Jane Austen and Shelley in the Garden: A Novel with Pictures

Eccentric Fran wants a second chance and finds it through her intimacy with Jane Austen and Shelley. They unite in their love of books and interrogate their past relationships, literature, motherhood, death, feminism, and the resurgence of childhood memory. This novel is a (light) meditation on age, literature, friendship, hope, and the joy of new opportunities.

Format: Paperback / softback
Length: 256 pages
Publication date: 09 July 2021
Publisher: Fentum Press

Eccentric Fran yearns for a second chance, and her intimacy with Jane Austen and Shelley grants her that opportunity. Jane Austen becomes an imaginary friend, sharing Fran's cottage and garden. Fran's conversations with Jane Austen guide and chide her, but Fran is ready for change.

An encounter with a long-standing friend and a new writer leads to something new. The three women unite in their love of books and their quest for the idealist poet Shelley at two pivotal moments: in Wales and Venice. Shelley's yearning for utopian communities and visionary power prompts them to interrogate their past relationships, literature, motherhood, death, feminism, the resurgence of childhood memory in old age, and the tensions between generations. Despite the allure of solitude, they open themselves to different ways of living outside of partnership and family.

Jane Austen has plenty of comments to offer. This coming-of-old-age novel is a (light) meditation on age, literature, friendship, hope, and the joy of new opportunities.

Weight: 292g
Dimension: 129 x 198 x 32 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781909572270