Discover novels, memoir, YA and more inspired by the timeless novels of Jane Austen!
More than 200 years after they first appeared, the novels of Jane Austen continue to inspire writers and readers. From historical fiction (and mystery!) that features the original characters to plots updated to our times, from memoir about the lasting impact of her work to a children’s book parody — the legacy of Austen continues to find new life on the page. Enjoy these picks for your next group meeting, or just for your next personal Austen read!
The Jane Austen Society
by Natalie Jenner
One hundred and fifty years ago, Chawton was the final home of Jane Austen. Now only a few distant relatives and their diminishing estate remain. With the last bit of her legacy threatened, a group of disparate individuals—a laborer, a young widow, the local doctor, and a movie star—come together to preserve Austen’s home, united in their love for her works and words.
Read our interview with Natalie Jenner on the Reading Group Choices blog, and watch her live chat on our Facebook page!
The Clergyman’s Wife
by Molly Greeley
Charlotte Collins, nee Lucas, is the respectable wife of Hunsford’s vicar, and sees to her duties by rote. Intelligent, pragmatic, and anxious to escape the shame of spinsterhood, Charlotte chose this life, so socially acceptable that its quietness threatens to overwhelm her. Then she makes the acquaintance of Mr. Travis and begins to understand the heart—and how breakable it can be.
Pride, Prejudice, and Other Flavors
by Sonali Dev
Dr. Trisha Raje is San Francisco’s most acclaimed neurosurgeon. But that’s not enough for the Rajes, her influential immigrant family. Up-and-coming chef DJ Caine has known people like Trisha before, people who judge his rough beginnings. As the two clash, their assumptions crumble like the spun sugar on one of DJ’s desserts. But there’s a past to be reckoned with…
Read our blog feature about Sonali Dev’s novel and how it updates the rom-com!
Austenland
by Shannon Hale
Jane Hayes is a young New Yorker with a real romantic problem: no man she meets can compare to her one true love–Mr. Darcy from Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice. But when a wealthy relative bequeaths her a trip to an English resort for Austen fanatics, Jane’s fantasies of meeting the perfect Regency-era gentleman suddenly become realer than she ever could have imagined.
Watch the live chat with Shannon Hale on our Facebook page!
Unmarriageable
by Soniah Kamal
When an invitation arrives to the biggest wedding their small town has seen in years, Mrs. Binat excitedly sets to work preparing her daughters to fish for rich, eligible bachelors. Valentine Darsee is clearly unimpressed by the Binat family. But Alys, the second and most practical of the daughters, begins to realize that Darsee’s brusque manner may be hiding a very different man from the one she saw at first glance.
Miss Austen
by Gill Hornby
England, 1840. Two decades after the death of her beloved sister, Jane, Cassandra Austen returns to the village of Kintbury and the home of her family friends. In a dusty corner of the vicarage, there is a cache of Jane’s letters that Cassandra is desperate to find. Will she bare the most private details of Jane’s life to the world, or commit her sister’s legacy to the flames?
Death Comes to Pemberley
by P. D. James
It has been six years since Elizabeth and Darcy embarked on their life together at Pemberley. Their peaceful, orderly world seems almost unassailable when, on the eve of a ball, a coach careens up the drive carrying Lydia, Elizabeth’s disgraced sister. She stumbles out, hysterical, shrieking that her husband has been murdered. With shocking suddenness, Pemberley is plunged into a frightening mystery.
Pride
by Ibi Zoboi
Zuri Benitez has pride. Brooklyn pride, family pride, and pride in her Afro-Latino roots. But pride might not be enough to save her rapidly gentrifying neighborhood from becoming unrecognizable. When the wealthy Darcy family moves in across the street, Zuri wants nothing to do with their sons, including the arrogant Darius. Yet as Zuri and Darius are forced to find common ground, their initial dislike shifts into unexpected understanding.
Austen Years
by Rachel Cohen
In the turbulent period around the birth of her first child and the death of her father, Rachel Cohen turned to Jane Austen to make sense of her new reality. For Cohen, simultaneously grief-stricken and buoyed by the birth of her daughter, reading Austen became her refuge and her ballast. What results is a deeply felt and sensitive examination of a writer’s relationship to reading, and to her own family, winding together memoir, criticism, and biography.
Goodnight Mr. Darcy
By Kate Coombs and Alli Arnold
The adored children’s classic Goodnight Moon gets a classic lit makeover in this charming parody of Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice. In the great ballroom, there was a country dance, and a well-played tune, and Elizabeth Bennett, and Mr. Darcy surprised by a pair of fine eyes… And don’t forget Jane with a blush and Mr. Bingley turned to mush, and a gossiping mother and father saying hush.
Looking for more themed reading lists? Check out our books about music and books to read in one sitting!