This angered his solicitor, Andrew Forrestor, whom Knight forbade Frances from marrying three decades prior.

Meanwhile, James Knight, Frances’s dying father, changed his will to bequeath the estate to the closest living male relative instead of Frances. She agreed to help with Adam's idea, and they coined their group the Jane Austen Society. Gray received a Christmas card from Adeline, he rushed over to her house to visit and give her a gift. Gray about his idea to create a Jane Austen museum in the Knight’s cottage. He gave her morphine, which he was also secretly abusing.Įxcited by an antique toy he found in a trash pile, Adam consulted with Dr. A month after her loss, Adeline begged Dr. Gray rushed her to the hospital for a futile emergency Cesarean section. A month after this discovery, Adeline bled uncontrollably, and Dr. Eventually, she found a hidden unsent letter from Jane Austen to her sister, Cassandra.

Evie Stone, Adeline’s former student and one of Frances’s housemaids, had spent the last year and a half of her employment secretly cataloguing the books in one of the Great House’s libraries, searching for clues about Jane Austen. One month later, Yardley frequently reached out to Frances about a possible estate sale.

Mimi began considering leaving Hollywood to return to the stage. When Mimi met with her boss, he sexually assaulted her and threatened her career. Back in Hollywood, Jack attempted to seduce Mimi by producing Sense and Sensibility and casting her as Elinor. Soon to be the last living Knight, Frances understood her responsibility to care for the estate’s legacy. Frances Knight listened to their conversation from inside the Great House. Gray discussing Jane Austen’s characters. One month prior, the pregnant and widowed Adeline passed an afternoon with Dr. Yardley, the assistant director of Sotheby’s sales, congratulated Mimi on the acquisition of some of Jane Austen’s possessions. She attended an auction in London with her new beau, Jack Leonard, a successful Hollywood businessman. Two years later, in 1945, Mary Anne was a Hollywood movie star known as Mimi. He was flustered upon learning of Adeline’s engagement to her childhood sweetheart, Samuel Grover. Gray, the town physician, pleaded with Adeline again to change her curriculum to no avail. Upon Mary Anne’s insistence, Adam began reading Pride and Prejudice and discovered a love of the author.Įleven years later, the Chawton school board took issue with young Adeline Lewis teaching female authors. Mary Anne asked Adam for directions to Jane Austen’s cottage on the Knight estate. The Jane Austen Society by Natalie Jenner began with a chance encounter between an English farmer, Adam Berwick, and an American tourist, Mary Anne Harrison, in 1932. The following version of this book was used to create the guide: Jenner, Natalie.

The jane austen society a novel