In honor of our literary trip to England we celebrated Jane Austen with the September 2023 pick: The Missing Manuscript of Jane Austen by Syrie James. While part of the book is set in the present day, the booklets that make up the lost manuscript take readers back to Regency England in a style that is so much like Jane Austen’s that it becomes almost as if The Stanhopes is in fact a seventh Austen novel. Find The Missing Manuscript of Jane Austen discussion questions below!
Discussion Questions:
1. The Missing Manuscript of Jane Austen is a novel within a novel. Did you enjoy reading both the present-day story of Samantha and Anthony and the nineteenth-century story of Rebecca Stanhope? Would the book have been equally effective if The Stanhopes had been a stand-alone novel?
2. Were you surprised when you learned the truth about Dr. Jack Watkins, Mr. Clifton, and Amelia Davenport? How does Jane Austen similarly misrepresent the true personalities of characters such as Mr. Darcy, Mr. Wickham, and Isabella Thorpe in her novels?
3. Samantha theorizes that Mr. Stanhope and Mr. Spangle might be literary forerunners of Austen’s Mr. Woodhouse and Mr. Collins. What other Austen archetypes inhabit The Stanhopes?
4. How does the author make us sympathize with and respect Rebecca and Samantha? Are they worthy Austen heroines?
5. How did your experience reading The Stanhopes compare to other Jane Austen novels you’ve read? Do you think Jane would have approved?
6. Feel free to share any other thoughts you have!
2. Were you surprised when you learned the truth about Dr. Jack Watkins, Mr. Clifton, and Amelia Davenport? How does Jane Austen similarly misrepresent the true personalities of characters such as Mr. Darcy, Mr. Wickham, and Isabella Thorpe in her novels?
3. Samantha theorizes that Mr. Stanhope and Mr. Spangle might be literary forerunners of Austen’s Mr. Woodhouse and Mr. Collins. What other Austen archetypes inhabit The Stanhopes?
4. How does the author make us sympathize with and respect Rebecca and Samantha? Are they worthy Austen heroines?
5. How did your experience reading The Stanhopes compare to other Jane Austen novels you’ve read? Do you think Jane would have approved?
6. Feel free to share any other thoughts you have!
Karen Werth says
I liked the idea of finding a hidden novel by Austen that she wrote while visiting the Whitaker family back in 1801-1802. The author does a good job in creating the lost novel about the lives of Rebecca Stanhope and her father, a Rector, and her family and how she comes to marry Mr. Clifton. And yes, I think all of the men who are romantic characters in Austen’s novels do share some of same characteristics. The story stays true to Austen’s style of writing. We can’t know what Jane Austen would think of the books being written about her today, but I like to think she wouldn’t mind being remembered in such a way. I have to admit that I enjoyed the story of Rebecca better than the present day story of Samantha McDonough and Anthony Whitaker. I do believe that Rebecca’s story could have been written in such a way to be a stand alone book. There are three books that I have read that I think did excellent jobs of being stand alone stories although they don’t depict stories that Austen wrote, but rather continuing stories of Austen characters or a family member: “The Clergyman’s Wife” by Molly Greeley, “The Other Bennet Sister” by Janice Hadlow, and “Miss Austen” by Gill Hornby.