10 Books for Fans of Jane Austen

For the two decades following the death of her beloved sister, Jane, Cassandra Austen has lived alone. She spends her days visiting friends and relations and quietly working to ensure her sister's reputation as a great writer is solidified. Now in her sixties and increasingly frail, Cassandra goes to stay with the Fowles of Kintbury, family of her long-dead fiancé, in search of a trove of Jane’s letters. 

These letters reveal many secrets, not only about Jane but Cassandra herself. Will Cassandra bare the most private details of her life to the world to ensure everyone knows Jane Austen's name, or commit her sister’s legacy to the flames to keep her own secrets hidden?

Male literary friendships are the stuff of legend, from Byron and Shelley to Fitzgerald and Hemingway. But female writers throughout history are often dismissed or unfairly categorised as loners and recluses. Jane Austen was especially prone to being seen as a spinster with no connection to the outside literary world. Coauthors and real-life friends Emily Midorikawa and Emma Claire Sweeney prove this wrong, thanks to their surprising discovery of the friendship between Jane Austen and one of the family servants, playwright Anne Sharp. 

They also delve into the bond between feminist author Mary Taylor and the writer she inspired, Charlotte Brontë, and the complicated frenemy situation between Virginia Woolf and Katherine Mansfield. Through letters and diaries that have never been published before, A Secret Sisterhood resurrects these forgotten stories of female friendships.

To say that Jane Austen has a few fans would be the understatement of the century. Austen's devotees span generations, locations, and art forms. Deborah Yaffe, journalist and self-described Janeite, looks into the world of Austen fandom and who these admirers are. She talks to people from across the world who take pilgrimages to Bath, write their own stories, organise balls, and form fan theories about these iconic novels. It's a grand love letter to those who love Austen as much as the author.

When Emily Cavanaugh inherits a fortune from her great aunt, she's ready for her life to change for good. She travels to the sleepy coastal village of Stony Beach, Oregon, to claim her inheritance, which includes a beautiful Victorian estate called Windy Corner as well as a huge chunk of the town's real estate portfolio. 

With all of this money and responsibility comes a whole heap of problems. There's a covert plan to develop Stony Beach into a major resort and her aunt might have been murdered to make it happen. All Emily wants to do is read Austen novels in her new home, but reading Persuasion leads her to notice some eerie similarities between that novel and her new life. Will she get a happy ever after like Anne Elliot or will she face a fate worse than that of her aunt?

Traumatized by her parents’ decision to give up the rectory in Hampshire where she grew up, Jane Austen found herself unable to write for ten whole years. During that time she moved from one rented property to another, and it was only when her brother Edward offered her a permanent home in his Chawton House Estate that she had the peace and security to become the author we know and love today. 

Dancing with Mr. Darcy is a compilation of 20 stories by an array of authors inspired by both Austen and the Chawton estate. This anthology contains introductions from Sarah Waters, as well as from Rebecca Smith, the great-great-great-great-great niece of Jane Austen.

Alice is an 18-year-old student and aspiring novelist who finds the idea of reading a stuffy Regency novelist like Jane Austen to be utterly uninspiring. “You must read, Alice, before it’s too late,” Fay Weldon, or “Aunt Fay,” implores her “niece” to read the books that inspired legions of devotees. Alternating between passages from Jane Austen’s novels and accounts of her own career, Weldon reveals the connections between art and life, and charts Alice’s trajectory from unpublished writer to celebrated author.

Jane Cleveland and Prudence Bates couldn't be more different from one another. Jane is a rather incompetent vicar's wife who doesn't know the meaning of the word "demure" and Prudence is a passionate social girl who always has the most unsuitable affairs. 

With the move to a rural parish, Jane is determined to find her friend the perfect man. While there aren't tons of eligible bachelors in the area, surely it shouldn't be tough to find a man good enough (and nervy enough) for Prudence? But matchmaking is easier said than done in this village full of gossips, scolds, and juicy drama.

Rachel Givney's novel imagines if Jane Austen's life was a modern-day version of one of her own novels, with a sci-fi twist. As a 28-year-old spinster, Jane would rather write than find a husband. But the course of true love is a curious one, as Jane finds herself magically transported to modern-day England. She forms a new best friend in fading film star Sofia Wentworth, and a genuine love interest in Sofia's brother Fred.

In this bright future full of horseless carriages and magical boxes called computers, Jane Austen is an icon whose work is read by everyone. But the longer Jane stays here, the more her presence as a literary icon begins to disappear. She must find a way to keep her place in history before it's too late, but will that mean choosing between her work and her new love?

In Pride and Prejudice, Anne de Bourgh is a rather pitiable character, a chronically ill wallflower who lives in the shadow of her cousins, including Mr. Darcy. Molly Greeley adds new layers to her life in The Heiress. As a fussy baby, Anne's doctor prescribed laudanum to keep her quiet and now she lives in an opium-dimmed world, sheltered and shunted to the side of life while her family thrives. 

After her father dies unexpectedly, leaving her his vast fortune, Anne has a moment of clarity: what if she's not really ill, and what if she's actually allowed to be more than her family forced her to be? Free of the medicine that imprisoned her, Anne decides to move to London and begin anew. Now a wealthy heiress with greater options, she is forced to navigate a whole new way of life and find out who she truly is.

In this biography, author and theologian Professor James Leithart explores the life of Jane Austen. While many writers became celebrities during their lifetimes, Austen never did (she probably would have hated being famous anyway), but centuries of fans have made her into an idol. 

“Janeia” is the author’s term for the mania for all things Austen, which has endured for generations thanks to continuing love of the books as well as various adaptations and academic readings. Leithart examines the woman herself as well as looking into how her Christian faith impacted both her life and writing.