Cassandra and Jane

A fictional memoir of the sister to someone who led a brilliant but brief life, Cassandra and Jane is a poignant story for Janeites who want to know more about their patron goddess's life. While the novel doesn't focus as much on how lives were back then, it still offers interesting insight into the relationships Jane had with the people around her. Some people have called this boring, and while I see their viewpoint, I think the book is still interesting. If anything, it's streamlined.

Readers still get a sense of how women lived in the Regency era: what they thought, what they cared about, what they feared. Cassandra Austen, in particular, is parts petty, jealous, loving, and helpful. She's not what we think of when we think of show more "strong" heroines, and she's definitely not one to steal the spotlight away from someone like Jane. That said, I think Pitkeathley did a good job creating distinct characters, in spite of the lack of primary sources about Austen. You feel like Cassandra is her own person, and that person is imperfect. But so are we all.

While this novel only shows glimpses of Jane's inner feelings, you still get a sense of the stakes, as Cassandra recounts their unmarried lives. Fans familiar with Austen's life will recognize these events and enjoy the fresh take with Cassandra at the helm. Newcomers will see a quaint story that will send them to other sources to learn more. True, it's not as sparkling as Austen's own writing, but it doesn't need to be. If you're here for Austen and no other funny business, this is the book for you. show less

I tend to be wary of Jane Austen fiction not actually written by Jane Austen. Fan fiction is usually outright disappointing, and I'd prefer to reread Sense and Sensibility or Persuasion instead. Still, when I found Cassandra and Jane, I decided to give it a go, as I'm a big fan of sister relationships.

I enjoyed it, in a sort of historical novel way. Thankfully Pitkeathley does not overdramatize the romantic relationship both sisters were involved in, though I believe she did imagine one courtship of Jane's that I am not familar with. Though at times Jane's sharp wit and slight bitterness are underscored more than I'd like, it's not really out of harmony with what small information we do have about Jane Austen.

Though obviously the main show more character of the story is Jane Austen, it is narrated from Cassandra's point of view (who history knows even less about though she outlived Jane by decades). Cassandra seems to hold Jane in awe, though tempering this with some jealousy from time to time. This makes her seem more human, I think,than the docile patient sister whose only known life drama of her own was the death of a fiancee.

As a massive Jane Austen fan and (almost) scholar of her life and work, I'd put this work higher up than the fan fiction and "sequels" and almost on a par with my favorite biographies of her. I loved feeling like I was sitting in the room with the Austen family as Jane read scenes of her latest writings to the happy audience, and felt the pain of an intelligent woman frustrated at the lack of financial independence in the late 18th, early 19th century England. The sister's conversations seem realistic enough to me (I have two close sisters of my own) while corresponding to the time period as Jane Austen described it, which is no mean feat considering the author owns to not having sisters. show less

If little is known about Jane Austen, even less is known about her sister Cassandra Austen, aside from the fact that she sketched the only portrait we have of Jane and never married. Jill Pitkeathley assumes Cassandra’s viewpoint in this historical novel, imagining the close relationship between the sisters from childhood until Jane’s early death. Together, the sisters experience the pain of lost loves, the struggles of unmarried daughters reliant on their brothers’ wealth, jealousy, and a variety of other trials, never losing their faith in each other.

I try to avoid “sequel” type books for most of my favorite literature. I make an exception here; I have no problem with historical fiction imagining the lives of these authors, show more as that’s on a different plane from ruining one of my favorite books, so I was eager to read this book. I’d never heard of the author before, but it sounded lovely and I was right, it was worth my time. I felt that this novel evoked a perfect late 17th/early 18th century England. Pitkeathley never slips, never introduces any anachronisms; I feel that she must know Austen’s novels very intimately to make this one feel like it’s drawn straight from that era.

Moreover, you can see that she’s drawn on those novels to produce Jane’s opinions and her personality, and I love that Pitkeathley gives tribute to Jane’s brilliance, when she is so frequently downgraded by people who dismiss her novels as early chick lit. Jane here is a great, multi-faceted character, frequently discontent with her lot and determined to express the problems inherent in society in her writing.

Unfortunately, there is one downside to this novel, and that is Cassandra. She is, simply, dull. It’s clear that she is just a mirror held up to Jane’s brilliance, and while the real Cassandra may have had some personality of her own, this one doesn’t. She only expresses an opinion twice, when she becomes engaged and when she is jealous of Jane. Otherwise, she is far too complacent and colorless. She could almost have been an omniscient 3rd person narrator for all I cared about her; the sisters’ relationship is nice, but it is Jane that this novel is clearly about and all the other characters fade before her.

I’d also like to mention this novel’s genesis. Ms. Pitkeathley had cancer twice, and the second time, she determined that if she lived, she would write this novel. It’s incredibly admirable of her not only to determine that and follow through on her promise to herself, but to deliver a book that is a very good read. She’s done a great job here and I will give her a lot of credit. I hope she writes another novel, as she definitely has talent.

I would recommend Cassandra and Jane to those who would like to read more about Jane Austen; who would like to, in a sense, get more of the feel of her novels without ruining them. It’s a good read, but it could have been more.

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Meh... There's really nothing new in this imagined biography of Jane Austen's life told from the perspective of her older sister Cassandra. The book reads like a timeline with commentary so if you are a true Janeite, you already know all of this and if you're new to the author, it will probably be a pretty dull introduction. I much more prefer to see an author take these same tirelessly repeated facts and do something creative with them---as Stephanie Barron does in her Jane Austen mysteries series, for instance.

If the novel is subpar, the author commentary at the end is nothing but pages of textbook feminist robotic repeatings. "Subjugation" of women, "marriage almost always led to a life of endless childbearing with all of its show more inherent dangers"...yada yada yada... Oh, and this one: "marriage had to be the aim because without it any unmarried woman was totally dependent on the support of her male relatives..." Even though the very person she's writing about proved herself to be an independent woman of means---as did many, many women of the day. Times are not that different now---much as we'd like to imagine them to be.

All in all, I enjoyed the Jane reminiscing as I'd not read anything about her in awhile---but I found this work to be mainly a regurgitation of all the facts we Janeites are already welllllllll aware of. show less

Like another reviewer said, I was quite distracted by the amount of typos in the book...simple things like it's/its and where/were...that definitely should have been caught by any level of editor. I made myself complete the book because it's the only P I could find for my A-Z author list, but I thought she took a lot of liberties. I did enjoy referring to the family chart in the back to see the ages and deaths of the siblings, which helped place Jane Austen in a certain time period. It also made me want to re-read her novels yet again. Oh, summer just won't be long enough!

This is an enjoyable but fairly run-of-the-mill fictionalized biography of Jane Austen, told from the point of view of her sister, Cassandra. The author stays pretty true to the known facts of Austen's life--which doesn't necessarily make for an exciting read. If anything is expanded upon here, it's simply some of the family quarrels and Cassandra's jealousy over sharing Jane with others. We learn little, either real or imagined, about Cassandra's own life, aside from her engagement to a young clergyman who died before their wedding, her stints of caring for ailing and about-to-deliver relatives, and her assistance in reading, making copies of, and giving suggestions for Jane's manuscripts in progress. Overall, it was a fast and show more enjoyable read but might be appreciated more by those who haven't read any deeper biographies of Austen. show less

Jane Austen and her sister Cassandra were the only two daughters in their family and neither of them married, resulting in a life-long close relationship between the two. “Cassandra and Jane” is told from Cassandra’s point of view, after Jane’s death as Cassandra is looking through the letters they exchanged and looking back over their lives together.

For someone who knew little to nothing about Jane Austen’s life, “Cassandra and Jane” was very informative. It imbued me with a new-found desire to go and read the rest of Austen’s books (particularly since all I have read is “Pride and Prejudice”). In this sense, it is fantastic for the casual Austen-devotee. I think, however, it is something that would be more enjoyed show more by Austen fantatics. As I was not already deeply invested in Jane, I did not enjoy the book as much as I might otherwise have. I had more of an “oh, that’s interesting” attitude than a desire to delve deep into the lives of Jane and Cassandra.

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