Jane Austen fans and others will certainly enjoy Natalie Jenner‘s The Jane Austen Society. Set just after WWII in Chawton, a small, charming English village. We are introduced to a rather unlikely group of characters who turn out to be avid Jane Austen fans. Austen and her family actually were connected to the village and she spent her final years there. This based-in-fact Austen connection gives the work an extra sense of typical Austen irony. The characters include a widowed doctor, the widow of a WWII soldier, a quiet and withdrawn farmer, a successful and newly engaged American actress, an Austen-related spinster, a bachelor lawyer, a young woman working for the spinster, and an expert for an auction house. They are drawn together by their mutual love of Jane Austen’s books and their joy in discussing the familiar novels and characters. They work to preserve Austen legacy and her connection to the village. What’s so much fun is that they become Austen-like characters and we see them evolve as they interact with each other and the world Jenner creates. And we cheer them on and wants things to turn out just like they do in Austen novels. Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC of this book in exchange for the honest review provided here.

The story takes place in the small town of Chawton, Hampshire, where Jane Austen spent her final years. The backdrop is the Great House where the Knight family lived and where Jane’s family members are buried.
It is 1945 when England was just recovering from World War II. A small group of locals who are ardent fans of Austen’s books, decide to form a society to preserve her legacy. The original group includes a doctor who lost his wife to an early death, a young war widow who also lost her child, and a bright farm hand whose dreams of attending university were dashed when his 2 brothers died in World War I. These three troubled people try to find solace in Austen’s books.

The society soon expands to include an American actress whose love of Austen’s works leads her to act in a Hollywood film based on one of Austen’s books, a bright young girl who was forced into service at the Great House when her father became disabled, the Knight family solicitor, an auctioneer from Sotheby’s whose specialty is Austen memorabilia and finally the woman who is the only direct Austen heir besides her dying father.

The members of the group combine their efforts to create a living legacy to Austen despite struggles of their own.

This is a lovely book and a great debut novel. It is not really historical fiction as many of the characters were created by the author and the Great House in the book remained in the Knight family much later than it did in the book.

The author has created characters who are memorable for their struggles as well as their tenacity. The descriptions of Hampshire country and Chawton, are inspiring. I have read very little by Jane Austen but may be reading some of the works discussed in the book in the near future.

I received this ARC from Net Galley and the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

What a sweet surprising story of a small band of distinct and utterly charming characters who come together over a shared love for Jane Austen.

This book was excellent! I am a huge Jane Austen fan. This book gave you a chance to read the lives of others that are also obsessed with the great writer Jane Austen. I would highly recommend this book.

3.5 Stars

Set primarily in Chawton, a village in the East Hampshire district of Hampshire, England where Jane Austen spent the last eight years of her life, Chawton has been the home of the Jane Austen’s House Museum since 1946. This debut novel covers the 1930’s through the mid 1940’s, and imagines how this came to be. Still, you don’t need to be a fan of Jane Austen’s books to read this, but if you’re not a fan before you read this, it may entice you to read more of her books.

I loved the setting of this story, and the era, which offers an aura of the time as women were just beginning to refuse to return to a life that offered them more than just life as a housewife following the war. Still, this is a 1940’s view of the beginning of change, as it should be.

I enjoyed this even more than I thought I would, it offered a nice change of pace from the books I read more often. And, for a change, I agree with the “for fans of” recommendation of this to those who enjoyed The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, as it has that kind of charm, plus some wonderful characters, including an American movie star who is a fan of Austen, her fiancée who is also involved in making movies, a doctor, as well as a descendant of Jane Austen, and a village full of characters who come together to form the Jane Austen Society, in order to preserve her legacy.



Pub Date: 26 May 2020

Many thanks for the ARC provided by St. Martin’s Press

I absolutely loved this novel. I adore books that are set in England, so check. I enjoy historical novels, so check. I love Jane Austen, so check. I really really enjoy book clubs so check.

This book has an interesting set of characters: they are all different ages, some grieving, and all are in different stations in life, but they all have one thing in common, they love Jane Austen. They all want to keep her works alive and they come together to create the Jane Austen Society. You get background about Jane's stories, about the different ways of dealing with everyday happenings in a small town, with some romantic interplay thrown in. I really loved this book and the richly detailed characters. It really made me want to visit England. I highly recommend this novel!

I would like to thank the author/publisher/Netgalley for the opportunity to read this book in exchange for a fair and honest review.

Three stars on Goodreads means "I liked it". I'm going to have to go with the Amazon rating where three stars says "it was okay". I'm not able to say I "liked" the entire book. So let me back up. I love the Jane Austen written word; I love the cadence of her words; I love her vocabulary; I love the way her dialogue lets me know what her character means to convey to someone else; the building of intimacy using nothing but words.

What I did like about The Jane Austen Society was reading the conversations various characters had when discussing the novels. The opinions expressed sometimes took me down paths I had not explored and I liked that. Where the book fell flat for me was when the characters were interacting with each other in their world of 1945 or 1946. Never struck a chord, never raised my interest at all because I just wasn't interested in the characters. None of them. So basically the portions of this novel I liked were the ones which didn't deal with what was happening to the modern characters. That's a pretty big problem.

This is a novel with a large cast of characters and I kept having to hold up my reading to try to remember who this particular person was and why they were appearing on the page. See, they just were not sticking in my mind. Not a book I would want to read again.

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for an e-Galley of this novel.

What a treat it was to read this book! I loved the main characters and the way they learned to overcome their own challenges. I love that the story not only celebrates the work of Jane Austen, but also the power books have to bring people together.

The history of the Jane Austen Society (real places, no real people) is set in the post-WWII English village of Chawtonwhere Austen had lived for several years. Besides a descendant of Austen there are several other people from the village, a doctor, a teacher, a young serving girl with ambitions or a farmer with whom the story starts and ends. They and some others, amongst them a Hollywood actress, get together to preserve Austen´s work and keep her memory.

Each one of them has his/her own story, feelings, experiences of loss and sadness, but they stay together, help each other and are united by their love for Austen. A satisfying ending is a new start for all of them and the Society.

Very well written, the stories of the founders developed and entangled with each other and with Austen, whose characters they´re regularely discussing.

This is the only point I didn´t find so good, that the discussion was superficial - mostly dealing with "Lizzy or Emma?", perhaps due to an adaptation to the readers who don´t know Austen that well. This part should either have been extended or left anyway.

On the whole very enjoyable, also for non-lovers of Austen.

Thanks for NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I thought this was a charming, heartwarming story set in an English village featuring several characters regarding their love of Jane Austen and forming the Jane Austen Society to preserve a large collection of books found in the former estate of Jane Austen and making part of the estate a museum to preserve the memory of all things Jane Austen. It's also about love, betrayal, loss, and hope. I was enamored by their devotion of Jane Austen books. This is an enjoyable read set just after the second world war. Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC.

For some reason, 3 stars seems like I'm low-balling this book, but, according to the Goodreads star sytem, 3 stars is "liked it" so this would be accurate for how I felt about this book. I wouldn't say that I really liked it or that I loved it, but I also didn't hate it. Primarily for me, it felt slow to get going. I had to start reading this book several times before I could really get in to it. Honestly, I thought about giving it up at one point, but it wasn't so bad once I finally got in to it. I guess the plot and the characters just didn't hook me. As the reader, you watch the unfolding of some of the tragic backstories to each of the founding members of the Jane Austen Society so I did feel like, for me, there was at least some connection with the characters.

I was originally drawn to this book because the cover felt inviting, I adore Jane Austen novels, and it was recommended for people who liked The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society as well as Jane Austen. I did really like the references to Jane Austen and her novels. I also enjoyed how the characters were trying to persevere the legacy she left for their little English town where she wrote some of her books. Overall, it wasn't terrible, but I do feel like it's a very niche type of book and it wasn't exactly my type of book. However, that's not to say it couldn't be someone else's type of book.

I received a free copy of this book thanks to NetGalley and am voluntarily leaving a review.

Really enjoyable! I love anything set in England & Jane Austen. A moving story about a group of people who come together to preserve Austen's legacy & home. And how they come together.

The Jane Austen Society
A Novel
by Natalie Jenner

St. Martin's Press

General Fiction (Adult) ,
Historical Fiction
Pub Date 26 May 2020


I am reviewing a copy of The Jane Austen Society through St. Martin's Press and Netgalley:




Immediately following the Second World War, a Unique but like minded group of people band together to attempt something remarkable in the small English Village of Chawton.




A century and a half prior Clawton had been the final home of Jane Austen, and was now the home of a few of Jane Austen's distance relatives, and there diminishing estates.  With the threatening of the last of Jane Austen's legacies threatened, this group of disparate individuals come together to save the house, and what is left with legacies.  This group of people include a laborer,  a young widower, a doctor, and a movie star amongst others.   The group of people couldn't be more different, but they are United in there works, and words of Austen. 


Each member of the group endures there own quiet struggle with loss and trauma.  Some of this loss and trauma deal with the most recent world war, and others are from the past.


The Jane Austen Society is a powerfully moving novel  that deals with the big and small tragedies and triumphs in life, as well as exploring the humanity that is found in us.



I give The Jane Austen Society five out of five stars!


Happy Reading!

A doctor, a lawyer, a teacher, a young girl, a farm worker, a Hollywood actress, and a relative of Jane Austen come together in this book to form the Jane Austin Society, so they can preserve the location and some of the artifacts of Austen's last home in Chawton, England. Each character is struggling with loss or grief of some sort. They are also loners in their own way, either through choice or circumstance.

You do not have to be a fan of Jane Austen to love and appreciate this story, but with all the references to her books and characters, it would help. I couldn't help but feel some of the characters in this book had "pride and prejudices" of their own, in terms of their perceptions of others and their inability to express their true feelings. I could easily see this book becoming a book club favourite! #NetGalley #TheJaneAustenSociety

I receieved an ARC of this book in exchange for honest review. I thoroughly enjoyed this read - it was lighthearted, the characters were realistic and loveable and the writing was excellent. This was an easy to read but very enjoyable novel!

”We love Jane Austen because her characters, as sparkling as they are, are no better and no worse than us. They’re so eminently, so completely human.”
--
A quaint story about Jane Austen's quaint little town, where a group of literature lovers try to restore her memory and historical past in her previous home.
More than anything, this is a love-letter to Austen’s wonderful books. It is clearly very well-researched, imbued with her writing style, and told in such a way that it makes you want to read and reread her works.
When it comes to the plot and the characters, unfortunately, I had a bit of difficulty. I felt that the plot was very slow, and the characters a little bit too lacking in nuance. Although it handles subjects of trauma, loss, and pain fairly well, it was a little difficult for me to connect to any of the characters, and hence, really care for them. I mean, what are the odds that these Austen lovers can all quote her works from memory, and only ever have conversations about her books?

Overall, it was a sweet story, filled with a true love of all things Austen and that small-town charm.

I read this book in two days and absolutely loved it! Great characters, engaging plot with lots of fun references for Jane Austen fans, and a beautiful setting. I’m usually a little skeptical about books like this, but it did not disappoint!

I enjoyed The Jane Austen Society. I chose it because its description reminded me a bit of The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, which I enjoyed as well. This novel takes place in a charming small town in England just after World War II. The characters are endearing, and the novel frequently references the writing and life of Jane Austen so it helps if you are familiar with her works. I recommend this for people who enjoy British novels or those that are Jane Austen fans!

A tale about the residents of the village where the ancestral home of Jane Austin stood. The very unique people and their lives as well as how their lives intertwine was compelling. I enjoyed the Austin tie-ins as well as the characters and the town, which really came to life. It reminded me in some ways of the Guernsey Potato Peel Society as it drew on small village life and literature.

Round up to 3.5, not quite a 4. A charming, pleasant read that had a gracious feeling to it, given current events.

Despite not having read Jane Austen (I know, I know....) the premise of the book sounded so good, I had to request this. I was right, the premise *was* good, but it would have been better if I’d read at least some Jane Austen.

I also dinged this a bit because it took so long to get into. I was at the 35% mark before I felt we were really cooking along, and rather going where I anticipated. I can think of a few friends I would recommend this to - but I wouldn’t buy it for them, if that makes sense..