The Jane Austen Society by Natalie Jenner

(Releases May 26) This lovely novel by debut author Natalie Jenner imagines how a group of people who cherish the works of Jane Austen find each other and propose a special society to honor the beloved author in the small village of Chawton, Hampshire. 

Few groups could be as diverse in personality and circumstance as the one that gathers right after World War II.  There’s a bachelor farmer, a country doctor, a respected solicitor, a young widowed teacher, a high school dropout, an Austen descendent from the Knight family, a Sotheby’s representative, and an American movie star.  While some of the group have known each other since childhood, others meet serendipitously through their appreciation of Jane Austen’s works.

In the first chapter, so beautifully described, a young farmer stretches out on a churchyard wall to rest after early morning labors.  He is interrupted by a chic American woman who is looking for the home of Jane Austen.  Her admiration of this author, from this very village, encourages him to read her novels, where he finds a kindred spirit and hope in a seemingly hopeless world of death (his two brothers were killed in WWI, his father in the Spanish flu) and loneliness.

A young teacher at the school, forthright and confident, loves teaching her students the works of Austen until she is challenged by the all-male school board, is widowed within one year of marriage and loses her baby at birth.  A middle-aged woman sits in the ancestral home, surrounded by beloved objects related to the Austen family, but is totally intimidated by her domineering father who is on the edge of death.

Each character faces his or her own challenges, often of immense loss or lack of understanding, and each finds consolation in the Austen novels.  When they gather to think about how to pay tribute to their favorite author, they have to overcome some long odds, involving money, last-minute wills, and unscrupulous real estate deals—not to mention getting past their own shortcomings and personal challenges. 

This is a life-affirming novel that is quiet and hopeful and pays great tribute to an author and her works with many quotable sentences and paragraphs about the power of literature.  It is set apart from many Austen adaptations by its time period, plot, and cast and reminds me of one of my favorite novels about a group of readers, The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society.  Highly recommended, especially during these discomforting times. 

Thanks to Netgalley and St. Martin's Press for an advance copy.