Tess Bright is a B-list actress cast in a role of a lifetime in a film adaptation of Jane Austen’s Northanger Abbey. It’s her last chance to prove herself as a serious actress but her co-star is Hugh Balfour, a serious British method actor who wants nothing to do with Tess. The two fizzle out on camera, but off camera, the sparks fly—their disdain for one another comes to a head just in time for an electrical accident which send the two back in time 200 years. Tess and Hugh will have to work together now to blend into the 19th century so they can find a way to get back to their time.
This is New York writer Madeline Bell’s debut adult novel The Austen Affair, a romance with just a twist of fantasy and a tribute and love letter to the British writer Jane Austen. Fans of Austen will appreciate Madeline’s authentic recreation of the Regency era and thrill in the references to Austen’s other novels and movies throughout the story. Madeline is also the author of two young adult novels under the pen name Christine Calella.
But Jane Austen and…time travel? In a recent What We’re Reading interview, Madeline explained, “The impetus of the time travel thing is really that I'm just a huge history nerd. I was a history major in college and one of my favorite daydreams is just the idea of ‘Oh, if I somehow fell into the past—how would I survive that era?’ So, it was a really natural thing to collide with my love of Jane Austen…How would you survive in the Regency era if you just landed there by accident one day?”
The Austen Affair also features an enemies to lovers arc, pitting the character Tess against Hugh. It’s Madeline’s favorite literary trope.
She said, “I think that it is actually a lot deeper than most people give it credit for because the idea of someone hating you and then loving you implies that they've seen you at your worst and they love you anyway…I do have to credit Jane Austen as being sort of the initiator of that trope. Pride and Prejudice is the ultimate enemies to lovers, so it felt like a good tribute to have here.”
And speaking of Pride and Prejudice, it’s Madeline’s favorite Jane Austen novel. She explained, “I really wish that I had a more interesting answer...It's Pride and Prejudice. It's the best one. It's not overrated in my mind. It's appropriately rated. It's famous for a reason.”
Learn more about Madeline Bell’s The Austen Affair here.
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