The Jane Austen Society

This novel by Natalie Jenner is strongly reminiscent of the The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society in its gentle, bittersweet tenor describing a terrible time in the lives of those living through WWI and WWII in England.  Here our attention is focused on the small village of Chawton, outside Alton, the final home of Jane Austen and the locale for her last three novels. Every member of the village has suffered loss of some kind, the unending privations of war, the death of loved ones. And they all cope in their unique ways. The bulk of the story takes place in 1945 after the war has ended. 

Austen's brother, Edward Austen Knight, lived in the "Great House" on the Knight estate in the village. The last remaining Knight family male is on his deathbed and the vindictive old man long ago denied his daughter, Frances, a marriage to the person she loved, and now punishes her for failure to produce an heir by totally disinheriting her. The manor is due to go to any remaining male relative of the family and along with it, hundreds of years of memorabilia associated with Jane Austen and thousands of books in the manor's libraries that she had access to. An unlikely cluster of Austen fans come together to try and preserve especially the library, but also the steward's cottage on the estate, which is where Jane Austen herself lived.  The group is actually the brain child of the village handyman, Adam; no one even knew he read much, but it turns out that Austen has been a source of solace after the death of his two brothers in the war. He is joined by the widowed village physician Dr. Gray, former school teacher Adeline who lost both her husband and her baby, Frances Knight, her house maid Evie, the Knight family solicitor Andrew Forrester, Hollywood actress Mimi Harrison, and Sinclair, an expert on antiquities who works at Sotheby's and has been trying to get Frances to sell him Austen related items. 

Along the way, we discover long-suppressed loves, secret identities, and scoundrels who get their come-uppance. Somewhat of a slow start, but overall a satisfying read, even if you are not a hard core Austen fan. The book has received numerous notable mentions and laudatory reviews: The Washington Post; Kirkus; Publishers Weekly.