Dear Mr. Knightley


Book Description

Samantha's only friends were characters in books, but her real life takes an extraordinary turn when a mysterious "Mr. Knightley" offers her a full journalism scholarship—on the condition that she write to him regularly. Will their long-distance friendship unlock her heart? Sam is, to say the least, bookish. An English major of the highest order, her diet has always been Austen, Dickens, and Shakespeare. The problem is that both her prose and conversation tend to be more Elizabeth Bennet than Samantha Moore. But life for the twenty-three-year-old orphan is about to get stranger than fiction. An anonymous, Dickensian benefactor calling himself Mr. Knightley offers to put Sam through Northwestern University’s prestigious Medill School of Journalism. There is only one catch: Sam must write frequent letters to the mysterious donor, detailing her progress. Sam’s letters to Mr. Knightley become increasingly confessional as she begins to share everything from her painful childhood memories to her growing feelings for eligible novelist Alex Powell. While Alex draws Sam into a world of warmth and literature that feels like it’s straight out of a book, old secrets are drawn to light. And as Sam learns to love and trust Alex and herself, she learns once again how quickly trust can be broken. Reminding us all that our own true character is not meant to be hidden, Katherine Reay’s debut novel follows a young woman’s journey as she sheds her protective persona and embraces the person she was meant to become. Praise for Dear Mr. Knightley: “Katherine Reay’s Dear Mr. Knightley kept me up until 2:00 a.m.; I simply couldn’t put it down.”—Eloisa James, New York Times bestselling author of Once Upon a Tower “Sprinkled with classic literary references and filled with poignant characterizations, Katherine Reay’s modern retelling of Jean Webster’s Daddy-Long-Legs is both reverently crafted and delightfully surprising.”—Lauren Ann Nattress, Austenprose.com “Katherine Reay’s touching debut novel made me cry in all the right places. For joy.”—Laurie Viera Rigler, author of Rude Awakenings of a Jane Austen Addict Sweet, stand-alone contemporary romance Includes discussion questions for book clubs, a Q&A with the author, and Sam’s reading list




Jane Austen: Daddy’s Girl


Book Description

Jane Austen Daddy’s Girl: The Life and Influence of the Revd George Austen is a poignant and pertinent examination of a relationship which became the cornerstone of Jane’s life, the bedrock of family and faith as she knew them. Our epic journey through the life and times of the Reverend George Austen will lead us from his early childhood and humble beginnings as an orphan, through his schooldays and on to Oxford University, and beyond. We will follow his career in the Church of England and as master of his own boarding school, as well as peek into his marriage and home life. Dovetailed in with this revealing biography is a thorough interpretation of fatherhood as a theme, as outlined in Jane’s novels, with scrutiny of the fathers of all her most beloved fictional families. Chapter by chapter we will understand more about Jane’s own view on fatherhood and how the Reverend Austen, as her father, colored and created that view. As we draw George and Jane’s relationship closer to us, we understand anew the many layers of clever meaning that Jane Austen interlaced within her stories. Through an examination of this unique father-daughter bond, Jane Austen fans everywhere can pull up a footstool in George’s library and become further united in spirit with their beloved novelist.




Jane Austen's Best Friend


Book Description

The story of Martha Lloyd—recipe collector, housekeeping expert, and Jane Austen’s dearest friend. Fans of Jane Austen often feel that the beloved author is like a best friend—and this book shines a light on what it meant to be exactly that. Jane Austen’s Best Friend: The Life and Influence of Martha Lloyd offers a unique insight into Jane’s private inner circle. Through this heartwarming examination of an important and often overlooked person in Jane’s world, we uncover the life-changing force of their friendship. Each chapter details the fascinating facts and friendship-forming qualities that tied Jane and Martha together. Within these pages we relive their shared interests, the hits and misses of their romantic lives, their passion for shopping and fashion, their family histories, their lucky breaks, and their girly chats. This book offers a behind-the-scenes tour of the shared lives of a fascinating pair and the chance to deepen our own bonds in “love and friendship” with them both.




Austen Years


Book Description

One of The Globe and Mail's Best Books of 2020 "A thoroughly authentic, smart and consoling account of one writer’s commitment to another." --The New York Times Book Review (editors' choice) "An absolutely fascinating book: I will never read Austen the same way again." —Helen Macdonald, author of H is for Hawk An astonishingly nuanced reading of Jane Austen that yields a rare understanding of how to live "About seven years ago, not too long before our daughter was born, and a year before my father died, Jane Austen became my only author." In the turbulent period around the birth of her first child and the death of her father, Rachel Cohen turned to Jane Austen to make sense of her new reality. For Cohen, simultaneously grief-stricken and buoyed by the birth of her daughter, reading Austen became her refuge and her ballast. She was able to reckon with difficult questions about mourning, memorializing, living in a household, paying attention to the world, reading, writing, and imagining through Austen’s novels. Austen Years is a deeply felt and sensitive examination of a writer’s relationship to reading, and to her own family, winding together memoir, criticism, and biographical and historical material about Austen herself. And like the sequence of Austen’s novels, the scope of Austen Years widens successively, with each chapter following one of Austen's novels. We begin with Cohen in Cambridge, Massachusetts, where she raises her small children and contemplates her father’s last letter, a moment paired with the grief of Sense and Sensibility and the social bonds of Pride and Prejudice. Later, moving with her family to Chicago, Cohen grapples with her growing children, teaching, and her father’s legacy, all refracted through the denser, more complex Mansfield Park and Emma. With unusual depth and fresh insight into Austen’s life and literature, and guided by Austen’s mournful and hopeful final novel, Persuasion, Rachel Cohen’s Austen Years is a rare memoir of mourning and transcendence, a love letter to a literary master, and a powerful consideration of the odd process that merges our interior experiences with the world at large.




Daddy Long-Legs


Book Description

Daddy-Long-Legs is a 1912 epistolary novel by the American writer Jean Webster. It follows the protagonist, a young girl named Jerusha "Judy" Abbott, through her college years. She writes the letters to her benefactor, a rich man whom she has never seen.




Ordinary, Extraordinary Jane Austen


Book Description

A gorgeous and inspiring picture book biography of Jane Austen, one of the most beloved writers of all time, from award-winning author Deborah Hopkinson. It is a truth universally acknowledged that Jane Austen is one of our greatest writers. But before that, she was just an ordinary girl. In fact, young Jane was a bit quiet and shy; if you had met her back then, you might not have noticed her at all. But she would have noticed you. Jane watched and listened to all the things people around her did and said, and locked those observations away for safekeeping. Jane also loved to read. She devoured everything in her father’s massive library and before long, she began creating her own stories. In her time, the most popular books were grand adventures and romances, but Jane wanted to go her own way...and went on to invent an entirely new kind of novel. Ordinary, Extraordinary Jane Austen includes a timeline and quotes from Austen's most popular novels. Parents and grandparents, as well as teachers and librarians, will enjoy introducing children to Jane Austen through this accessible, beautifully packaged picture book.




Jane Austen's World


Book Description

"This book presents Jane Austen's life and works in a beautifully illustrated volume, taking a thematic, all-encompassing look at this most brilliant of writers and the society that shaped her work"--Front dust jacket flap.




Among the Janeites


Book Description

With warmth and humor, lifelong Janeite Deborah Yaffe opens the door on the quirky, thriving subculture of Jane Austen fandom.




The Prayers of Jane Austen


Book Description

You know Jane Austen as the beloved author of Pride and Prejudice, Emma, and other witty, insightful novels of the early nineteenth century. Now come to know her as a woman of unexpected spiritual depth. Jane Austen wrote beautiful, heartfelt prayers for use during her family's evening devotions. Each one reveals her gratitude for God's blessings and her pursuit of a holy life—expressions of a woman whose heart was profoundly moved by faith. In this beautifully designed book, author Terry Glaspey introduces you to Jane Austen the Christian by sharing this powerful collection of prayers and also a glimpse into her life story and the impact she had as a writer of virtue, character, and morality.




Searching for Mr Tilney


Book Description

Searching for Mr Tilney What secrets lie at the heart of Jane Austen's teenage journal? When Caroline Heath is taken to Bath in 1975, she little expects to find the gothic adventure she craves, let alone discover Jane Austen's secret teenage journal, or how it's possible to live in someone else's body. Yet, she's soon caught up in a whirlwind of fantastic events - travels through time, a love story or three, and even the odd sinister murder - or so she thinks. As the past and present entwine, Jane's journal reveals a coming of age tale, set against the scandalous backdrop of Knole Park in Kent, and the story behind an enigmatic portrait. In Bath, a Georgian townhouse acts as a portal in time, and Caroline finds herself becoming Cassandra Austen, a young woman making her debut in society, torn between family duty and the love of her life. As the riddles unfold, and the lines blur between illusion and reality, will Caroline find the happiness she seeks or will she indulge her wild imagination, threatening her future and a fairytale ending?