"The Jane Austen Society" and "Jane Austen Made Me Do It"

Regular readers of this blog KNOW with great certainty that periodically I will write about Jane Austen’s novels, as well as books about the author, her novels, and the many tribute novels and related books by others. Here I write about two more books in this category that I have recently read. “The Jane Austen Society” (St. Martin’s, 2020), a novel by Natalie Jenner, imagines a fictional version of the group of Austen fans who got together in the 1940s to preserve the house in Chawton where Austen spent her last and most productive years. Some of the members of this society already live in Chawton, and others have connected with those locals to form the Society. The members are mixed in terms of background, nationality, gender, age, class, type of work, and more, but they are bound by their common desire to buy, save, and take care of the house as a permanent tribute to Austen. There are many backstories and subplots, all interesting in a low-key, sometimes melancholic way. The writing is lovely and the devotion of the author and her characters is evident. I truly enjoyed this charming and thoughtful novel, not only for the Austen focus, but also for the portrayal of the small village of Chawton and its inhabitants and visitors. Some readers may remember that I visited the house in Chawton some years ago, and was incredibly moved by being in the very house where Austen lived and wrote a large portion of her works. The second book is a collection of short stories titled “Jane Austen Made Me Do It: Original Stories Inspired by Literature’s Most Astute Observer of the Human Heart” (Ballantine, 2011), edited by Laurel Ann Nattress. The stories are all connected to Austen in various remarkably creative and intriguing ways. There are love stories, satires, ghost stories, and many other genres. I wasn’t sure that I would enjoy this collection, but, although the book is not as compelling as "The Jane Austen Society," I definitely did enjoy it.