Deze maand komt er weer een kleine stapel boeken uit die een link hebben met het werk van Jane Austen. Een round-up (met dank aan Austenprose):

Dearest Cousin Jane: A Jane Austen Novel
Een roman, geschreven door Jill Pitkeathley, over het leven van Jane Austens nicht Eliza de Feuillide.

Drawing on historical fact, Jill Pitkeathley paints a luminous portrait of Jane Austen’s free-spirited and seductive cousin, Countess Eliza de Feuillide – from her flirtatious younger years to her great influence on one of the world’s favourite authors. Speculated to have been born from a love affair between her mother and the great Warren Hastings, founder of the East India Company and the British Raj, Eliza was a precocious young woman and well-known flirt. Educated in England and France, she went on to marry a French count, Jean de Feuillide, and bear one son with him, who died before reaching adulthood. She later suffered the loss of her husband when Madame la Guillotine claimed him during the early days of the French Revolution. Eliza was close to the Austen family throughout her days, and flirted with both of Jane’s brothers profusely, encouraging both men to propose to her upon the death of her husband. She eventually accepted Jane’s favourite brother Henry, bringing glamour and excitement on her visits to the Austen’s country parsonage in England. With chapters in the voices of Jane, Jane’s sister Cassandra, and other family members including Jane’s love-sick brothers, Pitkeathley reveals Countess Eliza’s influence on one of the world’s best loved novelists – and that it is indeed high time her story is told.

Een recensie van Dearest Cousin Jane kun je lezen op Austenprose.

Writing Jane Austen
Dit boek ligt vanaf vandaag in de winkels en is geschreven door Elizabeth Aston, die eerder boeken schreef als Mr. Darcy’s Dream en The Darcy Connection.

Critically acclaimed and award-winning—but hardly bestselling—author Georgina Jackson can’t get past the first chapter of her second book. When she receives an urgent email from her agent, Georgina is certain it’s bad news. Shockingly, she’s offered a commission to complete a newly discovered manuscript by a major nineteenth-century author. Skeptical at first about her ability to complete the manuscript, Georgina is horrified to know that the author in question is Jane Austen.

Torn between pushing through or fleeing home to America, Georgina relies on the support of her banker-turned-science student roommate, Henry, and his quirky teenage sister, Maud—a serious Janeite. With a sudden financial crisis looming, the only way Georgina can get by is to sign the hugely lucrative contract and finish the book.

The Darcy Cousins
Monica Fairview ging eerder met de familieleden en kennissen van de Darcy’s aan de haal in The Other Mr. Darcy. Nu doet ze hetzelfde in The Darcy Cousins.

A young lady in disgrace should at least strive to behave with decorum…

Dispatched from America to England under a cloud of scandal,
Mr. Darcy’s incorrigible American cousin, Clarissa Darcy, manages to provoke Lady Catherine de Bourgh, Mr. Collins, and the parishioners of Hunsford all in one morning!

And there are more surprises in store for that bastion of tradition, Rosings Park, when the family gathers for their annual Easter visit. Georgiana Darcy, generally a shy model of propriety, decides to take a few lessons from her unconventional cousin, to the delight of a neighboring gentleman. Anne de Bourgh, encouraged to escape her “keeper” Mrs. Jenkinson, simply…vanishes. But the trouble really starts when Clarissa and Georgiana both set out to win the heart of the same young man…

Lees hier de recensie van Austenprose.

Murder at Mansfield Park
In dit boek van Lynn Sheperd blijkt Mansfield Park een misdadig oord en blijkt Fanny Price niet te zijn wie ze lijkt.

A superb retelling of the Jane Austen novel in which the house at Mansfield Park becomes the scene of one murder after another. Here is a new and surprising Fanny Price: forthright, ambitious, scheming and downright untrustworthy. What could possibly happen to a character like that? And how will the fortunes of the inhabitants of Mansfield Park be changed with the discovery of a dead body early one morning…?






Longbourn’s Unexpected Matchmaker
In dit boek geeft Emma Hox een eigen draai aan het bekende verhaal van Pride and Prejudice.

Elizabeth Bennet, the second of five daughters to Mr. Thomas Bennet has caught the attention of the rich and handsome Mr. Fitzwilliam Darcy almost from the moment he laid eyes on her, but when he purposefully misinterprets her families expectation of her marrying well and slights her in a way unknown to those who have always loved Jane Austen’s acclaimed Pride and Prejudice, he must leave forever or make amends. Sulking in the library he determines to leave the place and give her up, but is waylaid by a member of the Meryton neighborhood who claims an intimate acquaintance with the Bennet family and offers up advice on how to win Elizabeth’s heart.

Longbourn’s Unexpected Matchmaker puts a spin on Pride and Prejudice that no one would ever expect as Colonel Fitzwilliam attends Mr. Bingley and Mr. Darcy to Netherfield, Elizabeth Bennet is witty enough to detect the motives of Mr. Darcy’s long time enemy Lieutenant Wickham and Georgiana Darcy is bold enough to defy her brother and cousin and comes to Meryton in the midst of a storm. Not to mention Caroline Bingley, Lieutenant Wickham and Lady Catherine are all working against our hero and heroine ever finding their own happily ever after.

(Bronnen: Austenprose, Barnes&Noble, Amazon)