one hears the term MISS AUSTEN one immediately thinks of Jane Austen, the author of "Pride and Prejudice", "Sense and Sensibility" and "Emma" to name a few. But in actuality, the title of Miss Austen belonged to Jane's eldest sister Cassandra, of whom this story is about.

Cassandra (Cassy) was the most significant person in Jane's life as her confidante, closest friend and companion. And after her death, Cassandra became her censor in destroying so much of Jane's letters, protecting her sister's memory and shaping the narrative of what was her life.

The book begins in 1840 with the now older Miss Austen arriving at the home of her long dead fiance's family, the Fowles. The Reverend Fowle has recently passed and it falls to his youngest unmarried daughter Isabella to pack up the family's possessions to make way for the new vicar. It's an inconvenient time but Cassandra has a purpose in tracking down all of her Jane's letters and to destroy them. Although she is unwelcome, Cassandra is nothing if not loyal as she endeavours to protect her sister's memory. When the letters are found, she then pieces together alternate versions of events from various parties as the letters recount the story of both Cassandra and her more famous sister.

The narrative moves between the past 1795 and the present 1840 with Cassandra as both a young woman and an elderly one much later in life. She reminisces on Tom Fowle's proposal and her acceptance followed by the excitement of her first visit to Kintbury as a prospective bride which then is in contrast with her now unwelcome arrival as an elderly spinster. This is the tragedy for which Cassandra is known. The girl who loved Tom Fowle, who died before he would marry her and she was consumed by her silent grief for his memory for the rest of her life.

The revelation of Jane's letters recounting Cassandra's relationship with Tom gave a shadow of hope in that the story would become a little more compelling but it did not. I liked the story, but I found it difficult to connect with it. I didn't find it as easy read as I had thought I would...but then I have never read any of Jane Austen's books either. I've only seen the TV adaptions and thoroughly enjoyed them.

While the plot is simple enough the story is slow to progress and I guess that's what I found difficult to connect with. I don't like slow stories as a rule, but prefer a much faster pace. I'm not sure what I expected but I was somewhat disappointed. However, there are those who may appreciate it's slow detailed stroll through MISS AUSTEN and her memories.

MISS AUSTEN is not a bad book. It just failed to enthrall me as much as I'd hoped. In my opinion, I believe you may well need to be an Austen fan to fully appreciate this book...or it won't be as enjoyable. As I have never read any Austen, this may be why I didn't.

I found it incredibly difficult to follow the unformatted copy (moreso than others) so I may go back an re-read it at a later date so I can fully appreciate it more. That being said, fans of Austen will enjoy MISS AUSTEN.

Can I just say how much I love the embroidered cover? It is soooo delighful and very fitting for the time period of this book.

I would like to thank #GilHornby, #NetGalley and #RandomHouseUK for an ARC of #MissAusten in exchange for an honest review.

I really enjoyed this book. It was beautifully written and absorbing.

It was fascinating to see the relationship between the two sisters - Jane and Cassandra Austen.

Following Jane’s death, Cassandra works to preserve her sister’s reputation - she visits the family of her long dead fiancé to retrieve letters written by Jane. Working through these letters she relives her past and that of her family.

A lovely heartwarming story.

It’s not often that when you read Miss Austen that your mind jumps to anyone but Jane Austen but in this case, it is, in fact, Cassandra Austen who is the main feature of this story. To be honest until recently I didn’t really know much about the Austen family and had no idea that Cassandra had destroyed some of Jane’s letters, so I found it a really interesting concept to delve into a possible scenario for her actions.

What surprised me most of all was how much I loved reading about Cassandra. Like a lot of people might do, I entered into this story with more of a mind to Jane, but actually, in this instance, I am glad that she was not the focus. Personally, I quite enjoyed getting to know more about the Austen family, as someone coming into this book with very little previous knowledge of them it was a treat to be so entertained whilst discovering the history.

Admittedly at the start I did find the book a little slow and whilst my attention didn’t wander, I didn’t find it as captivating as I had hoped. However, as I got more drawn into the story and became fascinated by Cassandra’s character I suddenly was engrossed in what was happening.

Miss Austen is told between two timelines, 1840 when she arrives in Kintbury where she finds the letters and then as she starts to go through them we get a glimpse into the past at different stages of Cassandra’s life. The more I read I was both desperate to discover the contents of the letters and what snippet of the past that would lead us to, but also the intrigue of what was going to happen with Isabella and why Dinah seemed to hover around as much as she did.

I feel that even though it was a little slow to start I have to commend the author for taking the time to set the scene so well, it was easy to experience all the different settings and dynamics between the family, and had that not been so well laid out I don’t think I would have been able to appreciate this book as much as I do.

I think what really shines through in this book and what I ended up enjoying the most about the story is the bond between the two sisters, in a time when it would not be so commonplace it was nice to see how devoted they were to each other and how they thrived even though they were unmarried and in a time when it was very difficult to be so.

It was a pleasure to discover Miss Austen and its reasons for Cassandra’s actions, it is a beautiful and entertaining book and if you are a fan of Jane Austen or historical fiction then you will love it.

Miss Austen was a sheer delight to read, or rather immerse myself in. Based on a real life mystery surrounding personal letters exchanged between Jane Austen, her sister Cassie and Eliza Fowle, this story is an imagining of what could have been contained within those letters. Cassie returns to Kintbury in 1840 on a mission to find her sister's letters to protect her reputation and legacy. As she reads the letters we are transported back in time and learn more about the sisters' lives. Cassie and Jane were the best of friends and true companions to one another all their lives. This book is really about family, loyalty and unconditional love. A truly special story that I was sad to finish.

Cassandra is Jane Austen’s older sister. Through the authors portrayal of the characters you see the story through Cassandra’s eyes and feel hers and Janes losses. You are transported to that time where women are subject to different societal demands and were solely dependent on their fathers, husbands and brothers.

This is a delightful story detailing how Cassandra; Jane Austen’s older sister loved her family dearly and would do anything to protect them and her sister Janes’ legacy.

Beautifully written and a lovely read.

A wonderful story about the sister of Jane Austen. This story has served to intrigue me more about the siblings of Jane Austen and her wider family. The tenderness portrayed in the sister-sister relationship was beautiful to read. I enjoyed this from start to finish and found myself highly engaged in the two time streams throughout the book and am not ashamed to state I shed a tear at the conclusion. Fantastic read.

Thank you Netgalley.

I’m a huge fan of Jane Austen’s books but didn’t know much about her life so I found it utterly fascinating to discover more about her. This book is actually based on a real life mystery which I found very interesting especially as the author suggests a possible solution in this book.

Firstly I absolutely adored Cassandra who was such a character and often made me laugh with her antics. I loved the way she played on being old when it suited her but was actually very switched on which was a huge advantage when it comes to her investigations. It was so lovely to read about her obvious love for her sister, Jane and to read about some of their memories together.

The author brilliantly brings the 19th century to life with the author cleverly including some of the attitudes towards woman and older people into the story. I was quite shocked to read about how they were treated and found myself very glad that things were different now. The letters that we get to read alongside Cassandra further brought Jane Austen’s world to life and I so enjoyed reading about what daily life was like for these woman.

Overall I thought this was a very absorbing, fascinating book which I flew through in a couple of days as I was so enjoying it. If you are a fan of Jane Austen’s then you’ll love this book.

Huge thanks to Random House, Century for my copy of this book via Netgalley.

Miss Austen tells us the (imagined but grounded in fact) story of Jane Austen through her older sister Cassandra's eyes. Cassandra will do anything to protect Jane's legacy and we meet her in 1840, arriving at a Kintbury, the home of Austen Family friends. Cassandra is making one last visit to Kintbury to find and remove correspondence from her sister Jane that may in anyway damage the legacy of Jane that she has worked tirelessly to curate since her death.

I've always been an Austen Fan and I loved that this story centred on Cassandra. Her love for her family, especially her devotion to Jane, is admirable and shapes the life she lived. Hornby captures the mood and tone of the times perfectly and her dialogue, especially quips and observations from Jane in her letters, are on point.

The novel is told through Cassandra's eyes and Jane's letters. Bringing to life their delight in each other's company, their friendships, love lost and challenges as life dealt them both moment of cruel fate.

This book is beautifully written. It's slow to unfold and I found it required my commitment to finish. It's for the ture Austen fans out there, as it's intrigue and fascination comes from a love of her writing and her life story.

I really enjoyed Gill Hornby’s fictionalised account of the life of Cassandra Austen, older sister to Jane. According to the Author’s Note, it’s a matter of record that in the last years of her life, Cassandra who was the executor of her sister’s estate - “the keeper of her flame; the protector of her legacy” - sought out a number of intimate letters that she had Jane had written to family friend Eliza Fowle. Cassandra’s aim was to destroy the letters lest they be taken as “proof of a disturbance of mind” and damage the reputation of the posthumously famous authoress.

Cassandra’s story is a sad but familiar one for women of her class at the beginning of the 19th century. Denied the traditional route to fulfilment at an early age when her beloved fiancé died at sea, Cassandra, her sister and widowed mother became dependent on the mercies of her four brothers and their (sometimes quite hostile) wives for financial support and accommodation, as Jane’s literary career had not yet borne fruit. The three women lived a peripatetic existence, shunted from rented cottage to seaside guesthouse at the whim of the brothers, and the novel describes with great poignancy and insight how such women became “an object of dread for a whole generation” of in-laws, nieces and nephews and would “end up perched on the edge of their extended families, trying not to get in the way”.

The book opens with Cassandra in her 60s, visiting the home of one such relative whose late mother was the recipient the letters she is seeking to destroy. The woman, Isabella, is in a similar position to Cassandra in that following the death of her father, a vicar, she is now required to vacate the parsonage which has been her home all her life and depend on her family for bed and board.

Although she is very much a secondary character, throughout the novel Jane’s wry humour and self-deprecating nature shine through in her letters and Cassandra’s recollections, as does the unshakable bond between the two sisters. Gill Hornby has captured perfectly the (albeit first world) plight of genteel society women in Regency England, as well as the devotion between the Austen sisters which, thanks to Cassandra’s protective actions, has led to much of Jane’s life remaining a mystery to this day.

What a delicious first chapter there is to ‘Miss Austen’ by Gill Hornby. Elderly Cassandra Austen arrives unannounced to visit a family friend in Kintbury, endures a parsimonious supper and a difficult evening without much conversation. Why, I wondered, is Cassandra there. And then at bedtime, comes a hint at her reason.
Cassandra visits Isabella, a family friend who is grieving the death of her father. Cassandra’s objective, is to retrieve any incriminating letters between her sister Jane and Isabella’s mother, Eliza, before Isabella leaves the family vicarage. With both letter writers dead, and knowledge of the novelist Jane Austen more widely sought than ever before, Cassandra is anxious to protect Jane’s legacy.
What follows is a gentle telling of the sisters’ relationship as Hornby pieces together the real letters of the Austen sisters and the known biography of the family, combined with events and dialogue of her own imagination. This is a meandering read without a real focus, there is the imagined threat to Jane’s reputation as Cassandra searches for the missing letters under threat of exposure by her sister-in-law Mary. But this threat is not wholly formed and the story goes back and forth between Cassandra reading the letters at the dead of night, to key times in the life of Jane.
Not until three-quarters of the way through does the dilemma becomes personal to Cassandra. Until this point, it is oddly numb. Cassandra has been seeking private – and very personal – letters written to Eliza but instead finds letters that cast what she, Cassandra, believes to be a bad light on her own life. Not Jane’s. The stakes are raised and I wanted to see more than a snapshot of the man involved and don’t really care if he was a real person or the author’s invention.
Cassandra in her old age is dismissive of those who do not read or don’t appreciate the art of her sister’s books, and has a lack of interest in anyone not an Austen. ‘Those other mortals, whose poor veins must somehow pulse with no Austen blood in them, always appeared to her comparatively pale’. This quote reminded me of Marianne’s dismissal of Edward’s underwhelming reading of Shakespeare sonnets and made me want a 360 degree picture of Cassandra’s own life.
I finished ‘Miss Austen’ reflecting on the difficulty of writing this novel. What an awkward task it is for an author, to balance biography and real letters with invention and how strong must be the impulse to stick with the truth. I longed for Hornby to take a bigger risk and show us more of the life, and loves, Cassandra may have had.
Read more of my book reviews at http://www.sandradanby.com/book-reviews-a-z/

I was a little unsure before I read this book but I needn't have been it was a fabulous read. I was captivated from the beginning. I was intrigued by the story of Cassandra Austin and her reasons for burning a lot of Jane's letter but I think she was trying to preserve her sister's legacy. A beautifully written book which I enjoyed very much.

Totally delightful, reads like a Jane Austen novel in parts but perfectly captures the characters of Cassandra and her beloved sister. I loved how we are given glimpses of why Cassandra destroyed so many of Jane’s letters, how fiercely she loved her sister but could also be irritated and hurt by her. Loved this, read it and enjoy.

Thanks so much for the opportunity to read this. Sadly didn’t finish. Just not one for me. Wish the author all the best for the book.

A historical and fictional story about the life of ‘miss austen’ as seen through the eyes of her sister Cassandra. A sweet, poignant and at times heart wrenching novel. Thoroughly recommend. Thanks to the publisher and netgalley for the arc.

I want to say a huge Thankyou to the Author Negally and The Publisher for giving me the opportunity to read and review this book. before i read this book I was hearing great thing about it. it was on Waterstones book list and was mentiond on the Radio and the Jane Austen Socitey Website. It did not dissapoint at all. Miss Austen is told from Cassandra Austens point of view and alters between older Cassandras life and the young Cassandras life and through letters she wrote to jane. It was a unique point of view seeing Jane Austen thourhg someone elses life and finding out more about her sister. even though in real life the letters Cassandra Austen burnt I felt that Gill Hornbys reaminging of Cassandras corispondence to Jane was what she would of flet if we had the letters in tact. I felt that the book was funny at times and it telported me into the life of the Austens from Bath to Kent and Hampshire I felt like I was part of there lives. I felt that Gill reasearched the time well and it refelcted in the writing style wich was easy to follow. I have a few fave qoutes inculding "I had to surredner my own libary when we give up the rectory last yuear and much pain did it cause me to surrender ones books well it is to surrender ones Soul." I think everyone who loves reading feels like this if they had to give up there books and the qoute "wouldnt say no to a cup of tea" wich I chuckled at becuase even in the past any problem can be solved with a cup of tea. I can related to jane when Cassandra wrote to her and said her sister didnt like change as i am not keen on change myslef. I would love to see this Miss Austen be made in to a film. I thoroughly recomend this book to any fans of Jane Austen and it makes a good compaion to her books and on any Jane Austen shelve. It was a plesure to read and I did cry at the end.for me this is will make it on to the best books of 2020. i can not wait to buy a Physcal copy for my shelve it deserves all the praise and the hype.

My thanks to Random House U.K./Cornerstone for an eARC via NetGalley of ‘Miss Austen’ by Gill Hornby in exchange for an honest review.

It was published on 23 January and I elected to obtain its audiobook edition, narrated by Juliet Stevenson, to listen alongside reading the eARC.

I found this a fascinating work of historical biographical fiction that focuses upon Jane’s older sister, Cassandra, and seeks to create a narrative to explain her destruction of the bulk of Jane’s correspondence.

In 1840, some twenty-three years following the death of her sister Jane, Cassandra Austen returns to the village of Kintbury, and the home of her family’s friends, the Fowles. She is aware that somewhere in the sprawling vicarage exists a cache of family letters that holds secrets that she is desperate should not be revealed.

During the visit Cassandra takes time to recall her youth and her relationship with her beloved sister. In doing so she begins to piece together buried truths about Jane’s history, as well as her own. This brings about a crises as to whether she should continue to act to protect Jane’s reputation or leave the contents of the hidden letters free to go unguarded into posterity.

In her Author’s Note Hornby advises that while the letters featured in ‘Miss Austen’ are fictional that: “It is a matter of family record that, in the last years of her life, Cassandra Austen looked over the letters that she and her sister had exchanged. All those she found open and confidential–the majority of them, then–she burned.” She goes on to say that undoubtedly Jane would have corresponded with the Fowle family and those letters have never come to light.

I found this a very immersive novel and felt that Gill Hornby exhibited a deep understanding of Jane Austen’s life and work. She not only captured the voices of her characters but beautifully evoked the period. I found it full of moving and insightful scenes and also had its moments of humour, many provided by Dinah, the Fowle’s housemaid. Indeed, I almost laughed out loud on public transport at her behaviour.

I would sum it up as a very gentle novel that, like the novels of Jane Austen, is a comedy of manners. It’s a novel that I would expect to have a wide appeal.