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    Cassandra and Jane: A Jane Austen Novel
    Unavailable
    Cassandra and Jane: A Jane Austen Novel
    Unavailable
    Cassandra and Jane: A Jane Austen Novel
    Ebook299 pages4 hours

    Cassandra and Jane: A Jane Austen Novel

    By Jill Pitkeathley

    3.5/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this ebook

    They were beloved sisters and the best of friends. But Jane and Cassandra Austen suffered the same fate as many of the women of their era. Forced to spend their lives dependent on relatives, both financially and emotionally, the sisters spent their time together trading secrets, challenging each other's opinions, and rehearsing in myriad other ways the domestic dramas that Jane would later bring to fruition in her popular novels. For each sister suffered through painful romantic disappointments—tasting passion, knowing great love, and then losing it—while the other stood witness. Upon Jane's death, Cassandra deliberately destroyed her personal letters, thereby closing the door to the private life of the renowned novelist . . . until now.

    In Cassandra & Jane, author Jill Pitkeathley ingeniously reimagines the unique and intimate relationship between two extraordinary siblings, reintroducing readers to one of the most intriguing figures in the world of literature, as seen through the eyes of the one person who knew her best.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHarperCollins
    Release dateOct 6, 2009
    ISBN9780061982521
    Unavailable
    Cassandra and Jane: A Jane Austen Novel
    Author

    Jill Pitkeathley

    Jill Elizabeth Pitkeathley, Baroness Pitkeathley, OBE (born 4 January 1940) is a British Labour Party member of the House of Lords. Her first job was working for Manchester City Council as a trainee child care officer in 1961. She worked in the voluntary sector, as chief executive of Carers National Association (now renamed Carers UK) for which she was awarded an OBE in the 1993 Birthday Honours. Mrs Pitkeathley was created a life peer as Baroness Pitkeathley, of Caversham in the Royal County of Berkshire on 6 October 1997.Since 1998 she has been chair of one of the lottery distributors, the New Opportunities Fund. In 2004, she was appointed chair of the Children and Family Court Advisory and Support Service (CAFCASS). Lady Pitkeathley also chaired the Office for Civil Society Advisory Body until its abolition in March 2011. Lady Pitkeathley was a founding member of ACEVO, the Association of Chief Executives of Voluntary Organisations. She is a trustee of Cumberland Lodge.

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    Reviews for Cassandra and Jane

    3.5/5

    39 ratings4 reviews

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    • 3/5
      This is an enjoyable but fairly run-of-the-mill fictionalized biography of Jane Austen, told from the point of view of her sister, Cassandra. The author stays pretty true to the known facts of Austen's life--which doesn't necessarily make for an exciting read. If anything is expanded upon here, it's simply some of the family quarrels and Cassandra's jealousy over sharing Jane with others. We learn little, either real or imagined, about Cassandra's own life, aside from her engagement to a young clergyman who died before their wedding, her stints of caring for ailing and about-to-deliver relatives, and her assistance in reading, making copies of, and giving suggestions for Jane's manuscripts in progress. Overall, it was a fast and enjoyable read but might be appreciated more by those who haven't read any deeper biographies of Austen.
    • 2/5
      Like another reviewer said, I was quite distracted by the amount of typos in the book...simple things like it's/its and where/were...that definitely should have been caught by any level of editor. I made myself complete the book because it's the only P I could find for my A-Z author list, but I thought she took a lot of liberties. I did enjoy referring to the family chart in the back to see the ages and deaths of the siblings, which helped place Jane Austen in a certain time period. It also made me want to re-read her novels yet again. Oh, summer just won't be long enough!
    • 4/5
      Cassandra and Jane, by Jill Pitkeathley is a charming book of the adult life of Jane Austen and her relationship with her older sister Cassandra. It is a historical fiction account of their lives told in the voice of Cassandra. This is the story of what "might have been." It chronicles the day to day life, friends and family of the famous author and her sister. In this book you will get to "meet" Jane's family in an intimate setting. It is not unlike the Bennett family life that is portrayed in Pride and Prejudice. We get a glimpse of how Jane's writing were indeed affected by her own family and social life.It is a wonderful little morsel for Jane Austen enthusiasts. In this story we see the bond between the two sisters through the trials and tribulations of women in the early 1800's. In Cassandra and Jane we get to see the production and time line of the writings for Pride and Prejudice, Sense and Sensibility, Mansfield Park, Emma, Persuasion, and Northhanger Abbey.I recommend reading this book to all who love "Jane stuff" and anyone who has ever had a sister. The ending of the book is so heartwarming and moving and it portrays both women to have strong hearts and a fierce, loyal love for one another.I was pleased to review this book for Harper Collins.Note: I want to note there is a lovely little section from the author at the end of the book along with historical facts of Jane Austen. I wanted to say that this would be a great book to introduce someone to the world of Jane Austen.
    • 4/5
      I tend to be wary of Jane Austen fiction not actually written by Jane Austen. Fan fiction is usually outright disappointing, and I'd prefer to reread Sense and Sensibility or Persuasion instead. Still, when I found Cassandra and Jane, I decided to give it a go, as I'm a big fan of sister relationships.I enjoyed it, in a sort of historical novel way. Thankfully Pitkeathley does not overdramatize the romantic relationship both sisters were involved in, though I believe she did imagine one courtship of Jane's that I am not familar with. Though at times Jane's sharp wit and slight bitterness are underscored more than I'd like, it's not really out of harmony with what small information we do have about Jane Austen.Though obviously the main character of the story is Jane Austen, it is narrated from Cassandra's point of view (who history knows even less about though she outlived Jane by decades). Cassandra seems to hold Jane in awe, though tempering this with some jealousy from time to time. This makes her seem more human, I think,than the docile patient sister whose only known life drama of her own was the death of a fiancee.As a massive Jane Austen fan and (almost) scholar of her life and work, I'd put this work higher up than the fan fiction and "sequels" and almost on a par with my favorite biographies of her. I loved feeling like I was sitting in the room with the Austen family as Jane read scenes of her latest writings to the happy audience, and felt the pain of an intelligent woman frustrated at the lack of financial independence in the late 18th, early 19th century England. The sister's conversations seem realistic enough to me (I have two close sisters of my own) while corresponding to the time period as Jane Austen described it, which is no mean feat considering the author owns to not having sisters.