Jane Austen, played by Patsy Ferran, left, and young Cassandra Austen, played by Synnøve Karlsen, in a scene from Miss Austen.PBS
On the 250th anniversary of Jane Austen’s birth, Janeites still lament the loss of her unpublished words. Of the thousands of rumoured letters to Austen’s friends and family once in existence, only 160 weren’t destroyed by the late author’s sister, Cassandra Austen.
The motives behind the literary assassination are unknown, but author Gill Hornby presented her case in the 2020 novel Miss Austen. In celebration of the story and Jane’s anniversary, those themes of family and sisterhood come to life in PBS’s four-part miniseries of the same name with its debut earlier this month.
Miss Austen stars Keeley Hawes as Cassandra on a visit to the Fowles residence, where correspondence between her late sister (Patsy Ferran) and her departed friend Eliza (Madeleine Walker) is in danger of falling into the wrong hands. From there, two stories unfold: the 1840 “present-day” protection of Jane’s legacy and the past timeline exploring the relationship between Jane and a younger Cassandra, played by Synnøve Karlsen.
The dual timelines are essential in establishing Jane’s world through her lens given that this tale is from Cassandra‘s perspective. As the surviving sister reads Jane’s words, she is transported into the past where stories of love, heartbreak and preservation ensue. Revisiting her life through Jane’s eyes creates sympathy and high stakes for viewers as they, too, realize why Cassandra burned the personal and sometimes gossipy letters.
While the content within the mail is speculative and fictional, the story itself is grounded by several real characters who affected the author throughout her short life. There’s Jane’s selfish sister-in-law, Mary (Jessica Hynes), who in the 1840s wants the letters in order to publish a memoir about her husband. The Fowles were family friends of the Austens, and Cassandra and Thomas Fowle were engaged before Thomas died on a Caribbean expedition. Cassandra, Jane and Eliza were particularly close growing up, making them an ideal trio for the story’s focus.
From that vantage point, Miss Austen is one of the closest biographical experiences of the writer to date, despite countless adaptations and retellings of Jane’s actual works. Ferran brings an insightful, self-aware and sometimes cheeky version of the woman to life in each scene, creating a memorable auteur whose observational skills resulted in such an astute collection of female stories.
Edward Austen, played by Hubert Burton, and young Cassandra Austen, played by Synnøve Karlsen, in a scene from Miss Austen.PBS
Only Henry Hobday (Max Irons), a love interest for Cassandra, was invented for story purposes, although Hornby reportedly created the character based on real-life rumours. It’s an innocent addition that doesn’t affect Jane’s motivations and it pushes the story forward. Unfortunately, most momentum gained is derailed in the present day with repetitive scenes and exposition.
Plenty could be cut and edited to present a sharper story with more contrast between past and present, including many of the scenes of Cassandra reading the actual letters. Those moments are successful when the ink holds misrepresentations that evoke powerful emotions and acting from Hawes, but others feel as though they’re holding space for the sake of extending the story.
Then there is the Austen-esque love story between Isabella Fowle (Rose Leslie) and Mr. Lidderdale (Alfred Enoch), which takes place in the present day. Following her father’s death, Isabella has a fortnight to pack up her life and find a new home with one of her sisters. It’s a dire situation that speaks to the social circumstances surrounding women at the time, and Cassandra uses it as an excuse to stay in the house while hunting for the letters.
Cassandra Austen, played by Keeley Hawes, in a scene from Miss Austen.Robert Viglasky/PBS
Those relationships are ideal in showing the power of Austen’s words and the importance of her stories, with decent performances by all parties. They also help to establish the societal parallels between past and present without hitting viewers over the head, although a certain staircase homage to Persuasion is debatable. What those interactions don’t do is add to the core relationship viewers are tuning in to see: the one between Cassandra and Jane.
By the end of the series, you can’t help but wonder if Miss Austen would have been more successful as a two-hour movie, with present-day bookends focusing on Cassandra finding and destroying the letters, rather than two competing narratives throughout.
Then again, Austen continues to amass lifelong fans despite criticisms of her own slow pacing in early chapters. She, too, was known for taking her time as she built up her characters and their plights, only to (mostly) barrel toward a happy ending. In that way Miss Austen delights and stays true to the heart of what Austen was all about.
