I have very mixed feelings about Natalie Jenner's debut novel The Jane Austen Society (#973). The actual action in this novel centers around WWII, when intrepid villagers decide to use their love of Jane Austen's literature to band together and create a group dedicated to the study and preservation of her work. It helps that they live in Chawton, where Miss Austen resided for a number of years near her brother's family.
Sometimes I felt like I had dropped into the middle of a serious-minded book club whose members were trying to one-up each in their knowledge of Austen arcana, with their profound insights and ability to quote her various works verbatim at length. This led to much mental eye-rolling on my part.
At other times, I felt the characters (all fictional, of course!) were competing for who had had the most traumatic experiences in their pasts, or whose secrets could potentially damage them more than any other character. Was it the nearly mute farm worker whose chance encounter with an American woman led to his obsession with Jane Austen's books? Or the widowed doctor who can't cope with his loss? Or the agoraphobic daughter of the nearby Great House whose father is bent on destroying her life? Or could it be the glamorous American film star whose fiancé is using her to his advantage? Hmm. Even though Jane Austen's characters had similar tragedies and traumas befall them, Miss Austen never found it necessary to provide the graphic details of such sordid encounters as are found here.
I'm glad the real Jane Austen Society exists, with a mission similar to the one stated in this book. Just don't be deluded into thinking that these characters had anything remotely to do with the factual foundation.
And before I go, may I also say the linguistic anachronisms in The Jane Austen Society bothered me as well. It breaks the rhythm of the narration when one of these clunkers pops out of the dialogue at you.
In its defense, the Large Print edition did have an attractive cover.
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