Hi Readers! I am so happy to be reading (rereading!) The Lost Memoirs of Jane Austen together with you!
Today is a discussion of CHAPTERS 1-6, so if you know anything that happens beyond those chapters, we ask that you don’t mention it here! NO spoilers, please!
*Participating in today’s discussion earns you an entry towards our Group Read Giveaway (you can earn 5 entries in all!)
Without further ado, here are some questions I thought of to get the discussion going, feel free to add your own!
1. What is your first impression of this story so far?
2. What do you think of the author’s portrayal of Jane Austen? Does Jane sound, think, and behave like you would expect? Explain.
3. In Chapters 5 and 6 we see a flashback to 1802 when Jane received a marriage proposal from Harris Bigg-Wither. Which illustrated the reasons why she was persuaded to say yes and then no. What do you think of these scenes? If Jane did marry Harris Bigg-Wither do you think she would have written or published any novels? Explain.
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I look forward to continuing this discussion with you Monday with CHAPTERS 7-14.
Today’s post is sponsored by one of our lovely donors – Castle on the Hill. Check out their fabulous etsy shop!
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Life has been like a whirl wind since I got back from my break and I’m finding it hard to fit in reading time. I’m only squeezing it in which I hate. So I’m only up to chapter 3.
I’m finding it a bit hard to get into but I think that’s more to do with me than the book. I think the portrayal of Jane is very good. I like her ‘voice’. And I think she is acting as I would have expected.
Hard to know if she would have written her novels if she had married Harris. I think the muse inside her would not have let her forget her books or her writing. It was an innate part of her. I don’t think she could have let it rest.
Then again, if she was married she would have a house to run. Yes she would have had lots of servants but she would still have duties. Also, there is a good chance she would have had lots of children and been worn out early as so many women of that time were.
I’m feeling quite emotional reading this having just spent the weekend in Bath. I also got to visit her grave in Winchester. I can’t explain how I felt standing there, looking down on the slab that held her details with no mention of her writings.
So onwards and upwards and I hope to be up to speed at the Monday discussion. Looking forward to reading the comments from others.
Hi Teresa! I’m so happy that you are joining us even with having such a busy schedule! 🙂 I know it always feels chaotic when you come back from a trip! I hope you get some time to yourself this weekend! 🙂
I’m kind of with you about Jane’s marriage to Harris, it has me divided. I always thought that if she married there is no way she would have continued to write for all the reasons you said. But when I read these chapters and saw her thinking about the benefits of Harris’s suit, I thought to myself “this is 1802, for the next 6 years Jane would remain unsettled without a home of her own and most likely not write.” But if she did marry Harris in 1802, would that have changed? Would she have made time for it? Would she have felt so settled in a home of her own that her muse would return sooner…
I can only imagine what impact you felt being in Winchester! It’s amazing to think of the people who visit those places in England and don’t feel anything special about it! Thank you so much for sharing!!
They way I see it, if she had married Harris, her desire to write would not be in question, but whether Harris would try to stop her from writing. I don’t think he would have been able to handle her success.
Hi Raquel! Thanks for joining us! Very true. She may have continued to write, but never pursued publishing. Which would have been just as sad.
I confess that I am not loving it so far (I very much enjoyed a later Syrie James book, so it may be that her skills have improved). The biographical elements of Jane Austen’s life seem a little awkwardly incorporated (e.g., when her mother is talking about the future in chapter 1, there is some expository stuff—“You know the church does nothing for widows and children of clergymen . . .”), and some biographical details feel like they’re stuck in just because the author is aware of them, not because they’re important to the story. When the action begins, on the journey to Lyme, the manners are not true to the period (e.g., people detailing their assets upon first meeting, Jane walking off alone with a stranger). The language is not really period, though some period vocabulary is thrown in.
The journal device may have something to do with the awkwardness: the narrative often doesn’t feel like something a person would put in a private journal. This is similar to the kind of problem that arises when writing an epistolary novel; one doesn’t really believe that the writer would inscribe whole conversations verbatim, especially ones that took place years before. I think I would not have objected to the modern vocabulary if the story were openly written by a modern author, without the fiction about it being a long-lost journal of Jane Austen’s.
When I got to the Bigg-Wither chapters, however, I felt the story picked up momentum, and if I had been writing it I might have started there instead of putting those scenes in a flashback. Dive the reader right into Jane and Cassandra’s enjoyment of the reunion with dear friends, followed by the confusion and discomfort and pain.
Hi Abigail! So happy to have you share your thoughts! You bring up a good point about the journal type of narrative and long dialogues. I see the same typically with “diary” stories too. I do like the dialogue though and would miss its absence probably, so the implausibility of it didn’t bother me too much. 😉
Very well said about the Bigg-Wither chapters, we definitely experience the emotional turbulence of those scenes.
I understand your points Abigail but when I started this novel and noticed them I enjoyed the book thinking it’s only a work of fiction.
Well firstly, I was eager to try this one b/c I’ve read a few other books (2 were non-JAFF) by the author and loved them. I’ve always been fascinated by the connection between Jane’s real life and her novels and I’m also one who loves conspiracy type stuff. So, having a ‘lost journal’ was right up my alley.
So far I enjoyed the set up to the story with how the present day professor has the journal. It was a little rough sliding into the past, but then I got my feet under me and have loved it so far.
I’ve always thought that if Jane had married any of the men who came into her life like Tom or Harris that she wouldn’t have produced all her wonderful stories. Maybe she would have still written stories, but probably not even as many and they more than likely wouldn’t have been published. I don’t think she would want pity that she didn’t get married and have her own HEA like her characters. It is interesting to speculate through this story about her having her own romance.
The peek into her home life, family, friends, and the author’s character feel authentic to me so far and I like it.
Hi Sophia! I love imagining the secrets of Jane Austen’s life, and like you a book that comes up with some plausible revelations of these secrets is so much fun to explore! 🙂
It would be hard to imagine Jane having a marriage of convenience, maybe akin to Charlotte Lucas. She wrote such wonderful HEA for her characters and marriages of true minds…I wonder how her own unhappy marriage would have effected her.
Thanks so much for sharing your thoughts! I’m so glad you were able to fit in reading this book!
I’m really enjoying the book so fast! Can’t tell you how much I want to read ahead . I think the author does a good job with por traying Jane austen. I’m not sure about Harris portrayal. I don’t know to o much about him so I don’t know if he did have a stutter or did have those feelings about books etc.
Yay! Patricia! I’m so glad you are enjoying it! 🙂 Feel free to read ahead! I very much like this portrayal of Jane – I like that she speaks her mind, challenges others in conversation, and has her sharp wit! There is a bit in the back that divulges what is fact and what is fiction. It said the stutter and punch he served were true. But yes, could you imagine if he truly felt that way about books?!? Could anyone be MORE wrong for Jane! “Every feeling revolts!”
This is a reread for me. I agree with Abigail’s comment about a later book being more interesting.
I like the portrayal of Jane Austen, although certainly not the most interesting I’ve read.
I found the Harris Bigg-Wither scenes fascinating! It may not of happened that way, but certainly that description is plausible. No, I don’t think she would have been able(allowed?) to write the novels…or at least they won’t have seen the light of day.
So happy to have you reread with us, Kirk! And that you are liking the portrayal of Jane and find the story becoming more interesting. 🙂
I’m glad Syrie James included the flashback scenes. She didn’t have to as her story began much later, but I think it gives a readers a more complete look at Jane’s experiences with marriage and love. Your answer is very probable. If she did write, most likely it would be something kept only to herself and maybe never shared with the world, even after her death.
I agree with the comment that the book starts out slow and picks up at the Harris Bigg-Winter part. I like Jane and way she expresses herself in her diary. She sounds as I have alway imagined her; intelligent and humorous. Her mother sounds so much like Mrs. Bennet that it almost bothers me. It must have been so hard for women to live with the need to marry and the ridicule if you didn’t marry as was expected. It was also not just marry but you had to improve yourself and provide for your family.
When I read the Editor’s Foreward, I had to keep asking myself is there really was a diary found. It was written in such a way that I had to keep telling myself it was not true.
So far I think I am enjoying this book and I want to read other books by Syrie James. Looking forward to the next part.
Hi Amanda! Wouldn’t it be so lovely if we found a diary that revealed a secret about Jane Austen’s life like this?!? I so wish that would happen one day! Yes, Mrs. Austen’s berating Jane really does drive the point home about how hard it is to be an unmarried, dependent woman. It makes Charlotte’s decision to marry Mr. Collins easier to understand for sure.
Glad you are enjoying this book so far! I’ve read and loved many other books by Syrie James – I could definitely recommend some of my faves to you! 🙂
Yes Amanda, two of my friends read the book without knowing this is a work of fiction and believes it until the end! They were so upset there is any diary!
Great questions. My first impression was that I was taken in-line and sinker. I fell right in withe the premise of the long hidden trunk, memoirs, The Ring! My heart was in my throat a couple times, even in the ‘Author’s Foreword,’ but then again when Jane is describing what she had to give up when they left Chawton, the library, the garden and green space. Then her father’s death. And when the letter arrived the next morning instead of the expected trip for a picnic while she and her brother were in Lyme.
The Harris chapters were painful to read. I agree with several others that the way Harris was portrayed convinced me he wouldn’t support Jane in her writing. I guess we might not miss what we never knew, but I can imagine what my reading life would’ve been like without Jane Austen. How many famous authors long-dead have claimed her works as influencing them. Dickens! And most likely we wouldn’t have had Georgette Heyer. Think about that! Tragic.
I just don’t know how to answer the Jane portrayal question. A lot of this book however, follows closely to a quite thorough biography I read some years ago. So historically I think the sequence of events in the novel make it easier to fall in with the story.
That biography was ‘Jane Austen,’ by Park Honan
Hi Michelle! Thanks so much! Like you the ups and many downs of this story are emotionally effecting me too! 🙂 It definitely makes me understand why these years are regarded as Jane Austen’s “Silent Years.”
Oh it is tragic to think of a world without Jane Austen’s novels! I didn’t even think about how it would effect other authors as well! Would be terrible indeed!
Thanks for sharing about the biography you read, that is one I am not familiar with! I like how the author tied her story to so many real events and people in Jane Austen’s life. It does feel like it fits rather well with her fiction. 🙂
I am loving this story! I think that the author did a good job at describing Jane’s nature, it’s exactly how I imagine her! I was hooked since the beginning and I agree with Michelle H. about the Harris chapters. It was painful to read about the difficult situations Jane found herself in. I’m not sure we would have enjoyed her novels had she really married that man. His opinions about novels could have influenced her (although she seemed quite determined to keep writing). Certainly, it would have been sad if she had married a man she didn’t love, because she deserved to be loved like her heroines! I understand that in the early 1800s women had basically no chances and many of them got married just in order to have a house and a future, but Jane couldn’t put aside her ideas about marriage and give up on her happiness. She would have been a completely different woman and probably we would never have had the pleasure of reading her stories!
I also love the fact that some persons remind me of Jane’s characters. Her mother/Mrs. Bennet, her sister/Jane and many other references to other characters from the other books!
Just a quick comment about Mr. Ashford… I can’t wait to meet him again!!! 😀
Hi Maria! So pleased you are joining us and that you love the story so far! I agree with you it would have been sad and feel so unjust for poor Jane to marry without love when she creates these fantastic stories and endings for her heroines. Although, sadly loveless marriages were much more common than marriages of affections back then.
I too am enjoying the similar personalities between Mrs. Austen/Mrs. Bennet. I do believe that the many hypochondriacs in Jane Austen’s novels is because of her mom…I wonder if Mrs. Austen ever caught on! 😉
Yes! More of Mr. Ashford is definitely desired!
I’ve thoroughly enjoyed picking out her characters from her novels in this book. But does anyone else think that Harris was an obnoxious arrogant bore?!!!! She would have been totally wasted on him. Our beloved Jane deserved a lot better.
Hahaha! Teresa, I agree! 😀 And that proposal! He hadn’t showed any affection for her and he proposed out of nowhere!
Oh yes, Teresa! My heart went out to him because of his stutter and social awkwardness, but that quickly changed when he gave his opinions on novels knowing full well that Jane just admitted to writing. He was very ungentlemanly and mean! Jane definitely deserves better!
As devoted Janeites will clearly perceive the language, phrasing, and situations found in Austen’s masterpieces, we would also easily recognize many of her male protagonists’ characteristics in this fine gentleman, Mr. Frederick Ashford. I thought James wrote this character so well and the exchange when he saved Jane on the Cobb, charming and “manly”
Very well said, Christina! He is indeed manly and wonderfully charming! 🙂 It is lovely that he is blend of several male protagonists instead of strikingly similar to just one!
I don’t know what to think about this book (I even don’t know if I’m enjoying it or not! XD), for me it’s the first with Jane Austen as a main character and it’s so strange!
She is portrayed very well, sometimes when she says something I can image that the phrase could be one of Jane Austen herself! I really did’t know what to expext but I found her depiction good for the moment.
Jane is persuaded to marry Harris for the benefit of the others even if she doesn’t love him. It was, I think, a custom in the Regency era, but the thing that makes Jane character so real is that she understands her error and tries to fix it. Moreover she feels pity for the bad feelings she has caused the other but she has to remain true to herself in any case and changes her answer.
The scene in witch Harris declares himself is so embarassing! How could any woman, that seeks love in marriage, be happy with that kind of man? Harry is portrayed in a way that makes the reader not sorry for him. If Jane married Harris she would have not published her novels but I am convinced that she would have found a way to write anyway because this was her deepest passion.
Hi Loren! So happy to have you join in our discussion! I’ve read a couple stories that would fictionalize the live’s of important historical figures and I always find them fascinating. But yes, I can understand it feeling strange at first! I’m glad you feel Jane Austen sounds as you would expect. I like that she has a lively mind and isn’t afraid to have some fun or laughs. That’s how I’ve always imagined Jane. 🙂
It is such a terrible fix Jane Austen finds herself in, isn’t it! I can’t imagine how hard it must have been. First to receive such an offer, then to accept it when she perhaps knew she didn’t really want to, and then to take back her acceptance! I’d be worried that her friendship with the Bigg sisters would be over forever, but it looks like that wasn’t the case thankfully!
I guess we should all be very grateful that she didn’t marry Harris because it really is questionable if the world would have ever seen her stories! 🙂
I have to agree with Abigail Bock, above. The lack of authenticity to the manners and dialogue of that time in this “journal/memoir” pulled me out of the story repeatedly. I enjoyed the Harris Bigg-Wither part, and his sisters were well done. Jane and Mr. Ashford are fairly well drawn, but so many of the other characters so obviously are meant to mirror characters in Jane’s novels that it all became quite predictable to me. I felt the author especially did not need to point out those similarities to us in footnotes, a bit insulting to Janeites! I enjoyed the closeness between Jane and Cassandra as devoted sisters. The theme of sisters (or brothers) is found in most of Jane’s novels and one I enjoy very much.
Thanks for joining us! I’m glad you found some parts of this story to your liking, even if the dialogue and manners became a little bit distracting. I love seeing Jane with her sister and other close friends and agree with you that all these relationships were well-drawn. While I am always a fan of footnotes, you are right, some weren’t as necessary in this case. I think since the book came out in 2008, they wanted to make sure it was accessible to readers who weren’t familiar with Jane Austen and her stories.
Just got notice of this group read from a FB post from Syrie. I have already read this book and loved it. I especially liked the interaction with Harris Bigg-Wither. Syrie portrayed Jane exactly as I imagined her. I am a real fan of Syrie’s and have read her other two books based on Jane Austen also. This is a great idea. Sorry I did not know about it earlier.