The Victorian era has always been a beloved period for a certain type of reader – one who turns again and again to the works of Jane Austen for their interwoven stories, tales of high society drama, and truly elegant prose. Though there have certainly been other attempts to imitate Austen’s narrative and storytelling, none have been so skillfully and masterfully executed as what Alice McVeigh has achieved in her new novel SUSAN.

McVeigh’s work considers the early years of Lady Susan, when she was still just Susan Smithson, a beautiful but poor sixteen year old orphan living in London. When readers meet her she is in the process of being expelled from a school for young ladies after finding herself on the receiving end of untoward advances from her music instructor. She returns to her home with her aunt and uncle only to find herself in yet another precarious position with her honor in question, due to a public embrace that, again, she did not initiate. In order to save her reputation, and stop wagging tongues, Susan is sent to Kent to spend time at her uncle’s rectory. As Susan spends time in the country, and at the service of Lady Catherine de Bourgh, who has taken Susan on as a mentee, McVeigh carefully constructs the web that makes this novel a seamless prequel to Austen’s own Lady Susan.

Readers are introduced to characters that are either close approximations or, like Lady Catherine herself, pulled directly from other Austen works. In so doing, the storytelling and plotting are seamless and make for a truly immersive experience. Fans of Mr. Darcy, Mr. Hawthorn, and Frank Churchill will enjoy even more adventures of their beloved characters woven throughout the work. In that way, SUSAN also serves as a bridge between the worlds of Emma and Pride and Prejudice, realizing on the page a space that no doubt many readers have long imagined in their own minds.

Alice McVeigh’s impeccable prose in SUSAN transports readers so convincingly, it is difficult to remember this work was not penned by Jane Austen herself.

~Sarah Baer for IndieReader