“April 6, 1865. Well, father, who won the majority? Emma or Mansfield Park? William Stevenson answered from behind his newspaper at the head of the breakfast table, “Emma, of course.” Charlotte, starved from victory no matter the hour, gave a little cheer. For the past two years, Charlotte, had asked older sister Henrietta to tote her to every suffragette gathering within carriage distance.”
Those are some opening lines to chapter two of Natalie Jenner’s novel Austen at Sea. The book is divided into four sections: Boston, The Sea, Hampshire and The Court. As the story begins, the six justices of the Massachusetts Supreme Court are having one of their regular Jane Austen book discussion meetings.
Daughters to one of the Justices, Charlotte and Harriet are very big Austen fans and have secretly been corresponding with Jane Austen’s last surviving sibling, a retired sea captain who lives in Hampshire, England. He sends them one of Jane Austen’s rare surviving correspondences and invites them to visit him. He has also been corresponding with Nicholas and Haslett Nelson, two bachelor brothers who own a bookstore in Philadelphia, and invites them to visit at the same time.
The sisters and brothers take the same 10-day sea voyage to England along with a Justice chaperone, a British newspaper man, a Senator’s daughter and the up-and-coming author Louisa May Alcott. Harriet and the British newspaper man have a quickie marriage on the ship which leads to the court section where the newlyweds argue over who controls a rare Austen letter. And British rules declare that once a woman marries all her property belongs to her husband, but it’s not so in America.
If you’re a Jane Austen fan and are interested in women’s rights in the mid 1800’s, then you must read Austen at Sea by Natalie Jenner.
