Visit our digital living room for the third event for our Jane Austen Book Club series.

Austen at Sea

Natalie Jenner

Henrietta and Charlotte Stevenson, the only children of a widowed Massachusetts supreme court judge, are desperate to experience freedom of any kind, at a time when young unmarried women are kept largely at home. Striking up a correspondence with Jane Austen's last surviving sibling, ninety-one-year-old retired admiral Sir Francis Austen, the two sisters invite themselves to visit and end up sneaking on board the S. S. China, a transatlantic mail packet steamship heading to Portsmouth.

They are joined on the China by a motley crew of fellow Americans including a reluctant chaperone, two Philadelphia rare book dealer brothers secretly also sailing at Admiral Austen's request, a young senator's daughter and socialite in hot pursuit of the brothers, and Louisa May Alcott, traveling to Europe for the first time as an invalid's companion.

Landing in Portsmouth, the American visitors soon learn Sir Francis's real purpose in receiving them, and the battle begins over a piece of Austen's legacy so controversial, it will result in historic and climactic court cases on both sides of the Atlantic. Austen at Sea is a celebration of literature and the lengths we will go to, to protect who and what we love.

About the Author

Natalie Jenner is the internationally bestselling author of The Jane Austen Society, Bloomsbury Girls, Every Time We Say Goodbye and Austen at Sea, which have been published in over twenty languages worldwide. Natalie is formerly a lawyer and independent bookshop owner. She was born in England and raised in Oakville, Ontario, where she lives with her family.

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