Jane Odiwe Jane Austen Sequels

I've some new updates on my website Austen Effusions  about my new book, Mr. Darcy's Secret, including an extract.   The painting featured I did a while ago of Elizabeth and Jane Bennet. I often wonder how closely the relationship that these two heroines share is mirrored in Jane Austen's own life with her sister Cassandra. In Mr. Darcy's Secret, the sisters are together again. Though they are not yet living within an easy distance of one another, we know that Jane Austen said that after twelve months Bingley and Jane settled in the next county. Mr. Bingley and Jane remained at Netherfield only a twelvemonth. So near a vicinity to her mother and Meryton relations was not desirable even to   his   easy temper, or   her   affectionate heart. The darling wish of his sisters was then gratified: he bought an estate in a neighbouring county to Derbyshire; and Jane and Elizabeth, in addition to every other source of happiness, were within thirty mile...

Sense and Sensibility centres on the story of two sisters, Elinor and Marianne Dashwood. They appear at first to be opposites - Elinor is rational and sensible and Marianne seems to think and act only on her impulsive feelings and highly charged emotions, though by the end of the book we have witnessed quite a crossover in the way that both girls behave and interact with the world. Jane Austen and her sister were very close. There were just under a couple of years between them, and we know that they spent much of their time together as they grew up, writing daily letters whenever they were apart. From family recollections we are given the impression that Cassandra, Jane's older sister, was the more level-headed, and from her letters it appears that Jane looked to Cassandra for guidance and advice. I'm not the first to wonder if Jane drew on her own experiences with her sister Cassandra when drafting her story. Who knows? Perhaps Elinor and Marianne represent aspects of Jane...