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ENLARGE
Lost Memoirs of Jane Austen
A novel by Syrie James
Harper-Collins Publishers
Paperback Original $13.95
There are not enough allocades I could use to recommend this book to any serious reader. That comes with a confession that I am not a particular fan of Jane Austen works, although I will not go as far as Mark Twain, who said "any library is a good library that does not contain a volume by Jane Austen. Even if it contains no other book."
I first met Jane in college literature classes and had to study her style, the period in which she was writing, and immerse myself into the era’s romances. She was a good writer, but not my cup of tea.
A writer's memior held my complete attention. Having studied her works, I knew she was a prolific letter writer and that many of her letters had surfaced after her death. I apparently read right over the fact that this memoir was billed as a novel, which should have indicated to me that it was fiction.
Syrie James played a gotcha game with me with her editor's foreword in which she revealed how the lost memoirs were found in an attic at Chawton Manor House, a place I knew was one of Jane Austen's homes. A workman hired to repair the roof discovered an old seaman's chest "bricked up behind a wall in a far corner of the immense, rambling attic." The several pages of the foreword were entirely believable, down to the signing of the editorial comments by Dr. Mary I. Jesse, Ph.D. English Literature, Oxford University, president of the Jane Austen Literary Foundation.
I was hooked, anxious to discover what was written in this lost memoir written by the spinster daughter of the Rev. George Austen, an Anglican vicar. It is a historic fact that Jane Austen paved the way for women writers and led to some of the greatest literature written. The novel chronicles two "lost" years of Jane Austen's life and from chapter one, it is a most convincing story of an ultimately doomed love affair, typical of the plots Jane Austen wrote.
I teach writing and over the years I have studied writer's styles in order to teach that illusive part of writing.
Syrie James, a former screenwriter who admits she is a Jane Austen fan, completely captured the style of the 16th century writer, down to the vernacular of the era.
This is James' first historical novel and the word novel should be a dead giveway that it was fiction, but honestly I read it thinking all the while it was a newely discovered memoir of the famous writer. That is how good the writing is and how authentic the novel appears to the reader.
The story begins when Jane Austen stumbles into the arms of Frederick Ashford. It is as love affair equal to anything Jane Austen wrote in "Pride and Prejudice," "Emma," "Persuasion" or "Sense and Sensibility."
I hate the role of a reviewer who is the spoiler, but there is no way to get around this, only to tell you I was "fooled" by the writing and the intimate "facts," complete with historic footnotes. In the end, I found the author's note in which she says:
"Despite all efforts to convince you otherwise, this book is a work of fiction. However, the elments of fiction in a novel are all firmly embedded in the known facts of Jane Austen's life."
She had me so convinced I was reading the actual memoir of Jane Austen that when I read her confession that it was all fiction, I asked myself, what about the comments from Dr. Mary I. Jesse of Oxford University in the foreword? James got me there, too. She wrote:
"Dr. Mary I. Jesse does not exist, nor is there a Jane Austein Literary Foundation. Mary I. Jesse is an anagram of my own name."
Am I disappointed? Absolutely not. If James had not written in the manner she did, I might not have read a fictional account and I would have denied myself a great book, and another tool to teach beginning writers.
Thank you Syrie James, AKA Dr. Mary I. Jesse.
• Bill Duncan is the editor of The Senior Times. He also writes a weekly column on the Opinion Page of The News-Review every Thursday.
I first met Jane in college literature classes and had to study her style, the period in which she was writing, and immerse myself into the era’s romances. She was a good writer, but not my cup of tea.
A writer's memior held my complete attention. Having studied her works, I knew she was a prolific letter writer and that many of her letters had surfaced after her death. I apparently read right over the fact that this memoir was billed as a novel, which should have indicated to me that it was fiction.
Syrie James played a gotcha game with me with her editor's foreword in which she revealed how the lost memoirs were found in an attic at Chawton Manor House, a place I knew was one of Jane Austen's homes. A workman hired to repair the roof discovered an old seaman's chest "bricked up behind a wall in a far corner of the immense, rambling attic." The several pages of the foreword were entirely believable, down to the signing of the editorial comments by Dr. Mary I. Jesse, Ph.D. English Literature, Oxford University, president of the Jane Austen Literary Foundation.
I was hooked, anxious to discover what was written in this lost memoir written by the spinster daughter of the Rev. George Austen, an Anglican vicar. It is a historic fact that Jane Austen paved the way for women writers and led to some of the greatest literature written. The novel chronicles two "lost" years of Jane Austen's life and from chapter one, it is a most convincing story of an ultimately doomed love affair, typical of the plots Jane Austen wrote.
I teach writing and over the years I have studied writer's styles in order to teach that illusive part of writing.
Syrie James, a former screenwriter who admits she is a Jane Austen fan, completely captured the style of the 16th century writer, down to the vernacular of the era.
This is James' first historical novel and the word novel should be a dead giveway that it was fiction, but honestly I read it thinking all the while it was a newely discovered memoir of the famous writer. That is how good the writing is and how authentic the novel appears to the reader.
The story begins when Jane Austen stumbles into the arms of Frederick Ashford. It is as love affair equal to anything Jane Austen wrote in "Pride and Prejudice," "Emma," "Persuasion" or "Sense and Sensibility."
I hate the role of a reviewer who is the spoiler, but there is no way to get around this, only to tell you I was "fooled" by the writing and the intimate "facts," complete with historic footnotes. In the end, I found the author's note in which she says:
"Despite all efforts to convince you otherwise, this book is a work of fiction. However, the elments of fiction in a novel are all firmly embedded in the known facts of Jane Austen's life."
She had me so convinced I was reading the actual memoir of Jane Austen that when I read her confession that it was all fiction, I asked myself, what about the comments from Dr. Mary I. Jesse of Oxford University in the foreword? James got me there, too. She wrote:
"Dr. Mary I. Jesse does not exist, nor is there a Jane Austein Literary Foundation. Mary I. Jesse is an anagram of my own name."
Am I disappointed? Absolutely not. If James had not written in the manner she did, I might not have read a fictional account and I would have denied myself a great book, and another tool to teach beginning writers.
Thank you Syrie James, AKA Dr. Mary I. Jesse.
• Bill Duncan is the editor of The Senior Times. He also writes a weekly column on the Opinion Page of The News-Review every Thursday.
