The following version of this book was used to create the guide: Jenner, Natalie. The Jane Austen Society: A Novel. St. Martin’s Press, 2020.

The Jane Austen Society by Natalie Jenner began with a chance encounter between an English farmer, Adam Berwick, and an American tourist, Mary Anne Harrison, in 1932. Mary Anne asked Adam for directions to Jane Austen’s cottage on the Knight estate. Upon Mary Anne’s insistence, Adam began reading Pride and Prejudice and discovered a love of the author.

Eleven years later, the Chawton school board took issue with young Adeline Lewis teaching female authors. Dr. Gray, the town physician, pleaded with Adeline again to change her curriculum to no avail. He was flustered upon learning of Adeline’s engagement to her childhood sweetheart, Samuel Grover. Two years later, in 1945, Mary Anne was a Hollywood movie star known as Mimi. She attended an auction in London with her new beau, Jack Leonard, a successful Hollywood businessman. Yardley, the assistant director of Sotheby’s sales, congratulated Mimi on the acquisition of some of Jane Austen’s possessions.

One month prior, the pregnant and widowed Adeline passed an afternoon with Dr. Gray discussing Jane Austen’s characters. Frances Knight listened to their conversation from inside the Great House. Soon to be the last living Knight, Frances understood her responsibility to care for the estate’s legacy. Back in Hollywood, Jack attempted to seduce Mimi by producing Sense and Sensibility and casting her as Elinor. When Mimi met with her boss, he sexually assaulted her and threatened her career. Mimi began considering leaving Hollywood to return to the stage.

One month later, Yardley frequently reached out to Frances about a possible estate sale. Evie Stone, Adeline’s former student and one of Frances’s housemaids, had spent the last year and a half of her employment secretly cataloguing the books in one of the Great House’s libraries, searching for clues about Jane Austen. Eventually, she found a hidden unsent letter from Jane Austen to her sister, Cassandra. A month after this discovery, Adeline bled uncontrollably, and Dr. Gray rushed her to the hospital for a futile emergency Cesarean section. A month after her loss, Adeline begged Dr. Gray for emotional relief. He gave her morphine, which he was also secretly abusing.

Excited by an antique toy he found in a trash pile, Adam consulted with Dr. Gray about his idea to create a Jane Austen museum in the Knight’s cottage. When Dr. Gray received a Christmas card from Adeline, he rushed over to her house to visit and give her a gift. She agreed to help with Adam's idea, and they coined their group the Jane Austen Society. Meanwhile, James Knight, Frances’s dying father, changed his will to bequeath the estate to the closest living male relative instead of Frances. This angered his solicitor, Andrew Forrestor, whom Knight forbade Frances from marrying three decades prior. When Dr. Gray asked Andrew to join the society, he agreed with hopes of preserving Frances’s rights.

Frances emerged from her self-imposed isolation to attend the annual Christmas party held at the Great House for the village. There, Adam, Dr. Gray, and Adeline found Evie in the library and invited her into the society. In the new year, Jack surprised Mimi with plans to purchase Jane Austen’s cottage on the Knight estate. Evie immediately told Frances about the society, which she agreed to join. Meanwhile, Adeline decided to switch doctors after learning that she was acquainted with Dr. Gray’s new nurse, Liberty. This upset Dr. Gray, who took it personally. After James Knight’s death, Andrew read the will that gave Frances a small annual sum and temporary residence in the cottage. Later, Andrew suggested to Dr. Gray that Adeline wished to switch doctors because of their unspoken romantic tension.

Evie soon told Frances about cataloguing the library, and Mimi came to visit alone later that day. When they told Mimi about the society, she begged to join and bring Yardley along. At the meeting, Mimi pledged the money the society needed to make an offer on the cottage when possible. Later, Dr. Gray asked Adeline if she was in love with Adam. Offended, Adeline accused Dr. Gray of using her in her loneliness. Despite his despair, Dr. Gray refused to continue his addiction. That night, Jack told Mimi that he partnered with her ex-boss for Sense and Sensibility and that she would not play Elinor. Down in the library, Evie finished two years worth of cataloguing. Yardley walked by, and she reluctantly shared her surprising discoveries.

Soon, a distant male relative, Colin, claimed the estate as his inheritance. Mimi pledged 40,000 pounds to offer for the books in the library at an emergency meeting, which Frances carried through. After years of knowing, Dr. Gray finally urged Mrs. Berwick to tell Adam that James Knight was his biological father, and that he was the rightful heir according to this new will. She obliged, and Adam put his fate to a society vote. Voting against Adam's rightful claim led Colin to sell the entire estate to a company in Scotland that Jack was involved in. With his knowledge from Mimi, Jack initiated the offer on the estate, which evicted Frances. Betrayed, Mimi called off the wedding, and Andrew mustered the courage to propose and marry Frances that day. Later, Dr. Gray and Adeline finally professed their love for one another. One year later, the Jane Austen Society had grown and the cottage was obtained with the money earned from selling the library books. Many of the original members of the society found love, and they each led happy and fulfilling lives.