I hope that somehow this proximity to Jane’s life will help me understand my own.

This was the perfect nonfiction book to cap the 250th celebration of Jane Austen’s birth and my re-reading of her various books, short stories and juvenilia.

The Premise

Lori Smith is at a painful and difficult time in her life. Thirty-three years old she is unfulfilled in her job, frustrated that she is still single and though she does not doubt her Christian faith, she is struggling to make sense with all that is not working in her life. But the most difficult impediment is the profound fatigue and debilitating symptoms of an illness doctors cannot diagnose.

She learns to cope with the on again off again pattern of the illness and makes the decision to quit her job to become a full time writer. Long an admirer of Jane Austen, when a medication for an imbalanced thyroid gives her a reprieve from her symptoms, she books a trip to England with the goal of healing and reinventing herself through the life and works of Austen.

Everything in my life was dark, stifling. I needed light and air….In some ways, those of us who love Austen look to her to escape into another world. When our own is complicated and stressful, hers is tea and careful conversations and lovely dresses and healthy country air.

A Travel Guide

Starting with a course at Oxford and by reading through all of Austen’s novels, Smith is armed with maps and tips for visiting cities and landmarks that figure in Austen’s life as well as in her novels: Steventon, Chawton, Lyme Regis, Winchester, Bath, Box Hill and more. She quotes passages and ponders their connections to her own life.

Smith points out many parallels in Austen’s life that are reflected in her novels. For example, at Steventon, she sees the barn where Austen “threw rousing family theatricals with her brothers,” which is a reminder of Mansfield Park. She connects the military careers of two of Austen’s brothers in William of Mansfield Park, Colonel Brandon in Sense and Sensibility and Captain Wentworth and others in Persuasion; that one of her brothers was adopted into another family (Fanny in Mansfield Park); that James second wife was mean and jealous (Mrs. Norris in Mansfield Park) and Chawton Great House as the model for the Tilney home in Northanger Abbey.

This is a book for those new to Jane Austen and for the confirmed Janeite. For anyone planning a trip to England and their own walk with Jane Austen, consider this a comprehensive model.

Romance?

Finally, does Smith find romance? (I mean, this IS Jane Austen, after all). Well, sort of.

On her first day at Oxford she meets an American studying for the summer. She falls head over heels, obsesses appropriately, has her future with him all planned out, but sadly, the feelings are not reciprocated. However, there is still resolution here, even if it is not of the heart-kind: there is some healing for the medical issues with which she started her trip.

Upon returning home she reflects:
My days are still small. But the light is beginning to return. Just a couple of weeks ago I started being able to laugh at the world again, and that felt very good–soul healing laughter. I want more of it, to enjoy life, to love the people around me…I hope I will be healthy again.

And in health and all aspects of her life, I wish her well.

Lori Smith has written several books including, Jane Austen’s Guide to Life: Thoughtful Lessons for the Modern Woman.

Post script-I have spent the last two years reading all of Jane Austen’s works with a group on Instagram. It has been wonderful and so insightful reading and discussing, getting deep into these timeless stories and characters. I wonder what Austen would say if she knew how dedicated to her writing people in the 21st had become. And to realize this love shows no signs of abating?