With no money of her own and little hope of selling any of her unfinished manuscripts, Jane Austen accepts a marriage proposal from the heir to an estate in her beloved Hampshire, only to break her engagement the following day because she does not love him. She chooses to devote herself to writing fiction, even though she may always have to depend on her parents or brothers for money. When Fanny Palmer falls in love with Jane's brother Charles Austen, a handsome captain in the Royal Navy, she sees herself as the heroine of a romantic story and chooses to accept his proposal of marriage even though he has very little money. She shares her husband's desire for children and his confidence that he will soon increase his income by capturing naval prize ships, and she insists on travelling with him when the squadron sails to Nova Scotia, instead of staying at home in Bermuda.
Exchanging letters across the Atlantic during the tumultuous years of the Napoleonic Wars, Jane and Fanny become close friends. They share in each other's sorrows as Jane struggles to publish her novels and Fanny confronts her fears about pregnancy, childbirth and the dangers Charles faces at sea. But the friendship begins to fracture after Charles brings his family to England, as Jane and Fanny discover disagreements over issues they haven't talked about in their letters, including how best to care for children. When Jane starts to find success as a writer, Fanny admires her novels about romance and courtship, yet her anger at her sister-in-law's refusal to write about the challenges of marriage and motherhood and the risks of childbirth threatens their friendship.
Like Maggie O'Farrell's Hamnet and Colm Tóibín's The Master, The Austens explores tensions and rivalries between a great writer and the people closest to them. From the lush gardens of Bermuda to the rocky shores of Nova Scotia, the peaceful Hampshire countryside, and the hellish conditions of a prison ship anchored off Sheerness, the novel follows Jane and Fanny through the twists and turns of the choices they make about writing and family in a world that is hostile to art and love, and even the idea of a woman making a choice.
Jane Austen chooses art and the freedom to write fiction instead of marrying for money and thereby selling her body and soul, while her sister-in-law Fanny chooses to marry for love. Their disagreements about work and family threaten their friendship in a world that is hostile to art and love, and even the idea of a woman making a choice.
"Jane Austen's Philosophy of the Virtues by Sarah Emsley has taken a favored place on my short shelf of critical studies that most usefully illuminate Jane Austen. … The coda 'After Austen' suggests that although great writing can exist in an age of doubt, the tradition of the virtues must fade and diminish-and thus that the coherent complexity of Austen's philosophy of the virtues has never since been surpassed or equaled. Nor has it hitherto been fully explicated with Emsley's admirable blend of clarity, precision, erudition, and plausibility."
With no money of her own and little hope of selling any of her unfinished manuscripts, Jane Austen accepts a marriage proposal from the heir to an estate in her beloved Hampshire, only to break her engagement the following day because she does not love him. She chooses to devote herself to writing fiction, even though she may always have to depend on her parents or brothers for money. When Fanny Palmer falls in love with Jane's brother Charles Austen, a handsome captain in the Royal Navy, she sees herself as the heroine of a romantic story and chooses to accept his proposal of marriage even though he has very little money. She shares her husband's desire for children and his confidence that he will soon increase his income by capturing naval prize ships, and she insists on travelling with him when the squadron sails to Nova Scotia, instead of staying at
