The Colonial Dames are featuring a book by Jane Austen for their September book club. I had found myself not listening to fiction on audible since the trip to the Galapagos for two reasons: my life was crazy busy and I had started a book about a murder mystery on the Galapagos that I had liked but wasn't calling to me. So I decided to read Emma instead. And pleasant surprise! It is free at audible.
The following showed up in my inbox on the same day that I made this decision. And somehow I decided to go ahead and add all of the information to my blog ahead of actually starting the book.
We know SO much about Lizzie Bennet, Emma Woodhouse and Fanny Price —and comparatively little about the creator of those heroines, the great Jane Austen. A soon-to-be-auctioned letter from Austen to her sister Cassandra reveals a bit more about the enigmatic and beloved author — her grief after losing her father, gossip about neighbors and how she reacted to the sudden decline in her family’s social status.
When Austen died at 41, Cassandra burned hundreds of the letters her sister sent her. That’s a tough break for Austen scholars, but it also suggests that Cassandra was protecting her sister’s privacy in death. It’s no wonder Austen’s novels feature fierce sisterly love.
