Join the
virtual online book tour of THE JANE AUSTEN SOCIETY, Natalie Jenner’s highly
acclaimed debut novel May 25 through June 30, 2020. Seventy-five
popular blogs and websites specializing in historical fiction, historical
romance, women’s fiction, and Austenesque fiction will feature interviews and reviews
of this post-WWII novel set in Chawton, England.
Title: The Jane Austen Society
Author:
Natalie Jenner
Read
by: Richard Armitage
Publisher:
Macmillan Audio
Length:
Approximately 9 hours and 55 minutes
Source:
Review Copy from Macmillan Audio as part of the tour. Thank-you!
The
Jane Austen Society is a rare book that brings together several people in the
small village of Chawton and tell an overall story that was engaging and
fulfilling. Combined with the dulcet
tones of narrator, Richard Armitage, this was a great book to disappear into during
these troubled times.
Chawton
is the village where Jane Austen spent the last part of her life and where she
wrote and published her novels. I will
admit that I have always wanted to visit Chawton. The village is small and the villagers note
that visitors often make the pilgrimage to find Jane Austen’s home, but there
is no memorial to her. A group of unlikely
people become friends and form a society that has a mutual love for Jane Austen
and wants to use their love to save her home and make it a museum with items of
the era that she lived in.
The
novel starts in the 1930’s, but is mostly set at the end of WWII. Adam Berwick is a farmer that grew up in
Chawton. He had won a scholarship to further
his education, but after WWI killed his two older brothers and the Spanish flu
killed his father, he has stayed in the village to help support his mother and
keep up the family farm. He still loves
to read and a happenstance meeting with a stranger looking for Austen puts him back
into the path of Austen’s novels. Dr.
Gray is a widower and a lover of Austen, Adeline Lewis is a local teacher, Evie
Snow is a star pupil who has to drop out to help her family, Frances Knight is
a descendant of Jane Austen’s brother , and Mimi Harrison is a Hollywood star
that may have passed her prime. I loved all of the characters and their great
love of Jane Austen and her novels. They
fascinated me and had wonderful stories.
I also loved that there were hints of Austen’s novels in the stories of
some of these characters.
One
item that was part of this novel that surprised me was an honest discussion of
grief. Many of the characters in this
novel have lost someone dear to them.
How do they move on from this grief and how does the grief hold them
hostage? I feel like many of the
characters were paralyzed with grief and had been unable to move forward with
their lives. Their love for Austen and
the Society itself helps them to move forward.
I
also am a lover of old books and libraries.
I loved a side story of Evie Snow working in the Knight estate; exploring
and cataloguing all of the books in the library. It was interesting for her to think about how
Austen could have read those same novels.
I loved it!
I
listened to the audiobook version and also read the kindle version. I really liked to listen to it and then
reread the chapters to savor the language and the story. Richard Armitage is a wonderful narrator with
a strong deep voice that gave the story character and emotion. I have enjoyed listening to books he has
narrated in the past and will keep searching him out as a narrator in the
future. I really enjoy his narration
style.
I
honestly can’t write just how much I enjoyed this novel. I loved listening to it and reading it and
was only sad when it was over. It was a
gentle and enjoyable story. The
characters and story were very interesting, but I also loved the rumination on
Austen herself and her works. She was another
character who elusively existed off page of this novel. It reminded me in a way of The Jane Austen
Book Club combined with the Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society.
Favorite
Quotes:
I
had a hard time just picking a few favorite quotes from this novel as I had
highlighted so many quotes that I enjoyed.
“During
the Great War, shell-shocked soldiers had been encouraged to read Jane Austen
in particular – Kipling had coped with the loss of his soldier son by reading
her books aloud to his family each night – Winston Churchill had recently used
them to get through the Second World War…Part of the comfort they derived from
rereading was the satisfaction of knowing there would be closure – of feeling,
each time , an inexplicable anxiety over whether the main characters would find
love and happiness, while all the while knowing, on some different parallel interior
track , that it was all going to work out in the end. Of being both one step ahead of the characters
and one step behind Austen on every single reading. But part of it was the heroism of Austen herself,
in writing through illness and despair, and facing her own early death.” - I liked this quote as it really dives into how
Austen’s novels have helped people deal with trauma through time.
“The
unnatural loss of youth not only hits us harder, it seems to insist on invading
our days, as if the memory of the person lost too soon has a hidden persistent
source of energy.” – There were a number of good quotes on grief in this
novel. It was very thoughtfully
written.
“And
one never really know what others do to cope – you’d be surprised. There’s coping and then there’s just getting
through the night.”
“None
of us can ever say for sure what we’d do without feeling all of someone else’s slings
and arrows along the way.”
Overall,
The Jane Austen Society was a lovely gentle novel about wounded souls who find
themselves by helping others and trying to preserve the legacy of one of the
world’s greatest authors. I loved this
novel and highly recommend it.
QUICK FACTS:
- Title: The Jane Austen Society: A Novel
- Author: Natalie Jenner
- Genre: Historical Fiction, Austenesque Fiction
- Publisher: St. Martin’s Press (May 26, 2020)
- Length (320) pages
- Hardcover ISBN: 978-1250248732
- eBook ASIN: B07WQPPXFW
- Audiobook ASIN: B082VL7VRR
- Tour Dates: May 25 – June 30, 2020
ACCOLADES:
·
An
Amazon Best Book of May 2020
·
One
of Goodreads Big Books of Spring & Hot Books of Summer
·
One
of Audible’s Top 50 Most Anticipated Spring Audiobooks
·
June
2020 Indie Next Pick
·
May
2020 Library Reads Pick
·
Starred
Review - Library Journal
·
Starred
Review - Booklist
BOOK
DESCRIPTION:
Just
after the Second World War, in the small English village of Chawton, an unusual
but like-minded group of people band together to attempt something remarkable.
One
hundred and fifty years ago, Chawton was the final home of Jane Austen, one of
England's finest novelists. Now it's home to a few distant relatives and their
diminishing estate. With the last bit of Austen's legacy threatened, a group of
disparate individuals come together to preserve both Jane Austen's home and her
legacy. These people—a laborer, a young widow, the local doctor, and a movie
star, among others—could not be more different and yet they are united in their
love for the works and words of Austen. As each of them endures their own quiet
struggle with loss and trauma, some from the recent war, others from more
distant tragedies, they rally together to create the Jane Austen Society.
AUDIOBOOK NARRATED BY ACTOR RICHARD ARMITAGE:
The full unabridged text of THE JANE AUSTEN SOCIETY
was read by the distinguished English film, television, theatre and voice actor
Richard Armitage for the audiobook recording. Best known by many period drama
fans for his outstanding performance as John Thornton in the BBC television
adaptation of North and South (2004), Armitage also portrayed Thorin
Oakenshield in Peter Jackson's film trilogy adaptation of The Hobbit
(2012 – 2014).
PURCHASE LINKS:
ADVANCE PRAISE:
“Just like a story written by Austen herself,
Jenner’s first novel is brimming with charming moments, endearing characters,
and nuanced relationships…Readers won’t need previous knowledge of Austen and
her novels to enjoy this tale’s slow revealing of secrets that build to a
satisfying and dramatic ending.” ―Booklist
(starred review)
“Few things draw disparate people together so quickly
as discovering they love the same writers. Few writers cement such friendships
as deeply as Austen does. I believe that the readers of Jenner’s book will fall
in love with the readers inside Jenner’s book, all of us thinking and dreaming
of Austen the whole while. What could be better? Nothing, that’s what! A
wonderful book, a wonderful read.” ―Karen
Joy Fowler, New York Times bestselling author of The Jane Austen Book Club
“Fans of The Chilbury Ladies’ Choir and The
Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society will adore The Jane Austen
Society… A charming and memorable debut, which reminds us of the universal
language of literature and the power of books to unite and heal.” —Pam Jenoff, New York Times bestselling author
of The Lost Girls of Paris
SPOTIFY
PLAYLIST:
AUTHOR
BIO:
Natalie
Jenner is the debut author of THE JANE AUSTEN SOCIETY, a
fictional telling of the start of the society in the 1940s in the village of
Chawton, where Austen wrote or revised her major works. Born in England and
raised in Canada, Natalie graduated from the University of Toronto with degrees
in English Literature and Law and has worked for decades in the legal industry.
She recently founded the independent bookstore Archetype Books in Oakville,
Ontario, where she lives with her family and two rescue dogs.
BLOG TOUR SCHEDULE:
