Book Review: The Marriage of Miss Jane Austen Vol. II by Collins Hemingway

I received a copy of The Mar­riage of Miss Jane Austen Vol II through His­tor­i­cal Fic­tion Vir­tu­al Book Tours for review pur­pos­es. As always, this review reflects only my hon­est opin­ions on the book.

I’m thrilled to be a part of the blog tour with HFVBT for the sec­ond of Collins Hem­ing­way’s The Mar­riage of Miss Jane Austen nov­els.  Today, I’m shar­ing my thoughts about Vol II!

Be sure to check out Vol I’s review and to check out some of the oth­er love­ly book blog­gers in the sched­ule at the bot­tom of this post.

The Marriage of Miss Jane Austen Vol. II
by Collins Hemingway

Pub­li­ca­tion Date: August 8, 2016
eBook & Paper­back; 332 Pages
ISBN-13: 978–1535444958

 

 

Jane Austen Lived a Qui­et, Sin­gle Life-Or Did She?

Tra­di­tion holds that Jane Austen lived a prop­er, con­tem­pla­tive, unmar­ried life. But what if she wed a man as pas­sion­ate and intel­li­gent as she-and the mar­riage remained secret for 200 years?

The Mar­riage of Miss Jane Austen resolves the biggest mys­tery of Austen’s life-the “lost years” of her twen­ties-of which his­to­ri­ans know vir­tu­al­ly nothing.

• Why the endur­ing rumors of a lost love or trag­ic affair?

• Why, after­ward, did the viva­cious Austen pre­ma­ture­ly put on “the cap of mid­dle age” and close off any thoughts of find­ing love?

• Why, after her death, did her beloved sis­ter destroy her let­ters and journals?

The Mar­riage of Miss Jane Austen tril­o­gy answers these ques­tions through a riv­et­ing love affair based on the his­to­ry of the times and the details of Austen’s own life.

Amazon | Barnes and Noble | IndieBound

My Review of The Marriage of Miss Jane Austen Vol. II

After read­ing the first nov­el in this series, I was excit­ed to con­tin­ue and picked up The Mar­riage of Miss Jane Austen Vol. II with­in moments of fin­ish­ing.  I’ve always loved a good “what if?” when it comes to lit­tle-known aspects of his­to­ry, espe­cial­ly those I’ve been able to study.  Jane Austen has been one of my favourite authors since ele­men­tary school and I’ve absolute­ly loved watch­ing her come alive on the page through this series.  Hem­ing­way tru­ly pro­vides a unique imag­in­ing of Austen as a char­ac­ter, firm­ly based in the image of Austen as a real figure.

Moth­er­hood with­in her nov­els has been a sub­ject I’ve touched upon in my own study, so read­ing this account of the char­ac­ter of Jane’s own expe­ri­ences with it was of par­tic­u­lar inter­est to me, per­son­al­ly.  Jane’s inter­ac­tions with her moth­er and moth­er-in-law and with her own child and the chil­dren around her (par­tic­u­lar­ly her nieces) are absolute­ly insightful.

Per­haps my favourite aspect of this nov­el, and, indeed, the series as a whole, from what I’ve read, is the his­to­ry and ref­er­ences woven through the sto­ry.  This is tru­ly a work of his­tor­i­cal fiction–not just due to it’s being set with­in a bygone era or that it’s based on Austen, but in that it tan­gles itself into the his­tor­i­cal nar­ra­tive beau­ti­ful­ly, fill­ing the gaps where Austen’s “lost years” have left schol­ars search­ing for answers.

The appear­ance of oth­er crit­i­cal fig­ures, like Coleridge, improve not only the sto­ry, but the read­er’s expe­ri­ence.  I found myself keep­ing an eye out for these notable char­ac­ters like one watch­es for ref­er­ences in a Dis­ney-Pixar movie or for ghosts in The Haunt­ing of Hill House.  These “East­er eggs” added anoth­er lay­er of enjoy­ment to read­ing this nov­el and empha­sised the his­to­ry behind it, along­side rather than despite the fiction.

Slav­ery and the debates sur­round­ing abo­li­tion are a par­tic­u­lar­ly heavy plot point in this vol­ume of the series.  In this, Jane’s pas­sion comes alive as if she is a char­ac­ter in one of her own novels–it’s easy to imag­ine Lizzy Ben­net react­ing sim­i­lar­ly to sim­i­lar events and experiences.

Over­all, this nov­el was quite an enjoy­able read and, while I haven’t got a review of the third vol­ume of The Mar­riage of Miss Jane Austen queued up, I may have to find the book myself, if only to find out just how the sto­ry reach­es its end.

Praise for The Marriage of Miss Jane Austen Series

“A skill­ful por­tray­al of an ear­ly nine­teenth-cen­tu­ry lit­er­ary icon takes this his­tor­i­cal romance on an imag­i­na­tive jour­ney of the soul. … The adven­ture of a true roman­tic part­ner­ship and all the excite­ment that the nine­teenth cen­tu­ry had to offer. … [The] nov­el invites you to linger, to savor, and to enjoy. … Makes for won­der­ful read­ing. … A Jane that lives and breathes on the page.”—Claire Fos­ter, Fore­word Reviews, 4 stars

“Hem­ing­way cap­tures the ener­gy of the times, while also writ­ing with the irony and sly humor of Austen her­self. … A strik­ing­ly real Jane Austen ful­ly engaged in the tur­bu­lent times. … She is a liv­ing, breath­ing pres­ence. … [He] dis­plays a notable abil­i­ty to recre­ate time and place. … A live­ly, com­pelling read, [a] sober­ing but mov­ing con­clu­sion.” —Blueink Starred Review

“An enjoy­able nov­el in an imag­i­na­tive, well-researched series. … A well-researched work of his­tor­i­cal fic­tion … [with] sweet moments and intrigu­ing his­tor­i­cal insights. … An incred­i­bly mov­ing por­trait of a woman fac­ing loss and love.” —Kirkus Reviews

About the Author

Whether his sub­ject is lit­er­a­ture, his­to­ry, or sci­ence, Collins Hem­ing­way has a pas­sion for the art of cre­ative inves­ti­ga­tion. For him, the most com­pelling fic­tion deeply explores the heart and soul of its char­ac­ters, while also engag­ing them in the com­plex and often dan­ger­ous world in which they have a stake. He wants to explore all that goes into peo­ple’s lives and every­thing that makes them com­plete though fal­li­ble human beings. His fic­tion is shaped by the lan­guage of the heart and an abid­ing regard for courage in the face of adversity.

As a non­fic­tion book author, Hem­ing­way has worked along­side some of the world’s thought lead­ers on top­ics as diverse as cor­po­rate cul­ture and ethics; the Inter­net and mobile tech­nol­o­gy; the ins and outs of the retail trade; and the cog­ni­tive poten­tial of the brain. Best known for the #1 best-sell­ing book on busi­ness and tech­nol­o­gy, Busi­ness @ the Speed of Thought, which he coau­thored with Bill Gates, he has earned a rep­u­ta­tion for tack­ling chal­leng­ing sub­jects with clar­i­ty and insight, writ­ing for the non­tech­ni­cal but intel­li­gent reader.

Hem­ing­way has pub­lished short­er non­fic­tion on top­ics includ­ing com­put­er tech­nol­o­gy, med­i­cine, and avi­a­tion, and he has writ­ten award-win­ning journalism.

Pub­lished books include The Mar­riage of Miss Jane Austen tril­o­gy, Busi­ness @ the Speed of Thought, with Bill Gates, Built for Growth, with Arthur Rubin­feld, What Hap­py Com­pa­nies Know, with Dan Bak­er and Cathy Green­berg, Max­i­mum Brain­pow­er, with Shlo­mo Breznitz, and The Fifth Wave, with Robert Marcus.

Hem­ing­way lives in Bend, Ore­gon, with his wife, Wendy. Togeth­er they have three adult sons and three grand­daugh­ters. He sup­ports the Ore­gon Com­mu­ni­ty Foun­da­tion and oth­er civic orga­ni­za­tions engaged in con­ser­va­tion and social ser­vices in Cen­tral Oregon.

For more infor­ma­tion please vis­it Collins Hem­ing­way’s web­site and blog. You can also find him on Face­book, Twit­ter, Pin­ter­est, Insta­gram, and Goodreads.

Blog Tour Schedule

Mon­day, Jan­u­ary 14
Review at Cof­fee and Ink

Wednes­day, Jan­u­ary 16
Review & Excerpt at The Book Junkie Reads

Thurs­day, Jan­u­ary 17
Fea­ture at What Is That Book About

Fri­day, Jan­u­ary 18
Review at Rainy Day Reviews

Mon­day, Jan­u­ary 21
Fea­ture at Don­na’s Book Blog

Tues­day, Jan­u­ary 22
Excerpt at T’s Stuff
Inter­view at Pas­sages to the Past

Wednes­day, Jan­u­ary 23
Review & Guest Post at To Read, Or Not to Read

Fri­day, Jan­u­ary 25
Review at View from the Birdhouse
Review at Svet­lana’s Reads and Views

Mon­day, Jan­u­ary 28
Review at Pen­cils & Pages

Tues­day, Jan­u­ary 29
Guest Post at Encour­ag­ing Words from the Tea Queen

Wednes­day, Jan­u­ary 30
Review at Library of Clean Reads

Fri­day, Feb­ru­ary 1
Review at His­to­ry From a Wom­an’s Perspective

Sat­ur­day, Feb­ru­ary 2
Review at Jorie Loves a Story

Sun­day, Feb­ru­ary 3
Review at Bri’s Book Nook

Mon­day, Feb­ru­ary 4
Review at Amy’s Booket List

Tues­day, Feb­ru­ary 5
Review at Maid­en of the Pages

Wednes­day, Feb­ru­ary 6
Fea­ture at The Lit Bitch
Inter­view at Book­ish Rantings

Thurs­day, Feb­ru­ary 7
Fea­ture at Celti­cLa­dy’s Reviews

Fri­day, Feb­ru­ary 8
Review at Book Reviews from Canada

Sat­ur­day, Feb­ru­ary 9
Inter­view at Myths, Leg­ends, Books & Cof­fee Pots

Giveaway

Dur­ing the Blog Tour we will be giv­ing away a $25 Ama­zon Gift Card! To enter, please use the Gleam form below.

Give­away Rules

– Give­away ends at 11:59pm EST on Feb­ru­ary 9th. You must be 18 or old­er to enter.
– Give­away is open to US only.
– Only one entry per household.
– All give­away entrants agree to be hon­est and not cheat the sys­tems; any sus­pect of fraud is decid­ed upon by blog/site own­er and the spon­sor, and entrants may be dis­qual­i­fied at our discretion.
– Win­ner has 48 hours to claim prize or new win­ner is chosen.

The Mar­riage of Miss Jane Austen Vol II