JANE AUSTEN-HER GOLDEN YEARS:
Authors debut was birthed after a two-year sojourn in England
New Novel Concentrates on Final Two Years of Austen's Life
Authors debut was birthed after a two-year sojourn in England
2008-04-09
LONGWOOD, FL-Two hundred years after her death, Jane Austen and her novels are still impacting people and being made into movies. Blending fact and fiction, Muriel Keller Evans' debut novel, Jane Austen-Her Golden Years: A Historical Novel Highlighting Her Family and Faith (paperback, 978-1-60477-808-3) concentrates on the final two years of the novelist's life as she moves from obscurity to recognition in the literary world of Regency England. The book introduces her parents and seven siblings and offers interesting vignettes of Jane's life in the period before her death at age 41. Additionally, it highlights her family and faith, indicating her impact on the moral values of the nation at a time when William Wilberforce and the abolition of the slave trade were part of the exciting panorama of early 19th century England.
Says Evans, "I have read everything Jane Austen wrote, including her six novels, the unfinished fragments, all of her letters, and 20-plus biographies on her life. [My book] brings to life the persona of one of the greatest female novelists of all time, revealing the importance of her relationships with her family and her vibrant faith."
During a two-year sojourn in England, Evans sought out every place the novelist had ever lived or visited, staying numerous times in Steventon, Hampshire, AustenÕs birthplace. After a visit there in 2007, the plan for Jane Austen-Her Golden Years emerged. In this historical novel, the author hopes to spread the message that our brief lives on earth should have an eternal impact-in much the same way as Jane Austen's did.