Dearest Cousin Jane: A Jane Austen Novel

“A well-researched and beautifully imagined novel….If Jane and the Austen family were not quite like this, they should have been.”
—Ruth Rendell

Dearest Cousin Jane by Jill Pitkeathley, the author of Cassandra and Jane, is an inventive reimagining of the intriguing and scandalous life lived by Jane Austen’s cousin, Countess Eliza de Feuillide. The fact-based story of a remarkable woman whose progressive and passionate views on love and marriage greatly influenced Austen’s work—including such beloved novels as Pride and Prejudice and Sense and Sensibility—Dearest Cousin Jane will fascinate and enchant readers interested in Victorian Era Britain and all lovers of Jane Austen literature and lore. Janet Aylmer, author of Darcy’s Story, says, “This novel brings a new and enjoyable dimension to our knowledge of Jane Austen’s life and work.”

In Dearest Cousin Jane, an enchanting new novel that draws on historical fact, Jill Pitkeathley paints a luminous portrait of the true-life cousin of a literary legend—from her flirtatious younger years to her profound influence on one of the world's most beloved authors.

Free-spirited and seductive—outrageous, precocious, and a well-known flirt—Countess Eliza de Feuillide has an unquenchable thirst for life and a glamorous air that captivates everyone around her. Rumored to have been born of a mad love affair between her mother and the great Warren Hastings of the East India Company, Eliza sees the world as her playground—filled with grand galas, theater, and romance—and she will let nothing hold her down. Even tragedy cannot dim her enthusiasm. Losing her only child at an early age and widowed when her husband—the dashing French count Jean de Feuillide—is claimed by Madame la Guillotine during the dark days of the Reign of Terror, Eliza is determined to remain indomitable, unpredictable, and unfettered. And it is this passionate spirit that she brings to a simple English country parsonage to influence the life, the work, and the world of her unsuspecting cousin . . . a quiet and unassuming young writer named Jane Austen.

“A well-researched and beautifully imagined novel. I loved Jill Pitkeathley’s delicate hand and lightness of touch. . . . If Jane and the Austen family were not quite like this, they should have been.” - Ruth Rendell

“This novel brings a new and enjoyable dimension to our knowledge of Jane Austen’s life and work, and the extended family that was so significant in her development as a author.” - Janet Aylmer, author of Darcy's Story