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13th out of 219 books
—
453 voters
The Lost Memoirs of Jane Austen
by
Syrie James (Goodreads Author)
Many rumors abound about a mysterious gentleman said to be the love of Jane's life--finally, the truth may have been found. . . .
What if, hidden in an old attic chest, Jane Austen's memoirs were discovered after hundreds of years? What if those pages revealed the untold story of a life-changing love affair? That's the premise behind this spellbinding novel, which delves in...more
What if, hidden in an old attic chest, Jane Austen's memoirs were discovered after hundreds of years? What if those pages revealed the untold story of a life-changing love affair? That's the premise behind this spellbinding novel, which delves in...more
Paperback, 303 pages
Published
November 6th 2007
by William Morrow Paperbacks
(first published October 1st 2007)
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"Imperdibile per gli appassionati di Jane Austen."
Hai voglia.
Mi duole il cuore a parlare male di qualcosa quando c'è di mezzo Jane Austen, ma mi duole ancor di più dover parlare di questo romanzetto inutile. Quindi esprimerò il mio giudizio nella maniera più concitata possibile e spero che la mia recensione basti a saziare la curiosità di chi si accinge a leggerla. Ebbene, si tratta di un insalata scadente condita con fatti estrapolati dalla lettere di Jane Austen, fatti estrapolati dai romanzi...more
Hai voglia.
Mi duole il cuore a parlare male di qualcosa quando c'è di mezzo Jane Austen, ma mi duole ancor di più dover parlare di questo romanzetto inutile. Quindi esprimerò il mio giudizio nella maniera più concitata possibile e spero che la mia recensione basti a saziare la curiosità di chi si accinge a leggerla. Ebbene, si tratta di un insalata scadente condita con fatti estrapolati dalla lettere di Jane Austen, fatti estrapolati dai romanzi...more
Mar 12, 2008
Jeanette
rated it
4 of 5 stars
Recommends it for:
Jane Austen fans, anyone!
Shelves:
2008
"Do you mean to say, that if I believe in your story as you have told it, then it is as good as if it were true?" (303) So asks Jane Austen's nephew in this fictional account of her life and so sums up my feelings for this book. While I know the story is fiction, it was written in such a true and believable fashion that I had to remind myself that it wasn't actually a recently discovered memoir of Jane Austen.
What fan of Jane Austen has not, at some point, lamented the fact that Cassandra Austen...more
What fan of Jane Austen has not, at some point, lamented the fact that Cassandra Austen...more
I cannot imagine anything more distressing than reading this book and continuing to be confused as to the real sentiments and affairs of the author. I do admire historical fiction but when you unconcernedly blend fact with fiction, so one cannot tell what has really occured, it is chaotic for those of us who would like to UNDERSTAND a little more about Jane Austen. Her books tell plenty about her imaginary life, I don't need someone else to steal her voice, robbing sentiments out of direct quote...more
7 likes · like · see review
This was a page-turner, thanks only to Jane Austen's wonderful storylines.
I would not read this book again, because there was virtually no originality in it. I would also be offended, if I were Jane, at the idea that I'd lifted every one of my stories' events and characters and dialogues directly from happenings in my life.
It might have been more of a treat if there were any sort of suspense as to who each character in her life would turn out to resemble in her books, but there was no subtletie...more
I would not read this book again, because there was virtually no originality in it. I would also be offended, if I were Jane, at the idea that I'd lifted every one of my stories' events and characters and dialogues directly from happenings in my life.
It might have been more of a treat if there were any sort of suspense as to who each character in her life would turn out to resemble in her books, but there was no subtletie...more
I wanted to hate this book. I've been so possessive of Jane Austen since I read Northanger Abbey 20 years ago. How can everyone love her as much as I do? No one else listens to the bands I love, they don't go see my favorite movies. It doesn't make any sense. I feel that something so personal and private to me is out there for the whole world to take and I don't like it. I vowed to never read all these Jane Austen spin-off novels. Anyway, this book was alright. I think the girl in me that loves...more
Apr 07, 2011
Georgiana 1792
rated it
4 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
old-friends-new-fancies
Cocktail
Prendi i personaggi maschili più significativi di Jane Austen:
1/4 di Frederick Wentworth;
1/4 di Fitzwilliam Darcy;
1/4 di Edward Ferrars;
1/4 di John Willoughby;
1 pizzico di Henry Tilney;
1 spruzzatina di George Knightley:
ecco ottenuto il cocktail perfetto per l'uomo misterioso a causa del quale Cassandra ha bruciato tutte le lettere e i diari di sua sorella Jane alla sua morte.
Una fan-fiction ben congegnata, con uno stile fedelissimo a quello della scrittrice e numerosissimi riferimenti pr...more
Prendi i personaggi maschili più significativi di Jane Austen:
1/4 di Frederick Wentworth;
1/4 di Fitzwilliam Darcy;
1/4 di Edward Ferrars;
1/4 di John Willoughby;
1 pizzico di Henry Tilney;
1 spruzzatina di George Knightley:
ecco ottenuto il cocktail perfetto per l'uomo misterioso a causa del quale Cassandra ha bruciato tutte le lettere e i diari di sua sorella Jane alla sua morte.
Una fan-fiction ben congegnata, con uno stile fedelissimo a quello della scrittrice e numerosissimi riferimenti pr...more
This was fun to read--very conveniently setting up lots of Jane's plots and characters through "actual" events of her life that heretofore had been "lost". If only we knew more about her!!
The premise of this novel is that a lost journal of Jane Austen’s is discovered hidden away in an attic, and is now being published for the first time. The journal, written by Austen as a sort of autobiography, tells the tale of her relationship with a Mr. Ashford. From the first moment Jane meets Mr. Ashford, there is an instant chemistry between them, and she finds herself falling head over heels in love. Though adverse circumstances and Mr. Ashford’s own strange behavior leave Jane in constan...more
Mar 04, 2013
Myonlycookie
rated it
4 of 5 stars
Recommends it for:
Janeites, Regency Romance fans, Historical fiction fans
Shelves:
regency
Overall enjoyment: 4
Writing style: 3.5
Lovely, surprising read! But why have I begun to like Regency stuff as of late? I'm really not the biggest fan, but I do find the "cult of Jane" fascinating (and of course her books are good).
Quick summary: Disguised as Jane Austen's missing memoir (complete with fake forward and afterward by "Dr. Mary I. Jesse, President of the Jane Austen Literary Foundation"), this book tells the story of Austen's one great love, and details instances that were inspiratio...more
Writing style: 3.5
Lovely, surprising read! But why have I begun to like Regency stuff as of late? I'm really not the biggest fan, but I do find the "cult of Jane" fascinating (and of course her books are good).
Quick summary: Disguised as Jane Austen's missing memoir (complete with fake forward and afterward by "Dr. Mary I. Jesse, President of the Jane Austen Literary Foundation"), this book tells the story of Austen's one great love, and details instances that were inspiratio...more
Dec 22, 2012
Lucy Park
rated it
4 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Recommended to Lucy by:
Youngjae Kim
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it,
click here.
Piacevolissimo!
Complimenti alla scrittrice Syrie James, che è riuscita a scrivere un romanzo su Jane Austen senza, secondo me, tradire la memoria della celebre autrice. Credo che la James sia stata mossa da una passione personale e questo si nota dal modo in cui si è accostata al mito austeniano: dove possibile ha inserito riferimenti non solo ai sei romanzi canonici, ma anche alle lettere e alle biografie storiche. Inoltre ha arricchito il libro con alcune note ed un albero genealogico, strumen...more
Complimenti alla scrittrice Syrie James, che è riuscita a scrivere un romanzo su Jane Austen senza, secondo me, tradire la memoria della celebre autrice. Credo che la James sia stata mossa da una passione personale e questo si nota dal modo in cui si è accostata al mito austeniano: dove possibile ha inserito riferimenti non solo ai sei romanzi canonici, ma anche alle lettere e alle biografie storiche. Inoltre ha arricchito il libro con alcune note ed un albero genealogico, strumen...more
When I picked this book from my local library I missed “A Novel” part of the title. I thought these were some actual journal diaries or letters of Jane Austen. So I was a tad disappointed when I came home and actually started reading the novel.
I do agree it is always interesting to speculate on the disposition of a famous character and do read a story woven around her. Jane Austen has inspired so many Regency romances that its only natural to expect that she may have had one similar romance in h...more
I do agree it is always interesting to speculate on the disposition of a famous character and do read a story woven around her. Jane Austen has inspired so many Regency romances that its only natural to expect that she may have had one similar romance in h...more
Jane Austen. Fact: born December 16, 1775; died July 18, 1817 at age 41. Fact: never married. Fact: wrote six complete novels, including a few unfinished works, and juvenilia. Fact: lived out her life in a quiet Chawton Cottage with her older, spinster sister Cassandra and aging mother. Also known is that not long before her own death, Cassandra burned much of Jane's private correspondence and even cut out entire passages of the letters saved, driving many discussions as to why? Many Jane Austen...more
Ce livre rassemble potentiellement tous les éléments que l'on a envie de trouver dans ce genre de roman. Il est beau d'abord, et ça, ça compte, et il nous parle de Jane Austen bien sûr. L'auteur fait mine d'avoir retrouver les mémoires de Jane Austen au fin fond d'une vieille malle, le rêve suprême de toute Janéite - à hauteur égale avec un manuscrit perdu. Enfin nous allons en savoir plus sur notre chère Jane et de sa propre plume, avec ses propres mots. Et bien sûr, ce fragment nous racontera...more
Yes. I am a definite Jane Austen fan. She is, in my mind, one of the most prolific and fascinating writers ever to grace us with her imagination. This book is absolutely charming and if you are a Jane Austen fan, you will understand literally every word and feeling the woman ever had. The Editor of this beguiling story of the beloved writer is also President of the Jane Austen Literary Foundation. In the beginning of the book she offers us the information that some may not know – Austen’s journa...more
This is really more of a 2.5, but I'm feeling generous today, so I rounded up.
My biggest complaint is that I found Mr. Ashford, Jane's romantic interest, to be fairly boring. If he's boring, the romance is boring, and if the romance is boring, then I'm not really all that crushed when it doesn't work out (spoiler alert, I guess, although everyone knows Jane Austen died unmarried, so I hope I'm not wrong in assuming that I'm not ruining the story for someone or anything...). So that made the book...more
My biggest complaint is that I found Mr. Ashford, Jane's romantic interest, to be fairly boring. If he's boring, the romance is boring, and if the romance is boring, then I'm not really all that crushed when it doesn't work out (spoiler alert, I guess, although everyone knows Jane Austen died unmarried, so I hope I'm not wrong in assuming that I'm not ruining the story for someone or anything...). So that made the book...more
This is a perfectly pleasant book.
Does that seem as if I'm damning with faint praise? Austen probably would not have thought so (though I imagine she'd have been appalled by the idea of this book). The conceit of this novel is that Jane Austen kept a secret diary of her life from the time of her father's death until just before the publication of Sense and Sensibility, that she had a secret romance, and that real life experiences colored the activities in her books.
This is not a great book, but...more
Does that seem as if I'm damning with faint praise? Austen probably would not have thought so (though I imagine she'd have been appalled by the idea of this book). The conceit of this novel is that Jane Austen kept a secret diary of her life from the time of her father's death until just before the publication of Sense and Sensibility, that she had a secret romance, and that real life experiences colored the activities in her books.
This is not a great book, but...more
The Book Report: Every Austenian knows Jane went quiet for 10 years, then produced what is arguably the finest body of novelistic work to come out of nineteenth-century England, then died. Nobody knows poo-diddly about Miss Jane's romantic life, or even if there ever was one, in large part because Jane's sister Cassandra went wild with the scissors and made like a Nazi with a Torah (burn, baby, burn) to make sure none of Jane's letters or diaries (if any) survived unexpurgated. Cassandra doubtle...more
This is passable chick lit. What is is not -- as the cover quotes claim -- is an "utterly charming and remarkably authentic...creating of Jane Austen's voice." Austen would never have written such stilted and often didactic dialogue, for one. Second, true readers of Austen come away with a greater estimation of her emotional depth than to believe that she'd display the school-girl tendencies which author Syrie James attributes to her in later chapters.
Although one would assume that a novel such...more
Although one would assume that a novel such...more
1 like · like · see review
Competently written and readable. Why, then, only three stars? First, the people who will want to read this book already know a great deal about Jane Austen. So -- the footnotes (in a memoir!) are not only redundant but seem cute and intrusive.
Second, though the book smoothly incorporates known facts from JA's life, it misses as fiction, most importantly because of a major plot inconsistency half way through. This inconsistency is then, incredibly, repeated -- all of which reflects a weakness i...more
Second, though the book smoothly incorporates known facts from JA's life, it misses as fiction, most importantly because of a major plot inconsistency half way through. This inconsistency is then, incredibly, repeated -- all of which reflects a weakness i...more
I believe I must have been born in an earlier life in the Jane Austen era. Or should I say that when I read this book, I was transported in the Jane Austen world as if I was there! This is a must read for all Jane Austen fans. The book is woven between letters exchanged between Jane and her sister Cassandra and the journal that Jane kept for a few years. This period in her life was when the family faced many upheavels - with her father's demise and her mother with her sister and she being displa...more
I had picked up this book because I desperately needed something light after reading The Lovely Bones. I was feeling a bit down and thought to myself "A Jane Austen story would be the perfect picker-upper."
I was wrong. Though wonderfully wrought and beautifully executed, this story left me even more depressed than before. It was, as the author so perfectly put it, a story about a woman who "dared to love above her station, and lost." The fact that she had loved a man, but could not be with him,...more
I was wrong. Though wonderfully wrought and beautifully executed, this story left me even more depressed than before. It was, as the author so perfectly put it, a story about a woman who "dared to love above her station, and lost." The fact that she had loved a man, but could not be with him,...more
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it,
click here.
I'm really not sure what to say about this book that others haven't already said. Going into the book, I knew it was fiction but was thrown off by the note at the beginning saying that memoirs had actually been found. I should have realized that the note was fiction also. The characters were interesting, though I felt we could have gotten to know Jane better. The end result of the romance was fairly predictable, since it's historical fact that Austen never married.
I agreed with the other review...more
I agreed with the other review...more
Theories abound regarding a mysterious man in Jane Austen's life. How could a writer who brought us such glorious romances as Pride and Prejudice or Sense and Sensibility, books brimming with insight into the human heart, have lived the life of a spinster, never knowing true passion or love? It's hard to believe that Jane Austen's life was one of complete singularity, but no record exists in any of her remaining letters to substantiate this belief. Did letters (and possibly journals) that chroni...more
Jan 09, 2009
Emily
rated it
2 of 5 stars
Recommends it for:
Becoming Jane fans
Recommended to Emily by:
Jane Austen Today
Shelves:
historicalfiction-longeighteenth-ce
It was an enjoyable read, and I really did want to know what would happen to the characters. The problem is that it draws so many comparisons with Jane Austen's work that you cannot help but compare them. James doesn't really write in the style or capture the voice of Austen (as well as, say, Stephanie Barron does). Her characters are rather one dimensional. There is a fantastic cameo by Sir Walter Scott which almost bumped it up to three stars, and the characters offer some fairly nice interpre...more
A fictionalized account built between the known occurances within Jane Austen's life, this story suggests the idea that Austen once found love with an aristrocrat whose life vaguely resembles Darcy's. From this relationship, Austen finds inspiration for the revisions necessary to both Sense and Sensibility as well as for Pride and Prejudice.
I found myself very much enjoying this novel; it did for Austen's work what Shakespeare in Love did for Shakespeare's works. I loved seeing the ideas for ch...more
I found myself very much enjoying this novel; it did for Austen's work what Shakespeare in Love did for Shakespeare's works. I loved seeing the ideas for ch...more
This book was just passable. It was entertaining enough to finish, but not much to recommend it beyond that. The problems chiefly lie in the author's using speeches, dialogue, characters and even entire situations from Jane Austen's novels. This not only presents the idea (unintended by the author I'm sure) that Jane was less a fiction writer than a biographer, but in many instances the speeches and dialogue so borrowed don't quite seem to fit with either the characters and situations described...more
This was one of those rare times when listening to a book rather than reading it put me at a disadvantage. While reading the reviews that others had written I found many were distracted and frustrated by the footnotes and other markings, I obviously didn't have that problem. However it also left me very unsure of the "editor" notes which were read at both the beginning and the end. Was there a trunk found with her journals in it? Sincerely I don't know and don't want to spoil the enjoyment I had...more
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it,
click here.
| topics | posts | views | last activity | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jane Austen Sequels: * Favorite Jane Austen Bio-Fic Bks | 1 | 6 | Oct 26, 2012 08:22pm | |
| Jane Austen Sequels: The Lost Memoirs of Jane Austen, by Syrie James | 1 | 3 | Oct 26, 2012 07:42pm | |
| Lost Memoirs | 1 | 20 | Jan 08, 2009 09:37am |
Syrie James is the bestselling author of eight critically acclaimed novels, including The Missing Manuscript of Jane Austen, The Lost Memoirs of Jane Austen, The Secret Diaries of Charlotte Bronte, Nocturne, Dracula My Love, Forbidden, and The Harrison Duet: Songbird and Propositions. Her books have been translated into eighteen foreign languages.
Syrie was named after a character in a radio show t...more
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Syrie was named after a character in a radio show t...more
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“I believe there is a kind of happiness to be found in every thing in life, in all that is good and pleasing, as well as in that which is sad or poignant.”
—
36 people liked it
“In my experience, I have found that there is never a perfect time or place for anything. We can always find a reason to put off that which we aspire to do or fear to do until tomorrow, next week, next month, next year--until, in the end, we never accomplish anything at all.”
—
15 people liked it
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Aug 30, 2012 12:56am