Review: Yours Affectionately, Jane Austen by Sally Smith O’Rourke

Source: Review copy from author
Rating: ★★★★☆

It was Darcy who made her realize that a man could love a woman who was strong and independent, someone intelligent with thoughts and ideas that went beyond clothes and balls.  In fact, it had given her the confidence to make Elizabeth Bennet of Pride and Prejudice a bit more individualistic and insightful than she had originally been, even if some of her insights turned out to be incorrect.  She was still lively and playful, though, and Elizabeth’s Mr. Darcy was desirous of just such a woman: someone who read extensively to improve her mind.

(from Yours Affectionately, Jane Austen, page 50)

Yours Affectionately, Jane Austen is the sequel to The Man Who Loved Jane Austen, in which Sally Smith O’Rourke imagines that Mr. Darcy of Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice was inspired by a real person.  This book picks up right where the first left off, with New York artist Eliza Knight and Virginia horse breeder Fitz Darcy falling in love and wondering how to navigate their feelings when they’ve never been in a real relationship before.  Fitz is sure of his feelings about Eliza, but Eliza can’t help but feel threatened by his obsession with long dead British author Jane Austen.

For it was Jane Austen who brought them together, through old letters that Eliza found in an antique vanity table that sent her on a trip to Pemberley Farms and into Fitz’s arms.  Eliza can’t help but believe his bizarre story behind the letter written by Jane and addressed to him.  When the pair rush off to England to take care of a situation with the potential to change the course of history, they realize they could lose one another before their relationship even has a chance to blossom.

O’Rourke weaves in the story of Jane Austen, who by 1813 had published two novels, Sense and Sensibility and Pride and Prejudice, and just finished a third, Mansfield Park.  Jane remembers the brief moments she spent with her Mr. Darcy three years before, cherishing the memories of a man who treated her as an equal and made her feel beautiful.  At 37, Jane feels as young as ever, but she inwardly questions social rules that govern what colors an unmarried woman of a certain age should wear and how they should style their hair.  Uncertain whether she’ll ever see Mr. Darcy again, Jane sends a package to him through her brother’s stable boy, hoping he’ll somehow receive it and remember her.

Yours Affectionately, Jane Austen can be read as a standalone novel, as O’Rourke works in a brief summary of the previous book in the prologue, but I highly recommend you read The Man Who Loved Jane Austen first to fully appreciate Eliza and Fitz’s story.  I really enjoyed the first book, but I liked this one even more, as O’Rourke focuses less on the old letters and more on developing her characters.  I really felt like I got to know Eliza and Fitz, their fears and hesitations, the qualities that make them click as a couple, and even their insecurities, played out through their arguments.  I especially loved how O’Rourke moved the narrative between the past and the present, and she wrote the scenes involving Jane Austen with much tenderness for a woman who had a good heart, a playful spirit, and no idea how brilliant she truly was.  Although she admits in the foreword that she took some liberties with the historical facts of Austen’s life, her portrayal of Jane was very respectful.

Yours Affectionately, Jane Austen is a sweet love story about new beginnings, magical adventures, and cherishing the moments, however brief they might be, you’ve had with the people who’ve changed your life.  It’s about not losing who you are amidst societal constraints and believing that happily ever after is possible, if you’re willing to take a chance.  I finished this book with tears in my eyes for a woman whose stories and characters have meant so much to me and who died too young.  Like O’Rourke, I’d like to imagine that Austen experienced the kind of love she wrote about.  This is the perfect book for people who’d like to believe the same.

Book 4 for the P&P Bicentenary Challenge

Disclosure: I received Yours Affectionately, Jane Austen from the author for review.

© 2013 Anna Horner of Diary of an Eccentric. All Rights Reserved. Please do not reproduce or republish content without permission.

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Review: The Man Who Loved Jane Austen by Sally Smith O’Rourke

Source: Public library
Rating: ★★★★☆

But she was never quick enough to say the things that were in her heart at the most important moments.  Instead she waited until minutes or even days later, when the moment was past and there was no longer anyone there to hear them.

“Then, when it is far too late,” she confided to her reflection in the mirror, “but loathe to waste my sage replies and witty repartee, I transfer them to the mouths of my always-brilliant Miss Elizabeth Bennet and her sisters.”

(from The Man Who Loved Jane Austen, page 251)

The Man Who Loved Jane Austen is a very different Pride and Prejudice retelling, one that centers on 200-year-old letters between Jane Austen and Fitzwilliam Darcy, which are found in an antique vanity table purchased by New York artist Eliza Knight.  Eliza’s quest to determine whether the Mr. Darcy in Pride and Prejudice was based on someone Austen knew in real life leads her to Fitzwilliam Darcy of Virginia, a horse breeder who owns the grand Pemberley Farms.

Eliza makes the trip to discuss the letters, in which Fitz is extremely interested.  She arrives just before the annual Rose Ball, and he convinces her to stay so he can explain why he wants to buy the letters.  If only Faith Harrington, the temperamental socialite intent on marrying Fitz (think Caroline Bingley, only worse) would leave them alone long enough for Fitz to explain his obsession with Jane Austen…but would Eliza believe him anyway?

Sally Smith O’Rourke has created a delightful tale of a woman who has never taken a chance on love and a man who nearly lost everything for just a taste of it, who are brought together by a writer whose romantic tales have been cherished by readers for 200 years but who may never have had a love story of her own.  In The Man Who Loved Jane Austen, O’Rourke transports readers to Chawton Cottage in 1810 when Austen was editing First Impressions, the novel that would become Pride and Prejudice.  O’Rourke imagines Jane as an intelligent, observant, witty, and curious young woman who is very much attached to her family but is a hopeless romantic.  She is willing to risk a great deal for a kiss in the moonlight, a chance to know how it feels to love and be loved, even if it breaks her heart.

I decided to re-read The Man Who Loved Jane Austen (first read in my pre-blogging days) to refresh my memory before reading the newly published sequel, Yours Affectionately, Jane Austen, and I’m glad I did because I think I liked it even more the second time around.  I didn’t completely buy Eliza as a sort of modern day Elizabeth Bennet, mainly because she was willing to settle for a boring relationship with a boring investment manager (and we know from Elizabeth turning down two marriage proposals that she doesn’t settle!) and she lacked Elizabeth’s wit.  However, Fitz reminded me of Austen’s Darcy, quiet and arrogant until you chip away at his hard shell and uncover the good man hiding beneath.  While I don’t know all that much about Jane Austen’s life (and O’Rourke admits to taking liberties when it comes to the biographical details), I liked how she was portrayed as being very similar to Elizabeth Bennet in personality.  It’s easy to think of Austen merely as a spinster who died young and somehow managed to write some great love stories, but she was so much more than that.  And who doesn’t want to believe that Jane had a love story?

The Man Who Loved Jane Austen is unique in simultaneously juggling past and present retellings of Pride and Prejudice and imagining the inspiration for Austen’s beloved novel.  There’s a bit of a mystery amidst all the romance, and it’s even a bit predictable, but that was easy for me to overlook because I just got swept up in the magic of the story.  It’s a lighthearted novel that, at its core, is about the power of love to change people.

Book 3 for the P&P Bicentenary Challenge

Disclosure: I borrowed The Man Who Loved Jane Austen from my local library.

© 2013 Anna Horner of Diary of an Eccentric. All Rights Reserved. Please do not reproduce or republish content without permission.

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