Table of Contents

1 Class act 10
2 'Bad reckoners' 12
3 112-year association 13
4 Happy home 15
5 Three grand houses 17
6 Second Farmer George 18
7 The Loiterer 20
8 Chosen as heir 22
9 Juvenile parody 25
10 Jane and Cassandra 27
11 Good friends 29
12 Leading lady 31
13 Death in the Caribbean 34
14 The Tom Lefroy affair 36
15 Novel beginnings 37
16 Wishful thinking? 39
17 Gold chains and topaz crosses 41
18 Strange scandal 43
19 'It's all settled!' 44
20 Affairs of the heart 47
21 Lure of Lyme 48
22 Sudden death 50
23 To the rescue 51
23 Opulent magnificence 53
24 Seaside interlude 55
25 Centre of creativity 57
26 Solitary sketch 59
27 First publication 59
28 'My own darling child' 63
29 Authorship revealed 65
30 Comic spirit 66
31 Universal truths 68
32 Mixed reactions 70
33 Delightful pilgrimage 72
34 'A rogue... but a civil one' 73
35 Scott's adulatory review 75
36 By royal permission 77
37 The duties of aunts 79
38 Cinderella revisited 82
39 In her sister's arms 84
40 Gothic parody 86
41 Literary genius ignored 88
42 Novel fragment 90
43 Early critics 91
44 'Highest esteem' 93
45 Facts of life 95
46 'Swell show' 96
47 Editor's hand 98
48 Cult status 100
49 White gowns and bonnets 101
50 Desert Island books 103
51 Darcymania 106
52 Zombie mash-up 107
53 Gripping continuation 108
54 Sparking a Twitterstorm 110
55 Social implications 112
56 Manly men 114
57 Spotlight on Cincinnati 116
58 Literary legacy 118
59 Screen legacy 120

About the Author

Henrietta Heald had a long and successful career in publishing before taking up the pen herself. Her first book William Armstrong, Magician of the North was shortlisted for both the Portico Prize and the H. W. Fisher Best First Biography Prize. She is a graudate of Durham University and has written for mane leading publications including The Spectator and The Times.

Henrietta lives in Islington, North London.