By a Lady
Being the Adventures of an Enlightened American in Jane Austen's England
By Amanda Elyot
(Three Rivers Press, Paperback, 9781400097999, 384pp.)
Publication Date: March 28, 2006
Other Editions of This Title: Google eBook
Categories: Fantasy - Historical, Historical - General
 |     |
A tale of time travel, true love, and Jane Austen
New York actress C.J. Welles, a die-hard Jane Austen fan, is on the verge of landing her dream role: portraying her idol in a Broadway play. But during her final audition, she is mysteriously transported to Bath, England, in the year 1801. And Georgian England, with its rigid and unforgiving social structure and limited hygienic facilities, is not quite the picturesque costume drama C.J. had always imagined.
Just as she wishes she could click her heels together and return to Manhattan, C.J. meets the delightfully eccentric Lady Dalrymple, a widowed countess who takes C.J. into her home, introducing her as a poor relation to Georgian society—including the dashing Earl of Darlington and his cousin, Jane Austen!
When a crisis develops, C.J.—in a race against time—becomes torn between two centuries. An attempt to return to her own era might mean forfeiting her blossoming romance with the irresistible Darlington and her growing friendship with Jane Austen, but it’s a risk she must take. And in the midst of this remarkable series of events, C.J. discovers something even more startling—a secret from her own past that may explain how she wound up in Bath in the first place.
Amanda Elyot is a professional actress and the author of The Memoirs of Helen of Troy. She lives in New York City.
“Richly textured and carefully researched, By a Lady is a bright and bawdy romp that combines nitty-gritty life in 1801 Britain with the wit of the real Jane Austen. Amanda Elyot brings the past alive in this fresh and wickedly clever tale.” —Mary Jo Putney, author of Stolen Magic
“For all of us who have always wanted to wake up one day in a world of balls and beaux . . . but wondered how well we would blend in. Teeming with period detail, By a Lady provides a sly peek into Austen’s England through the eyes of a thoroughly modern heroine.” —Lauren Willig, author of The Secret History of the Pink Carnation and The Masque of the Black Tulip
 |
1Q84 Haruki Murakami Knopf |
 |
The Marriage Plot Jeffrey Eugenides Farrar, Straus, and Giroux |
 |
The Sense of an Ending Julian Barnes Knopf |
 |
Death Comes to Pemberley PD James Knopf |
