This is a charming little glimpse into the horticulture of Jane Austen’s time- with not only references to her beloved writings, but also historical anecdotes about the plants and their uses. Jane’s personal history is also woven throughout. For example, a short page discusses Jane’s family’s kitchen garden at Chawton, before the book begins diving into details about cabbage, currants and other fruits and veggies. The book also advises on how best to cultivate said produce. It’s a basic book, yes, but it’s handy!

*If only the brilliant Mr. Collin’s’ potato line was actually in the book, but sadly, no and so of course don’t expect to see it here*

The book is not an in depth history lesson, but would be a really lovely gift for a devotee of Ms. Austen, or an Anglophile, like myself. I will absolutely be adding this book to my coffee table collection.

Thank you NetGalley and Andrews McMeel for this arc, in exchange for my unbiased review!

This wonderfully charming book by Molly Williams takes you through all the flora that influenced Jane Austen. It would be a delightful gift for a Austen lover or a gardener. Both would find things in the book to keep them amused. Jessica Roux’s illustrations make the book even more lovely. This is sure to be a timeless edition classic to any library.

Thank you to Andrews McMeel Publishing and NetGalley for the digital ARC.

Jane Austen’s Garden is a charming, insightful journey through the botanicals that shaped Austen’s world, weaving together history, literature, and nature with grace. Molly Williams offers thoughtful vignettes that illuminate Austen’s life and works, while Jessica Roux’s illustrations are nothing short of masterful—delicate, detailed, and utterly enchanting. This book is a pure delight, a must-have for Austen lovers and garden enthusiasts alike. Bravo!

*Thank you to NetGalley, the author, and the publication company for providing a copy in exchange for an honest review*

This book is essentially a love letter and deep analysis of Jane Austen and her connection to a regency style garden. The book is filled to the brim with the life story of Jane Austen and her connection to various botanical creations that are both referenced throughout her wildly popular books and common during the Regency period that she was alive during.

There are recipes throughout the book for creating different botanical concoctions such as lavender water which comes along with the history, ingredients, and thorough instructions.

It even talks about things that may be found in your kitchen during this period and talks about the proper care for them such as strawberries. There are also places with more in-depth descriptions such as with grapes where we get to learn about their specific references in relation to Jane Austen’s books.

I ultimately recommend this book to gardeners or florists - especially those with a particular love for Jane Austen. It’s definitely incredibly informative and definitely explores what could have been in the garden of Jane Austen.

A perfect gift book for any Janeite who also loves gardens. The illustrations are glorious and I learned so much about the many gardens that figured in Austen's famed novels. I absolutely loved it!

This lovely little book will either thrill or disappoint, depending on what the reader hopes to find between its pages. A gathering of Austen quotations, plant descriptions, garden design, and crafts, it has a little for everyone but perhaps not enough of any one subject to suit some readers.

After the introduction there is a timeline of Austen's life and writings. The chapters that follow cover Flower Gardens, Kitchen Gardens, The Conservatory, Parkland, and Hedgerows. Information about her life is mixed with quotes from her novels, descriptions of plants, and background details on gardens of the time. Spaced throughout the text are also instructions on how to make crafts that were popular in Austen's time or reflect her life in some way.

I was hoping for an examination of the role gardens play in the books, for instance, as places where heroines discover their feelings for the heroes, but this wasn't that type of book. Nothing was talked about in depth. Instead, this has the feel of a coffee table book that you pick up now and then to fill a quiet moment or savor the illustrations. And those illustrations, by Jessica Roux, are lovely. The colors are soft, with a lot of greens and other natural shades. The text, not as smooth as I would like, is absolutely enhanced by them.

The crafts are varied and creative. I was especially interested in making wax flowers and lavender water. The more adventurous might like to try the instructions for brewing Sloe Gin.

There's an illustrated glossary at the back. I doubt anyone needs to have "gardener" defined, but the entries include more information about each item in the Regency era, and shouldn't be skipped. I especially appreciated the illustrations of a ha-ha and shrubberies.

All in all, this isn't for the Janeite who wants a deep dive into Austen's work. It is the perfect book for those with even a casual interest in Austen and her times who like to dabble in different crafts, including plants, or who enjoy looking at lovely garden books and dreaming.

Thank you to Andrews McMeel Publishing and NetGalley for providing me with a copy of this book for review.

Weaving stunning illustrations and lush literary prose, Jane Austen's Garden is a delight for the both the eyes and mind.

This would make a wonderful hostess gift for gardeners and classic literature fans alike. It's as visually pleasing as it is informative!

The part of the title ‘A Classic Botanical Tour of the Classic Novels’ is the best way to describe this book. It explains different aspects of gardens and different landscaping in the Regency era that were mentioned in Jane Austin’s books.

The author makes connections between gardens, parklands, conservatories etc. in relation to the social status & wealth of the era that Jane would have perceived and experienced.

Overall, I found it could have used something more in-depth. Possibly how these gardens influenced Austin's writing e. g. like Emily Dickinson's Gardening Life: The Plants and Places That Inspired the Iconic Poet.

Very visually striking and a lovely coffee table book—I would personally buy the hardcover. However, it is somewhat light on Austen lore, though in all fairness, there isn’t much talk of flowers in her books.

I love anything to do with Jane Austen and I love gardening. What a fun premise this book is! Classics are so full of atmosphere, and this book brings us on a wonderful deep dive into a part of that atmosphere we may not have noticed much prior.

When I was in high school, I fell in love with the Regency Era through Jane Austen’s “Pride and Prejudice.” Over the next thirty-plus years, I’ve read every single word of Austen’s collected works. I’m also rural and do a ton of gardening. So, when I saw “Jane Austen’s Garden: A Botanical Tour of the Classic Novels” by Molly Williams, I knew that I had to read it.

This book was illustrated by Jessica Roux and, let me tell you, the artwork is absolutely breathtaking. There are numerous chapters on this book focusing on subjects like “Hedgerows” and “Parks,” which were common during the era and remain so to this day.

Williams retrieved snippets of text from Austen’s six major novels and personal letters that focus on gardening—vegetables, fruits, flowers, and trees—and on what I term the British gardening experience. For example, taking tours of country estates, which is a habit that continues to this day by a multitude of British citizens.

In the “Cultivating Jane” sections that appear throughout the book, Williams gives readers instructions on how to recreate the Regency feel in their own homes. For example, how to make faux flowers and how to create lavender water.

The author also includes instructions on how to shape a boxwood topiary. However, it’s a shame that Williams didn’t address the current and ongoing box blight crisis that very well could destroy the topiary that you make. The author included some excellent text from Austen’s novels. However, on several occasions, she reuses information that she previously cited at earlier places in the book.

Despite these minor issues, I can easily see this beautifully illustrated book becoming a go-to gift for fans of Jane Austen. Besides the writing and the illustrations, this book’s layout and the fonts used are absolutely perfect; whomever designed this book deserves a round of applause! This is a book that should be offered for sale at gardening centers everywhere.

I received an ARC of “Jane Austen’s Garden: A Botanical Tour of the Classic Novels” by Molly Williams from NetGalley and Andrews McMeel Publishing in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

I received an arc of this title from NetGalley for an honest review. Forgive me, I haven't read much of Jane Austen, but I still enjoyed this book—lovely illustrations, great information, and well thought through and put together.

This book was so lovely and physical beautiful. Well done! As a huge Jane fan, reading the history of her life was intriguing. A gorgeous book!

I loved this! The tie in with Jane Austen's work was fabulous. Love how there's several activities/things to do as well! Definitely for the lovers of Jane Austen!

2025 is a significant year to fans of Jane Austen as it marks 250 years since the author's birth. There are many events happening in light of this, so much attention is being paid to the author.

Personally, I am currently taking a class on the six major Austen novels and am enjoying (re)reading them. They stand up to the passage of time incredibly well. So, with Austen so prevalent for me right now, I was very excited to see this title appear on NetGalley. I think that it will be enjoyed by those who are looking for ways to connect to the author and her stories.

Williams states that it is her intention to "create a compendium of Regency era horticultural references that Jane Austen included in her major novels." In doing this, she offers connections between the novels and nature. She also provides much else in this title such as time lines, summaries of the novels, quotes from the books, projects and more.

I especially enjoyed the illustrations that appear throughout this title. They are lovely and inviting.

Jane Austen's Garden would make an excellent gift for an Austen lover. It can be explored in any order.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Andrews McMeel Publishing for th

Jessica Roux is one of my favourite book illustrators and as a lover of Jane Austen, this immediately caught my interest. I am grateful for having had the opportunity to have an early glimpse of this; the artwork throughout is unsurprisingly stunning and author Molly Williams does a lovely job of providing as various aspects of regency gardens.

Here is the crux though; it has quite a lot of different things to offer and this can be both a good or a bad thing depending on what you are looking for in this book. It was largely not what I personally was looking for, but it might be the perfect blend for someone else. Aesthetics aside, this book delivers interesting history and a bit of trivia on plants (including fruit, vegetables and herbs), guides on how to recreate aspects of regency gardening and homegrown food for yourself as well as highlighting when and where they are relevant in Austen's novels. In addition, it also gives a bit of a background to Austen's life and once again, how gardens and botanics might have fit into the picture.

I think that for a DIY garden enthusiast, a Jane Austen and botanical history fan, this may very well be the perfect book and would make a lovely gift. I myself was expecting less guides (there were a few too many to make this feel like a book beyond a tutorial) and perhaps more on the relevance and history. For example, Williams mentions in her introduction that a modern reader might have a different image of the gardens described in Austen's books due to a slight shift in how names are used in modern times. I would have loved to hear and see more of that - you have a lovely illustrator at hand and while the book is full of them, they were more pretty than practical. I'd have love illustrations actually highlighting of what it would have looked like as the author had already raised this issue.

This book is targeted to someone who loves Jane Austen and has at least some appreciation for gardening. I am both, and I will definitely be buying the hard copy to keep for inspiration and light rereading. There is actually more information stuffed in here than I expected.
This is a delightful and beautifully illustrated book that explores the botanical references found in Jane Austen's six most famous novels. She even provides DIY tutorials for projects done during the Regency Era.

Jane Austen’s Gardens by Molly Williams was an absolute delight! Not only does the author explore the gardens and plants featured in each of Austen’s novels, but she also weaves in Regency-era horticulture, craft ideas, and beautifully researched cultural insights. The book delves into the landscapes, flowers, and plants that were such an integral part of Austen’s life, illustrating how nature was almost a character in her stories. The stunning illustrations further bring this connection to life.

That said, I think it’s important to note that unless you have an interest in both Jane Austen and horticulture, this book might not be for everyone. While it offers wonderful insights into garden history and Austen’s world, those solely interested in her novels may not find it as engaging. However, for those who love both literature and gardening, this is a beautifully crafted and informative read.

As a Jane Austen fan, I highly recommend it. As a gardener, I appreciate the well-researched historical details and practical knowledge it offers for those wanting to expand their understanding of Regency gardening. Whether you’re a master gardener or simply fascinated by the role of nature in literature, this book provides rich context and inspiration.

Lacking a garden of my own, I admit that I liked this book basically because it seems to have been written a couple of centuries ago ( I mean with respect to the type of drawings and fonts used). Otherwise I admit to a weakness I have for anything that is in any way related to Jane Austen directly or indirectly.

In mancanza di un mio giardino, ammetto che questo libro mi é piaciuto fondamentalmente perché sembra scritto un paio di secoli fa ( intendo rispetto al tipo dei disegni e di font utilizzati). Per il resto ammetto una mia debolezza per tutto quello che sia in qualche modo collegato a Jane Austen in modo diretto o indiretto.

I received from the Publisher a complimentary digital advanced review copy of the book in exchange for a honest review.

What a beautiful book!
A lovely addition for any Austen fan, this book wonderfully compliments the books it’s inspired by.
Packed full of stunning illustrations, an easy to navigate layout and interesting information I found it a really enjoyable read that I feel like I can go back to time and time again.
I love the references to Jane’s life, how her experiences inspired her books and how we can still see some of these botanical wonders today.
Also the craft ideas were a welcome addition and quite inspiring.