THE JANE AUSTEN SOCIETY by Natalie Jenner

Purist Jane Austen fans may well hate this, seeing it as trivialising her works and her life. For the rest of us, now awash in movies and TV series of her seven novels - yes only seven -  this novel is a lovely and easy read, with more than enough Austen stuff to satisfy and encourage a return to her memorable and timeless books. The author of this novel is either a Jane Austen obsessive, with intimate knowledge of every one of these seven books, or she devoured numerous study guides. I would like to think the former is the case, as she clearly loves Jane Austen, her writings, and above all the complex and human characters Jane created. Pride and Prejudice and Emma feature more heavily than the others, but they all come in handy in the plot of this story, the characters of course being the main feature. 

The story takes place just after WWII ends, in the English village of Chawton, where Jane lived for a period of time. Her brother  owned Chawton House, with Jane living in a cottage on the estate for the last 8 years of her life. It was here that she wrote four of her seven novels.  Descendants of Edward Austen still live in the house, although the current owner is very elderly, with not too long on this earth left. Word slips out that the entire estate may well be sold off after his death, taking away with it any ongoing association, remembrance or acknowledgement of Jane. Understandably the locals get a little towy about this unexpected turn of events, banding together to find a way to turn the cottage into some sort of museum in Jane's honour - the Jane Austen Society. There is an element of truth to all this, as Chawton Cottage did in fact become a museum in 1947, with Chawton House becoming a writing centre too. 

The story in this novel is of course complete fiction, but wouldn't it be great if it was true. The characters who band together to form the society are still reeling from the last few years of war, with so much loss, sadness, unfulfilled dreams and hopes. The society gives them all a purpose, an opportunity for new friendships and relationships. It is a delight to see that these characters share many of the same foibles and dilemmas as Jane Austen's characters, with many references to Emma, Mr Knightely, Lizzie, Mr Darcy, Mr and Mrs Bennett, Anne Elliot, Elinor and Marianne and many others. It doesn't take much to feel enormous affection for the Austen characters, and likewise with the characters that Jenner creates. Naturally there is a happy ending.