In 1852, a Boston Janeite named Eliza Susan Quincy sent a fan letter to Austen’s brother Francis. “For many years her talents have brightened our daily path, and her name and those of her characters are familiar to us as ‘household words,’ ” wrote Quincy, daughter of a former president of Harvard University.
Then she asked a favor–in retrospect, a huge one: Could Frank send along “[t]he autograph of his sister, or a few lines in her handwriting”? Frank supplied an Austen letter, a correspondence ensued, and one of Eliza’s sisters visited him in England a few years later. (Read an account here.)
This episode helped inspire Austen at Sea, a new historical novel by Natalie Jenner, which we’ll discuss at our next JASNA-New Jersey meeting, taking place over Zoom on July 19 at 2 pm (US Eastern).
Jenner’s 2020 novel The Jane Austen Society, a fictionalized account of the World War II-era British campaign to preserve Austen’s cottage at Chawton, was a bestseller in both the US and Canada.
Austen at Sea takes place in 1865, as two sisters from Boston set sail for England in hopes of meeting Francis Austen, with whom they have struck up a secret correspondence. On board their ship, they cross paths with a host of other characters, including two rare book dealers and the writer Louisa May Alcott. Published earlier this year, it’s “a transatlantic romp with a literary mystery and seriously twisted legal knot at its heart,” Jenner says in a recent interview.
Attendance at the July 19 discussion is free, but you must register to receive a Zoom link. To do so, please email us at: jasnanewjersey AT gmail DOT com.
Jane Austen Society of North America - New Jersey Region 