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Jane Fairfax is the Joan Aiken Austen sequel that has the most obvious claim on itself: Jane Fairfax, the rival heroine of Emma, gets her own novel told from her own perspective. The Austen original gives Jane very little interior space, and Aiken has taken on the project of filling it in without violating what Austen actually wrote.
The book covers a wider time span than Emma proper, with Jane's childhood and Cambridge-trained father appearing in early chapters and her long entanglement with Frank Churchill given the privacy it requires. The Highbury scenes are familiar but inverted; Mrs. Elton is even worse than Austen showed her. The Frank Churchill engagement is rendered with sympathy and clarity.
Four stars. Aiken's best Austen sequel. Recommended for Austen readers, with the warning that Emma is almost a prerequisite.
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If you liked Jane Fairfax : Jane Austen's Emma, Through Another's Eyes
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