The Jane Austen Project

March 20, 2017
In Flynn’s debut, a time-travel romance, scholars in the near future find a letter indicating that Jane Austen finished and then destroyed her partial novel The Watsons, instead of never having finished it. Dr. Rachel Katzman and her colleague, Liam Finucane, are sent to live in the year 1815, hoping to get into the Austens’ social circle and use that access to obtain a complete copy of the manuscript. However, Rachel’s flirtation with Austen’s brother, Henry, proves too effective, especially when she begins to fall in love with Liam. Though the novel is well-researched, rich in period detail, and convincing in its literary analysis, Flynn spends more energy on the conventional romance plot than on the side effects and consequences of time travel, to the book’s detriment.

March 15, 2017
Debut novel from a New York Times editor and Jane Austen devotee.At some point in the future, Earth's atmosphere has been destroyed, the human population has been decimated, time travel is possible, and readers are still in love with Jane Austen. Physician and Jane Austen fanatic Rachel Katzman has been chosen by the Royal Institute for Special Topics in Physics for a very specific task: she and her colleague, an actor named Liam, will go back to the early 18th century, ingratiate themselves with the Austen family, and bring the author's letters and an unpublished manuscript back to the future. Rachel's mission is complicated by the necessities of time travel--she and Liam struggle to disrupt the past as little as possible, and their window to return to their own era is finite--and by matters personal. This accomplished, adventurous woman must adapt to the retiring life of a genteel lady. She must negotiate the erotic charge that builds between her and Liam, who is posing as her brother. She is forced to navigate a marriage proposal from Henry, Jane's favorite brother. And Rachel must make difficult choices about how she responds--or does not respond--to the illness that would ultimately kill Jane Austen. There is plenty of material here for an engaging novel. The trouble is figuring out for whom this novel is intended. Fans of science fiction will not be satisfied; Flynn's use of genre tropes is fitful and idiosyncratic, and Rachel's ability to acclimate to her new surroundings is too easy to be interesting. And, while Jane Austen is obviously the big draw here, she plays only a secondary role in this story, and Flynn's novel feels like an Austen novel only in the most superficial ways. An author can hardly be blamed for failing to match one of the most celebrated voices in English literature, of course, but it's nearly impossible not to compare in this case. An inventive, if not entirely satisfying, diversion.

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Starred review from April 15, 2017

Flynn's fiction debut brings readers into Jane Austen's intimate circle through the eyes of two time travelers on a seemingly impossible mission. Dr. Rachel Katzman and Liam Finucane are sent from our advanced future back to 1815 with three goals: 1) steal a copy of Austen's unfinished novel, 2) determine the cause of her death in 1817, and 3) leave no trace that will change history. They succeed--and fail. In the process, they alter not only the past but themselves, as their challenge forces them to live a lie, worming their way first into brother Henry's life, then into the life of the reclusive author herself. Liam poses as a wealthy doctor, while Rachel is forced to hide her modern assertiveness under the guise of a dependent spinster. Falling both into her part and in love with the Austen family, Rachel is captivated by the times she has come to investigate and the man who shares her secret. Flynn skillfully delves into the later years of Austen's life in a way that is sure to please admirers of the 19th-century novelist, as well as providing a fascinating dollop of plot invention and a heartbreaking romance between the two protagonists. VERDICT Highly recommended for fans of Jane Austen, Regency comedies of manners, and lovers of time-travel fiction.--Marlene Harris, Reading Reality, LLC, Duluth, GA

Copyright 2017 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

April 15, 2017
Written in an engaging Austen style, full of witty dialogue, a secret engagement, and a delightful clan of loving siblings, Flynn's debut centers on the reactions of two time travelers to early nineteenth-century England and their involvement with Jane Austen and family. Rachel Katzman, an emergency doctor experienced with primitive conditions, is an unrivaled Austen nerd. Liam Finucane is a skilled thespian turned Regency scholar. Their preparations included meticulous training in the expected class conventions of the time period and diligent rehearsal of a detailed, socially appropriate backstory. Billing themselves as wealthy Doctor William Ravenswood and his sister, Mary, they meet Henry Austen, Jane's favorite brother. The widowed Henry becomes enamored with Mary, and this romantic entree allows them to proceed with their missionretrieving the full manuscript of Austen's famously unfinished novel The Watsons and diagnosing the illness that ended Jane's life, in 1817. Will their assumed personae withstand Jane's celebrated discerning eye? Can Rachel/Mary disengage from Henry's marital intentions? Or will history be changed? Recommend to fans of Connie Willis' The Doomsday Book (1992).(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2017, American Library Association.)