The Austen Escape by Katherine Reay
Characters from Jane Austen’s Novels referenced in The Austen Escape
Northanger Abbey
Catherine Morland—Catherine is very intelligent and kind. She is also na?ve, as she has had little exposure outside of her narrow world, but she learns to think, question, and take ownership for her story throughout this novel.
Isabella Thorpe—Calling Isabella a manipulative gold digger wouldn’t be off the mark. It would, however, not tell the whole story. Isabella is a beautiful young woman who relishes adoration and flattery. She craves attention. She also has no clue what she wants in life—besides wealth, of course.
Henry Tilney—Clever, perceptive, and kind, Henry is often a conundrum to those around him. He comes across as occasionally patronizing, but his gentle teasing and constant questioning come from a good heart.
Persuasion
Anne Elliot—A character Austen described as “almost too good for me.” She is one of Austen’s older and most beloved heroines. At twenty-seven, she thinks love and her “bloom” have passed her by. Not so, dear Anne . . .
Captain Wentworth—An officer with courage, sense, and sensitivity. He is a new kind of hero—honored for his personal qualities and professional acumen rather than his birthright. Like many Austen heroes, he has a lesson to learn as well. He must forgive and conquer his own pride in order to find love and happiness.
Lady Russell—Lady Russell is a rich, well-meaning, practical woman who adores Anne Elliot. If her advice is misguided, it still comes from a true love for Anne and respect for her family.
Sir Walter Elliot—“Vanity was the beginning and the end of Sir Walter Elliot’s character; vanity of person and of situation.” That is all one needs to know of Sir Walter’s character.
Pride and Prejudice
Elizabeth Bennet—Considered almost a perfect heroine, Elizabeth is lovely, smart, witty, wise, and kind. She believes her judgments are accurate and sound—and she is completely wrong. Fortunately for everyone, she discovers this. “How despicably I have acted . . . Till this moment I never knew myself.” Unlike other Austen characters, once faced with this defect, Lizzy mends her ways and all ends well.
Jane Bennet and Mr. Bingley—These two simply belong together.
Lady Catherine de Burgh—If vanity is the beginning and end of Sir Walter, pride is the beginning and end of Lady Catherine. She tops that by being haughty, mean, and closed-minded as well—and gives a headache to everyone around her.
Emma
Emma Woodhouse—Handsome, clever, and rich. Three things everyone must know about Emma Woodhouse. One also needs to know she messes up a lot and gets almost everything wrong. In the end, she sees life more clearly and values friends better, and is rewarded with “perfect happiness” in her marriage.
Mr. Knightley—As a model of common sense and honor, one might find Knightley too good. Yet he marries these qualities with kindness, generosity, and such a devoted love for Emma that readers can’t help but swoon.
Sense and Sensibility
Marianne Dashwood—Perhaps originally intended as a caricature of a person with a great emotional appreciation of the arts, Marianne matures throughout her story and brings balance to her life with a touch of sense.
Mrs. Jennings—A thoughtful and generous woman with the singular aim of enjoying the young people and seeing them all married. Her sense of humor can offend—Austen dubbed it vulgar, which her readers understood as common and unsophisticated—but that should be forgiven when weighed against her warm heart and solid good sense.
Edward Ferrars—A kind, honorable, quiet man. The important fact to note is that he was secretly engaged, for four years, to the young, beautiful, and opportunistic Lucy Steele. The aforementioned qualities kept him from breaking the engagement. Luckily, when he lost all his money, she did it for him.
Mansfield Park
Mary Crawford—Think of Mary this way: split the bright and brilliant Elizabeth Bennet in half and give all her wisdom to Fanny Price (Mansfield Park’s heroine) and all her sparkle to Mary. Mary leaves her story as she enters it, and causes great disruption in the middle.
Chapter 1
How can I help?”
The world stilled. It wasn’t the first time I wondered how one voice, one presence, could quicken the air and simultaneously stop all motion.
Nathan.
I offered a stiff and awkward smile as he propped himself against my desk. His knees bent and touched mine as he handed me a Starbucks cup.
“Thank you.” I sipped and rolled my chair back a few inches to break contact. A clear head requires distance. “You can’t. An engineer is only as good as what she designs and . . . my project is a failure.”
The technology and math worked. The science worked. The breakdown was in the design. In the subjective, not the objective—it was in me.
Nathan nodded—a long, slow motion. I knew that look. He was trying to think up a plan, and if this had been another time or place, or I’d been another girl, I’d have hugged him for the effort. But I was ready to pay the price.
“It has potential,” he said, “but Karen has other goals for the company right now. Even so, I’ll talk to her.”
I shook my head to clear it of his optimism and my lingering illusions. “There’s no talking to Karen. There’s no working with her either.”
“That won’t do, Mary.” Nathan stared at me. “You’ve got to try.”
“Why don’t you plead for it yourself?” Moira said.
We’d spent the last half hour leaning against her cubicle’s outer wall and staring across twenty other cubicles to the closed conference room door. I wondered that the sheer force of our concentration didn’t burst it open.
“Karen will do what she wants.”
“So you expect Nathan to do all the heavy lifting?”
“That’s insulting and vaguely sexist. I can take care of myself.” My look dared her to laugh.
She kindly banked her smile. “Good to know, as I was thinking more of insanity than anything else. What’s that definition again?”
“Very funny,” I said, but she didn’t smile. “Fine. Doing the same thing over and over but expecting a different result.”
“And so we wait.” She, too, kept her eyes on the door.
“Nathan’s suggestions weren’t going to work. First, he wanted me to ask Benson and Rodriguez for help, as if I couldn’t solve the problems myself. Karen would’ve jumped all over that. She’s itching for a reason to fire me. Besides, she never would have approved their hours. And then Nathan wanted—”
“Stop.” Moira held a hand to my face. “It wasn’t so much about solving a problem as it was letting them in. We’re a team. At least that’s what that poster over there says.” She pointed across the floor to where Lucas, our head programmer with an affinity for inspirational quotes, had hung
TEAMWORK MAKES THE DREAM WORK