Winner of an ‘Honourable Mention’ award in the Readers’ Favourite 2019 competition and recipient of the coveted One Stop Fiction Five Star Award.** “Lovingly-crafted and brilliantly executed Dear Jane (and the entire Highbury Trilogy) is an outstanding companion and tribute to Jane Austen’s Emma. Rich with comprehensive detail, thoughtful developments and emotive prose.” Austenesque Reviews.**The … Reviews.**
The final instalment of the Highbury trilogy, Dear Jane recounts events hinted at but never actually described in Jane Austen’s Emma; the formative childhood years of Jane Fairfax and Frank Churchill, their meeting in Weymouth and the agony of their secret engagement.
Orphaned Jane seems likely to be brought up in parochial Highbury until adoption by her papa’s old friend Colonel Campbell opens to her all the excitement and opportunities of London. Frank Weston is also transplanted from Highbury, adopted as heir to the wealthy Churchills and taken to their drear and inhospitable Yorkshire estate. Readers of Emma will be familiar with the conclusion of Jane and Frank’s story, but Dear Jane pulls back the veil which Jane Austen drew over its remainder.
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Wherever there is a human being, there is an opportunity for a kindness. ~ Seneca
“Mrs. Bates of Highbury” is the story of the marriage and widowhood of Mrs. Bates, wife of the vicar of Highbury.
“The Other Miss Bates” continues the Bates family history, following young Jane Bates to her eventual marriage to Mr. Fairfax.
“Dear Jane” completes the Highbury trilogy.
Jane Fairfax is orphaned and given into the care of her parents’ friends the Campbells. The Campbells have only one child, a daughter close in age to Jane Fairfax. The girls become good friends.
When I was young, I admired clever people. Now that I am old, I admire kind people. ~ Abraham Joshua Heschel
The story offers opportunities to study kindness and unkindness.
Colonel and Mrs. Campbell are very kind. Jane is welcomed into the family with all the indulgences and privileges of their own daughter. The one exception is that they cannot afford to offer her a dowry but they feel that Jane’s beauty and talents will recommend her to many suitors. They don’t expect her to need the fallback of becoming a governess even though she will have all the qualifications.
Miss Bates is kind even if she is verbose and silly. Mrs. Bates is kind. Mr. Dixon is kind. And kindest of all is Jane Fairfax.
Rowena Campbell lacks all of Jane’s talents, charm and beauty. Jane spends her childhood caring for Rowena’s fragile ego, defending her against all comers.
Jane, who has a poor family and will be poor all her life without an advantageous marriage, supports Rowena to the extent of encouraging one of her own admirers to Rowena’s side.
Jane, who has no prospects for marriage, befriends a young man facing unhappy circumstances in his career and personal life. His advice to her: marry only for love.
A person who is nice to you, but rude to the waiter, is not a nice person. ~ Dave Barry, “Things That It Took Me 50 Years to Learn”
We also see very unkind people.
Remember Jane Austen’s words about her heroine Emma? “I am going to take a heroine whom no one but myself will much like.”
Allie Cresswell shows us a side of Emma that confirms Jane Austen’s opinion.
As a child, Emma lords her position in society over poor Jane Fairfax at every opportunity, belittling Jane, her home with the Campbells, her opportunities, and her eventual fate as a governess. Poor Jane has a lifetime of yearly visits to Highbury and put-downs from Emma Woodhouse.
Mrs. Elton is unkind but hides her unkindness to Jane Fairfax under an aura of concern and friendship. Augusta Elton uses every power she possesses to control Jane.
Mrs. Churchill is unkind to everyone she knows. She knows nothing of her nephew’s attraction to Jane Fairfax and knows nothing of their secret engagement. This is the source of the unkindness of Frank toward Jane.
There is one thing, Emma, which a man can always do if he chooses, and that is his duty; not by manoeuvring and finessing, but by vigour and resolution. ~ Mr. Knightley
Frank Churchill falls in love with Jane Fairfax and strongly values her kindness to others. Jane insists their engagement remain secret until Frank receives approval from his controlling aunt. Frank protects Jane from his aunt by pretending interest in other girls; eventually landing his attention on Emma Woodhouse. Jane must endure Frank’s attention to Emma.
After the childhood portion of this book, Jane visits her Aunt and Grandmother in Highbury. The author footnotes various events in the story as they intersect with the events in Emma. We are privy to the quarrel between Jane and Frank after the strawberry picking at Donwell when Jane leaves early and Frank arrives late. We know why Frank is so openly hostile to Jane at Box Hill.
My lasting impression of this series will be the tragedy of the Bates women. Mrs. Bates suffers the death of her husband, the loss of her home, a possible new love and more loss. Miss Bates was hyperactive even as an infant and today would have some sort of diagnosis and treatment. Jane Bates is disappointed in love, finds love with another, grieves her husband’s early death and succumbs to illness when her daughter is a toddler. Mrs. Bates, who had a secret betrothal herself, is the only one who suspects Jane’s secret; the only one who understands.
The Bates women must live the life that Mrs. Bennet dreads: “genteel” poverty in a world where women had few opportunities for self-support.
Miss Bates is comic-relief in “Emma” but her life is a tragedy – no comedy at all.
This is a great series, clean, well-written and edited. I recommend it to everyone.
I soothe my conscience now with the thought that it is better for hard words to be on paper than that Mummy should carry them in her heart. ~ Anne Frank, “The Diary of a Young Girl”