December 16 is the 246th anniversary of Jane Austen’s birth. Jane Austen is well known for her 6 major novels written about love and society in the late 1700s. Let us celebrate her birth by looking at all books Jane Austen: about her, her as the subject, and retellings of her books.
These first books all look at retelling or expanding on characters from Austen’s Pride and Prejudice. The Other Bennett Sister by Janice Hadlow is the story of Mary Bennet, the spinster sister of the Bennet family. Here we see Mary navigating limited cultural expectations before embracing her intellectual identity and making her own choices about her future. Pride by Ibi Aanu Zoboi follows the vibrant Zuri Benite. She has pride in her Brooklyn neighborhood and for her family, but pride might not be enough to save her neighborhood from becoming unrecognizable. Identity, class, and redevelopment are artfully balanced against the magic of first love. Unmarriageable by Soniah Kamal, set in modern-day Pakistan, follows a practical-minded teacher evaluating her resolve never to marry after encountering a brusque but compelling man during a series of lavish wedding parties.
In Jane and the Twelve Days of Christmas by Stephanie Barron, Jane Austen has been invited to spend the holiday with family and friends at the ancestral home of a wealthy family. Jane and her circle of friends are in a celebratory mood, but holiday cheer can be fleeting. One of the Yuletide revelers dies in a tragic accident, which Jane immediately views with suspicion. If the accident was in fact murder, the killer is one of Jane's fellow snow-bound guests. The Jane Austen Society by Natalie Jenner is a light and quick read about an unlikely group of Austen fans in the 1940s who work together to save Austen’s house from being destroyed. As each of them endures their own quiet struggles, they rally together to create the Jane Austen Society.
These biographies on Austen are for the readers who want to know more about the woman herself. Jane Austen at Home by Lucy Worsley profiles the life and times of Jane Austen by touring her childhood home, schools, holiday accommodations, and grand and small family estates to reveal aspects of Austen’s character and inspirations. Jane Austen: The Secret Radical by Helena Kelly is an illuminating reassessment of the life and work of Jane Austen. Kelly shows how Austen has been misread for the past two centuries and shows us how Austen intended her books to be read, revealing how subversive and daring of a writer she really was.
These, as well as Austen’s books: Sense and Sensibility, Pride and Prejudice, Mansfield Park, Emma, Persuasion, and Northanger Abby, are available at the Chatham Area Public Library.