Jane Austen Ruined My Life — Beth Pattillo

SCHOLARS ESTIMATE THAT JANE AUSTEN WROTE CLOSE TO THREE THOUSAND LEITERS IN HER LIFETIME. ALMOST ALL OF THEM WERE SUPPOSEDLY DESTROYED AT HER DEATH. WHAT SECRETS DID JANE AUSTEN HAVE TO HIDE?

Emma Douglas has always done everything just the way her minister father said she should -- a respectable marriage, a teaching job, and plans for the requisite two children. Life was prodigiously good, as her favorite author might say, until the day Emma finds her husband in bed with another woman. Suddenly, all her romantic notions a la Austen are exposed for just foolish dreams.

Denied tenure in the wake of the scandal, Emma packs what few worldly possessions she has left and heads to England to find the missing letters of Jane Austen. A reclusive widow claims to have the author's correspondence, but she allows Emma to see the letters only if she promises never to tell anyone about them. Emma reluctantly agrees and sets off across Austen's England -- from Steventon to Bath to Lyme Regis -- on a series of tasks that bring her closer and closer to the secrets Jane Austen hoped to bury. And the reappearance of her old friend Adam doesn't make her quest any easier.

As Emma uncovers the legendary author's innermost thoughts, she begins to understand the reasons for her idol's secrecy and Austen's own struggles as a woman of faith. Laced with excerpts from the missing letters, Jane Austen Ruined My Life is the story of a woman betrayed who uncovers the true meaning of loyalty.