~Jane Austen
Indeed, Jane, indeed. And one--especially this reader--can never tire of books by or about this incredible author And Gill Hornby's latest, Godmersham Park (Pegasus Books, November 1, 2022), is a delightful addition to the canon. If you loved her previous Austen-inspired book, Miss Austen (which I did), you'll love this one.
Here we meet Anne Sharpe, who at thirty-one and with no experience in the matter--or any other choices for her life after she's cast out of the family home upon her mother's death--becomes a governess of twelve-year-old Fanny Austen. And when the girl's aunt, none other than Jane Austen, comes to visit her family, she begins a close friendship with Anne.
But it's not all rosy, though Anne adores both aunt and niece: she's plagued by debilitating headaches she tries her hardest to hide from the family. And perhaps more dangerous of all, she begins to attract the eye of another member of the Austen clan: Jane's brother Henry.
This is just such a lovely book. Hornsby infuses it with charm and rich historical detail to make Austen's and Sharpe's world come alive. I must confess that I knew little about Anne going into this book, but knowing how much I enjoyed Miss Austen, I knew Godmersham Park would be an equal.
And indeed I was not disappointed. I loved this family--their interactions reminded me of those of my most beloved Jane Austen movie adaptations, Sense and Sensibility and Pride and Prejudice. There's such humor and warmth in so many scenes (I loved the fishing outing!), especially those involving Harriot. And the letters between Jane and Fanny and Jane and Anne are touching.
But there's much seriousness imbued within these pages as well. Anne's position as governess is precarious, and she's not exactly welcomed with open arms by the rest of the staff. She also knows that she's a woman without means, entirely at the mercy of the Austen family's kindness to keep her in their home and under their employment. And there's much discussion that she has to hide her bad health, because even though her headaches are not interfering with her job caring for Fanny, she will be quickly replaced by a woman who suffers from nothing. The final medical treatments the Austens "gift" her and she ultimately submits to with no alternatives available to her are truly horrific (not that this book is in any way graphic, but the thought of what she endured is truly awful).
And of course, what of love? It's something at the heart of many an Austen story--think of Mrs. Bennett bemoaning to Kiera Knightley's Elizabeth how stressful it is to marry off one's daughters. Anne seems totally against the idea of romance--perhaps a defense mechanism against her father's transgressions?--even as she fears she's falling for Henry. But that could be as ill fated as anything...
But perhaps my favorite part of this novel was the beautiful language. Hornby's writing sparkles and immediately evokes an Austen novel. If only we still all spoke this this today.
This book was just such a triumph for me; I highly recommend it, especially to anyone seeking out their next Janeite fix.
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A very special thank you to Pegasus Books and Austenprose PR for inviting me along on this book tour and for graciously giving me an early copy of Godmersham Park for this review.
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ADVANCE PRAISE
· "This is a deeply imagined and deeply moving novel. Reading it made me happy and weepy in equally copious amounts…I read it straight through without looking up.”— Karen Joy Fowler, author of The Jane Austen Bookclub
· Hornby’s skillful mix of fact and fiction captures the complexities of the Austens and their era, and her crisp, nimble prose sparkles throughout. Best of all, Hornby genuinely channels the sentiment of 19th-century English literature. Janeites aren’t the only readers who will relish this smart, tender tale."— Publishers Weekly, starred review
· “…a well-written and delightfully observant novel…an excellent read.”— The Historical Novel Society
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AUTHOR BIO
Gill Hornby is the author of the novels Miss Austen, The Hive, and All Together Now, as well as The Story of Jane Austen, a biography of Austen for young readers. She lives in Kintbury, England, with her husband and their four children.