The Missing Manuscript of Jane Austen
The minute I saw the letter, I knew it was hers. There was no mistaking it: the salutation, the tiny, precise handwriting, the date, the content itself, all confirmed its ancient status and authorship…
Samantha McDonough cannot believe her eyes--or her luck. Tucked in an uncut page of a two-hundred-year old poetry book is a letter she believes was written by Jane Austen, mentioning with regret a manuscript that "went missing at Greenbriar in Devonshire." Could there really be an undiscovered Jane Austen novel waiting to be found? Could anyone resist the temptation to go looking for it?
Making her way to the beautiful, centuries-old Greenbriar estate, Samantha finds it no easy task to sell its owner, the handsome yet uncompromising Anthony Whitaker, on her wild idea of searching for a lost Austen work--until she mentions its possible million dollar value.
After discovering the unattributed manuscript, Samantha and Anthony are immediately absorbed in the story of Rebecca Stanhope, daughter of a small town rector, who is about to encounter some bittersweet truths about life and love. As they continue to read the newly discovered tale from the past, a new one unfolds in the present--a story that just might change both of their lives forever.
- Pages
- 439
- First published
- December 31, 2012
- Language
- English
- Edition
- Ebook
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Shelved by 1 Litcadian
Reviews
Finished July 6, 2013
I've always loved Syrie James' works, although I only had a chance in reading the Lost Memoirs of Jane Austen and a chapter in that book about Charlotte Bronte. This book had started me in high hopes that I will find this one equally interesting and gripping and I haven't been mistaken. The Missing Manuscript of Jane Austen is a novel within a novel. Samantha, a librarian in a university in L.A., bought a book where she found a missing letter of Jane Austen to her sister Cassandra while on a holiday in England. There she discovered about the missing manuscript in Greenbriar, an old manor house in Devon, and set off to a quest to find the manuscript. Off went the whirlwind of adventure, the handsome English guy who proved to be the redeemed hero after all, and a proven love between the both of them. I enjoyed both plotlines, The Stanhopes and Samantha and Anthony's. Both were gripping romances in such a way that it reminded me of Jane Austen's works. In fact every time I read James' works on Jane Austen, I find it hard to distinguish who did what because she had it written down in a great manner that captures your mind as if you were reading a true Austen work. James had just successfully made my heart fonder for all things Austen.