Ladies in Waiting: Jane Austen’s Unsung Characters

In honor of Jane Austen’s 250th birthday, an all-star lineup of nine romance authors charmingly reimagine the stories of some of the author’s best loved supporting characters. Four contributors riff on Pride and Prejudice: Dukess’s “What Georgiana Wants” finds Georgiana Darcy letting go of the past; Diana Quincy’s “Lydia’s Story” follows a widowed Lydia Wickham as she falls in love with a local vicar; Adriana Trigiani’s “The Bennets of Jane Street” transports the story to present-day New York City and turns the focus on Mary Bennet; and Nikki Payne recasts Caroline Bingley as a free woman of color traveling the American West in “Lace and Larceny.” Miss Bates from Emma takes the spotlight in both Elinor Lipman’s “Miss Bates Bobs Her Hair,” which explores the Jewish community in Regency England, and Sarah MacLean’s “The Triumph of Hetty Bates,” which reunites lost loves. Elsewhere, Bellezza and Harding join forces to imagine both a backstory and a future for Sense and Sensibility’s Eliza Brandon in “The Elizas,” while Eloisa James turns the spotlight onto the Dashwoods’ youngest sister, Margaret, in “Sense, Sensibility, and Snapdragons.” The narratives are expertly crafted, with the authors’ deep understanding of the original texts on clear display even as they take Austen’s work in new directions. Austenites will be thrilled. (Nov.)