For all the people who love a period drama and likes a show that is based on true events just like me, Miss Austen could become a BBC classic. It is an adaptation of Gill Hornby’s 2020 best-selling book of the same name. It might be better than Bridgerton because it just feels more authentic. After all, it is based on real events, it doesn’t have a happy end and out Bridgerton’s Austen aura at every turn.
You might be thinking the famous female novelist Jane Austen would be the main protagonist and yes you would be right in a way. This is a story about her older sister Cassandra (Keeley Hawes) and how she found and burned her sisters’ private letters after her untimely demise.
The events take place after the tragic death of Jane Austen at the age 41. The action begins with Cassandra (Cassie) receiving a worrying letter from family friend Isabella Fowle. Isabella’s deceased mother Eliza was Jane Austen’s confidante and pen friend.
Cassie heads to Isabella’s house to see how she can help, but she also has another reason.
She wants to retrieve the letters between Eliza and Jane before they are found by anyone else, particularly Cassandra’s sister-in-law Mary. Mary wants a biography of Jane to be made with Jane’s letters, but Cassandra wants to keep her sister’s thoughts private by burning the ones she thinks would compromise her.
Thus Cassandra, in the present (1830 there abouts) becomes intangled in the fate of Isabella who is unmarried; her vicar dad was a bully and pronounced before he died that she must leave the house within a fortnight because the new vicar will take over after he is gone. Her only option is to live with one of her sisters that she doesn’t like, unless she finds an alternative way. Her other path could be tied up with the complicated romantic relationship she has with a doctor (Alfred Enoch) who cared for her father.
You see the close relationship between the two Austen sisters in a series of extended flashbacks as Cassie (young Cassandra played by Synnøve Karlsen) reads through the letters that she found in Eliza’s room. Thus, you learn about the past Austin household and their trials and tribulations which are interspersed with Isabella’s search for happiness in the present.
Everything about Miss Austen is a masterpiece and not just because of the individual performances, which were exceptional, but because the intertwining narrative from past and present makes for insightful historical and compelling drama. It summons the spirit of an Austin book, right down to the secondary characters who never feel underappreciated. That was one reason why Austins books have remained timeless.
That comes with the script which is witty, heartfelt and true to the era and letters,160 of which survive to this day. All the main stars have charisma and there is an energy and spark between them, plus they all have impeccable timing whether in light-hearted or tragic scenes. All four episodes are a treat and display a warmth and generosity of spirit, even if there is an underlying sadness to the story.
The costumes are authentic, you felt like you were in the Regency era and the different locations made for fun and entertaining viewing and kept the action moving along.
Jane Austen’s last words in the show were on her death bed, when she says to Cassie, “I do not want the world to know of my sadness, only the joy in my stories.” I think that sums up the reason why Cassie burnt her letters, her sister was a very private person, and she wanted to keep her privacy intact.
The most poignant aspect is that you learn how much of the real Jane Austen went into the characters in her books and that Jane had used her experience of being a woman in a male dominated world to inform the themes she wrote about.
I sensed that Jane Bennet’s closeness with her sister Elizabeth in Pride and Prejudice was based on Cassandra and Jane Austen’s relationship. In the book Jane tells Elizabeth that she must bite her tongue if she wants to find love, I think Cassie probably felt the same way about her famous sister. Jane Austen’s outspoken views, that are subtly threaded in her books are revealed in Miss Austen to great effect too. It shows that not only was she a great writer, but she also took risks too and was ahead of her time.
This is an excellent piece of TV, that I would really recommend, it’s not too long and very bingeable. It has the double whammy effect of being informative and enchanting.
Miss Austen sums up, “the joy in my stories” that Jane wanted her readers to feel perfectly.
Bravo, for that.