Have you ever wished you could escape the everyday and just for a moment live in Jane Austen’s world?
Jane Austen did not place her stories in palaces or on the battlefields, but in that one building soimportant, then and now: the home. The house, and lack of a home are key to Jane Austen’s novels: Elizabeth Bennett and her sisters in Pride and Prejudice know they will be homeless when their father dies, Elinor and Marianne in Sense and Sensibility are evicted by a cruel sister-in-law, Anne Elliott in Persuasion is forced to leave a loved home due to the folly of her father, and both Catherine Morland in Northanger Abbey and Fanny Price in Mansfield Park are the dependent guests of wealthy families. Only Emma Woodhouse is the unfettered mistress of her house in Emma.
Marriage was more than just a romantic alliance for Elizabeth Bennet or Elinor Dashwood. It also meant a home of their own, and a valued role as mistress of the house and estate.
“And at that moment, she felt that to be mistress of Pemberley might be something!” Elizabeth Bennet visits Pemberley, Pride and Prejudice.
But to get that home, to secure that marriage, Jane Austen’s women had to walk a tightrope of social expectation, field off competitors and rise above their embarrassing family situation, all while remaining true to themselves. Behind Jane Austen’s Door explores the challenges and experiences of Jane Austen’s women lived in their object of desire: the home.
Behind Jane Austen’s Door is available online at Amazon and a range of other bookstores.
You might like to visit Jennifer Forest’s author profile at Amazon.
For a book synopsis download it in PDF here: Synopsis Behind Jane Austen’s Door.
