The Lost Memoirs of Jane Austen - Syrie James

This is an exceptional first novel from Syrie James. It is based on the concept of (as the title states); the lost memoirs of Jane Austen, written by Miss Austen herself and told in the first person. Syrie pretends to be an editor who is merely presenting the memoirs to the public.

It bought to mind the Becoming Jane movie, which I found ridiculous and had it been a book I would have thrown it across the room (despite my great respect for books), that was based on Miss Austen’s well known flirtation with Tom Lefroy in her twenties. Though I adore Anne Hathaway and thought she made an excellent Jane Austen it didn’t ring true, it was far too dramatic. The movie and this book have several things in common, the major morals (if they could be called such) of each story being the same; follow your heart, marry for love but consider money – morals which agree with all of Austen’s own published works. The Philosophers Beard (an online blog) argues that all of Austen’s novel are ‘deeply serious morality plays underneath the veneer of romantic comedy’ and it is this which not only made them initially sell but continue to sell 200 years later.

The memoir story is weaved so well amongst the known facts of Miss Austen’s life that it is hard to separate the two. There are many descriptions, dialogue and characters which bring vividly to mind most often Sense and Sensibility but also Pride and Prejudice and to a lesser extent Persuasion. The characters are more real, more personal than in any of Miss Austen’s own work. As her novels were of her time, this novel is of our time. There is more dialogue and personal descriptions that appear in her work. She let the reader decide how the character would look and speak so much more than modern writers. In the memoir the supposed author can not be so distant as she is from her other characters as she is writing about herself and her intimate acquaintance.

I loved how genuine this book felt. I am always eager to learn more about Jane Austen so I may have enjoyed it more than the average reader. I would be interested to know how it stands up to someone who has no knowledge of her or her works.