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First Impressions: A Novel, by Charlie Lovett
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A thrilling literary mystery costarring Jane Austen from the New York Times–bestselling author of The Bookman’s Tale
Charlie Lovett’s new book,�The Lost Book of the Grail, will be available from Viking on February 28, 2017
Book lover and Austen enthusiast Sophie Collingwood has recently taken a job at an antiquarian bookshop in London when two different customers�request a copy of the same obscure book: the second edition of�A�Little Book of Allegories�by Richard Mansfield. Their queries draw Sophie�into a mystery that will cast doubt on the true authorship of Pride and Prejudice—and�ultimately threaten�Sophie’s life.
In a dual narrative that alternates between Sophie’s quest to uncover the truth—while choosing between two suitors—and a young Jane Austen’s touching friendship with�the aging cleric Richard Mansfield, Lovett weaves a romantic, suspenseful, and utterly compelling novel about love in all its forms and the joys of a life lived in books.
- Sales Rank: #103166 in Books
- Published on: 2015-09-29
- Released on: 2015-09-29
- Original language: English
- Number of items: 1
- Dimensions: 8.05" h x .77" w x 5.34" l, 1.00 pounds
- Binding: Paperback
- 336 pages
Review
“A delightful novel.”
—People
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“[A] thrilling romance.”
—Woman’s Day, “WD Picks”
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“A charming story.”
—Christian Science Monitor
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“Part mystery, part love story,�First Impressions�is a 100 percent thumping good read and a loving homage to one of literature’s most beloved authors. Lovett takes readers on a rollicking adventure that cleverly weaves in the best elements of Austen’s novels, while also giving life to Austen’s own personal history in a satisfying and captivating way. It’s a giddy novel that celebrates books and the people who love them as much as it entertains, making it the perfect read for bookworms and Janeites alike.”
—Bookpage
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“A completely captivating and charming book….the author’s passion for Jane Austen and his knowledge of printing methods and practices of the 1700s truly make this book a standout. The reader gets a nice adventure story, a little bit of romance and mystery, and a real feel for book collecting and for the author’s love of Jane Austen. If it’s a love you share, you may well find this book irresistible.”
—Mystery Scene
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“This novel is both beautiful and exciting….A must-read, especially for those who love books, writing and reading!”
—Historical Novels Review
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“Fans of Austen will devour the backstory. . . . Lovers of intrigue and romance will relish the presentday journey. . . . Bibliophiles will savor the interconnectedness of both stories. . . . First Impressions is an Austen appetizer—leaving the reader eager to explore or revisit works that have touched us for more than two centuries.”
—The Mountain Times
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“A book about books . . . an intriguing story [about] an author whose stories have not lost their romantic appeal in two hundred years.”
—Suspense Magazine
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“[An] ingenious novel….Ardent fans of Jane Austen and lovers of gripping stories will enjoy following Sophie’s pursuit of the truth.”
—Publishers Weekly
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“[An] appealing combination of mystery, romance, and bibliophilism….An absolute must for Austen fans, a pleasure for others.”
—Booklist
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“A delightful read that Janeites will love….[Lovett] adds bookish intrigue to the life of another luminary of English literature.”
—Library Journal
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“Lovett’s tale is a lovely and entertaining one…that lovers of Austen and antiquarian books will adore.”
—Shelf Awareness
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“Lovett’s love of books and libraries once again energizes his storytelling.”
—Kirkus Reviews
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“Charlie Lovett’s delightful�First Impressions�weaves together two stories: one about a modern young woman who loves books and the other about the friendship between nineteenth-century novelist Jane Austen and a clergyman. The result is an inventive tale with elements of romance and suspense, wrapped around a bookish mystery that will please lovers of old libraries and Austen fans.”
—Deborah Harkness, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Book of Life
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“Jane Austen, true love, great books, and a literary mystery of epic proportions:�Charlie Lovett packs all my favorite things into a thoroughly engaging story that keeps us enthralled to the very last page. Austen herself would adore the counter-point heroine, the bright and delightful Sophie Collingwood. A pure gem.”
—Katherine Reay, author of Dear Mr. Knightley
�
“Brimming with charm and intrigue, Charlie Lovett’s new novel will leave a lasting impression on lovers of books, literary enigmas, and the eternally fascinating Jane Austen. First Impressions spans centuries, but time ceases to exist as Lovett’s riveting story begins to unfold.”
—Erika Robuck, author of Hemingway’s Girl
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“It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a reader in want of a marvelous mystery and lovely literary fiction must be in want of First Impressions. With a deep understanding of Jane Austen and a deft hand at mystery, Lovett strikes the perfect chord between literature and a first rate thriller.”
—Craig Johnson, New York Times bestselling author of the Walt Longmire Mysteries, the basis of A&E’s hit series Longmire
About the Author
Charlie Lovett is a former antiquarian bookseller, an avid book collector, and a member of the Grolier Club, the oldest and largest club for bibliophiles in North America. He and his wife split their time between Winston-Salem, North Carolina, and Kingham, Oxfordshire, in England.
Excerpt. � Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
***This excerpt is from an advance uncorrected proof***
Copyright � 2014 Charlie Lovett
Steventon, Hampshire, 1796
Fond as she was of solitary walks, Jane had been wandering rather longer than she had intended, her mind occupied not so much with the story she had lately been reading as with one she hoped soon to be writing. She was shaken from this reverie by the sight of an unfamiliar figure, sitting on a stile, hunched over a book. Her first impression was that he was the picture of gloom—dressed in shabby clerical garb, a dark look on his crinkled face, doubtless a volume of dusty sermons clutched in his ancient hand. Even the weather seemed to agree with this assessment, for while the sun shone all around him, he sat in the shadow of the single cloud that hung in the Hampshire sky. Realizing how far she had come from home, Jane thought it best to retrace her steps without interrupting the cleric’s thoughts as he had unknowingly interrupted hers. During the long walk home, across fields shimmering with the haze of summer heat, she amused herself by sketching out a character of this old man, storing him away, like so many others, for possible inclusion in some novel yet to be conceived. He was, she decided, a natural history enthusiast, but his passion lay not with anything beautiful like butterflies or wildflowers. No, his particular expertise was in the way of garden slugs, of which he could identify twenty-six varieties.
By week’s end, Jane had filled in the pathetic details of his life. Disappointed in love, he had turned to natural history, where the objects of his pursuit were less likely to spurn his advances. As his passion for his study grew, and as he shared it more enthusiastically with those around him, his invitations to dine gradually declined until he was left alone on most evenings with his books and his slugs. He was a melancholy figure, which made it all the more shocking to find him, on Sunday morning, not only seated in the Austen family pew, but smiling broadly and greeting her by name.
Jane had led the family procession from the rectory to the small stone church of St. Nicholas, where her father was rector. The church stood on the far outskirts of the village, flanked by flat, green meadows. After passing through the rectory gates into the narrow lane that led to the church, the Austens had fallen in with several villagers. When she had concluded her pleasantries with these acquaintances, Jane had not a moment to respond to the stranger’s greeting before the service began and she found herself separated from him by her mother and her sister Cassandra; of her six brothers, none were currently in residence in Steventon.
The man’s robust baritone voice, evident in his hymn singing, exuded a spirit that was anything but melancholy. Jane endured a sharp elbow from Cassandra for not attending to the gospel reading; instead, she was trying to watch the man out of the corner of her eye. She failed to follow the thread of her father’s sermon, lost as she was in a reevaluation of the stranger’s history. By the time the service ended she was thoroughly intrigued and determined to secure a proper introduction to satisfy her curiosity about the true nature of his character.
“Go along home and I shall wait for Father,” she told her mother and Cassandra as they stood beside the ancient yew tree that clung to the west end of the church. Jane felt certain that a visiting clergyman with leave to occupy the Austen pew must be known to her father, and she expected Mr. Austen to make the necessary introduction, so it came as a surprise when she felt a tap on her shoulder and turned to face the stranger, who addressed her in a cheerful voice.
“Miss Jane Austen, if I am not mistaken.”
“You are at an advantage, sir,” said Jane. “You know my name, but I do not know yours.”
“Mansfield. Reverend Richard Mansfield at your service,” he said with a slight bow. “But we have nearly met already.”
“What can you mean, sir?”
“Only that two days ago you emerged from the waving grain of Lord Wintringham’s field and stopped in your tracks when you spotted me reading on a stile just outside Busbury Park. At the time I conceived the idea that you were a rather dull and impetuous young lady, but I already begin to suspect that I may have been mistaken.” His eyes twinkled in the morning sun as he said this, and his smile transformed from one meant for the general public to one that seemed to be reserved solely for Jane.
“I hope you will come to believe so, Mr. Mansfield. I have been accused of having many faults by those who know me well, but neither dullness nor impetuousness has been among them.”
“And of what faults do they accuse you?”
“My worst, or so I am told, are a too highly developed interest in fictionalizing my acquaintances and a tendency to form opinions of others hastily.”
“Opinions such as the one you formed of me when you saw me alone with my book?”
“You do me wrong, sir. You assume first that I saw you, second that I gave your appearance sufficient thought to form an opinion, and third that my opinion was ill considered.”
“In the first case,” said Mr. Mansfield, “I observed you myself, for though your mind may have been elsewhere, your eyes were certainly on me; in the second case, your father tells me, somewhat to my surprise, that you aspire to write novels, so I can only assume that anyone you meet may become a victim of your imagination; and in the third case it seems impossible that you would have guessed the extent to which our interests overlap.”
“I confess that shared interests did not occur to me. I imagined you a student of natural history, reading . . . but you will laugh when I tell you.”
“I enjoy a good laugh,” said Mr. Mansfield.
“I imagined you reading a book on garden slugs.”
Mr. Mansfield did laugh, long and heartily, before confessing the true nature of his reading. “It may shock you, Miss Austen, but in fact I was reading a novel.”
“A novel! You do shock me, sir. Do you not find novels full of nonsense? I myself find them the stupidest things in creation.”
“Then you read novels?”
“Novels! I’m surprised at you, Mr. Mansfield, suggesting that a young lady such as myself, the daughter of a clergyman, no less, could occupy her time with such horrid things as novels.”
“You tease me, Miss Austen.”
“Indeed I do not, Mr. Mansfield, for though you know that I aspire to write novels, you cannot expect that I would take my interest in the form so far as to actually read them.” Because Mr. Mansfield was old enough to be her grandfather, Jane took the bold step of adding a wink to this statement and turned toward the rectory. The congregation had dispersed and only the sounds of birdsong and the breeze in the yew tree disturbed the silence of the morning. Jane was pleased when Mr. Mansfield fell into step beside her as she made her way up the tree-lined lane. With the summer sun now high in the sky, she was grateful for the cooling shade.
“Surely, Mr. Mansfield, your shortest route to Busbury Park lies in the opposite direction,” said Jane.
“Indeed it does, but you are assuming again, Miss Austen. First that I am staying at the park, and second that I am taking my luncheon there.”
“And my novelist’s imagination has deceived me again?”
“Not entirely,” said Mr. Mansfield. “For I am a guest at Busbury Park, but though he can offer me only cold mutton, your father has asked me to take my luncheon at the rectory.”
“I confess, Mr. Mansfield, I am sorry to hear it.”
“And why is that? Are you so embarrassed to be seen in the company of a novel reader?”
“On the contrary, it is because you are a novel reader that I had rather hoped to keep you to myself. Once you enter the doors of the rectory, you will become a friend to my mother and my sister Cassandra, and you will no doubt retire after lunch to the study with my father and abandon the rest of us.”
“Surely, Miss Austen,” said Mr. Mansfield, “I can be both a visitor at the rectory and a special friend of the rector’s younger daughter.”
“I believe, Mr. Mansfield,” said Jane as she took the clergyman’s arm, “that I should like that very much indeed.”
Most helpful customer reviews
32 of 33 people found the following review helpful.
For bibliophiles and Austenites
By joyful
I've read my share of Jane Austen published fanfiction, spinoffs, and inspirations. While not as startling different as Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, First Impressions has unique elements to commend it. Lovett alternates between two storylines: that of Jane Austen and her much older gentleman friend, Richard Mansfield (right away you know he will be very significant, just by his surname alone) and Sophie in the present, grieving the death of her beloved Uncle Bertram. First Impressions is elevated above the very crowded Austen genre in the sophisticated, nuanced writing. It is clear that Lovett knows everything Austen front and back. Not only that, every page is rendered not only with a homage to Austen but to book lovers in general. If you are a bookworm, you will delight in this novel.
Lovett skillfully renders the Austen chapters with the same style and intelligent dialogue found in her novels. On the other hand, the modern chapters have a completely different flavor yet its storyline incorporates touches that will be very familiar to Austen fans. Immediately we know who will be Wickham and who will be Darcy. Later on when the mystery (having to do with the provenance of Pride and Prejudice) gets underway, strong shades of Northanger Abbey color the plot twists.
My favorite parts though had to do with Sophie and her Uncle Bertram's loving relationship, one founded on their mutual love of reading. Their conversations about books, for example the difference between what is considered valuable versus expensive, will strike a chord with bibliophiles.
Sometimes something so ubiquitous and familiar as Austen's novels become like wallpaper - they're just there and one forgets how lovely and insightful it actually is. First Impressions will remind readers why we love Austen so much:
"Sophie had never held a first edition of Pride and Prejudice, She had never had the opportunity to run her fingers over those spectacular words as they appeared in print for the very first time. Somehow seeing thme here in this volume from 1813 brought home to Sophie that Jane Austen had actually written these words. They had not simply appeared out of the ether. Sometimes, she thought, sentences like that become so famous that we cannot conceive a time when they did not exist. We can remember our own first encounters with those words, but that mankind should had had a first encounter with them seems almost impossible."
15 of 16 people found the following review helpful.
A rather bland Austen homage
By S. McGee
There's a certain kind of book that relies on its charm, or whimsy, or quirkiness to win itself readers and fans (think of The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry: A Novel by Rachel Joyce) and another category that pulls in avid readers because it is all about books (Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore: A Novel being a case in point). When the two meet, you're left with either something that becomes a tremendous phenomenon, like Jasper Fforde's fantasy novels featuring Thursday Next, or something teetering dangerously close to "Love Story" level sentimentality that becomes the focus of a tremendous marketing push by publishers, like The Storied Life of A. J. Fikry: A Novel.
And then there is Charlie Lovett, whose novels I keep wanting to love, because his characters all live their lives surrounded by books -- correction, their lives are shaped by books. Peter, the hero of The Bookman's Tale: A Novel of Obsession, was an antiquarian bookseller; that's the career that young Sophie Collingwood, the main character of half of this book (the other half being focused on none other than Jane Austen). What's not to love?
Well, enough that I couldn't do more than whip a somewhat mildly entertained response to the novel. The chapters set in the past, revolving around an entirely fictional friendship between Austen and an octogenarian clergyman, Richard Mansfield (hint, hint?) are stilted in tone and not entirely plausible in content, either. Essentially, the characters felt like waxwork images moving through a historically-correct setting, dropping the appropriate references to remind us of Austen's biographical details. That makes them slow and unconvincing reading, although they're necessary to the more lively present-day plot, in which the ingenue Sophie must cope with tragedy, choose between rival suitors (which is Darcy and which is Wickham? The reader won't have much difficulty figuring it out...) and solve a mystery revolving around the first draft of Austen's iconic novel, "Pride and Prejudice".
The modern-day story at least has a certain charm and a modest element of suspense, but I think even die-hard Janeites can do better. For instance, I've enjoyed some of Stephanie Barron's mysteries featuring Jane Austen in the somewhat unlikely role of sleuth -- they really aren't any harder to swallow than some of the plot lines here, and I find the characters to be better developed and more convincing.
The Austen link, the appeal to bibliophiles and the charm/whimsy will, I am sure, win this book a lot of readers. It's just that underneath all those exterior qualifications, it's really just a mildly endearing but ultimately rather forgettable novel.
21 of 24 people found the following review helpful.
This didn't work for me on so many different levels.
By J. Lesley
I do count myself as an admirer of the works of Jane Austen, but that doesn't mean I can't accept variations or interpretations or extensions of her novels as long as they make common sense and are well done. So on the question of common sense, why did Sophie Collingwood's thoughts immediately turn to murder when a death occurred? Not one sniff of supposition, not one shred of evidence, never a question from anyone in authority, but Sophie immediately knew. Sophie is the main character from the modern day portion of the novel. I got plenty of eye-rolling exercise with this novel and, in case you are wondering, that isn't good. (A character named Mr. Boxhill? Really?) Sophie has a regrettable tendency to faint and act in ways that would make me automatically avoid her in real life. I also found it very hard to accept the premise that Austen needed the help of an eighty year old retired clergyman to whip one of her novels into shape, adapt another from an idea this character, Mr. Mansfield, had and prod her into the writing of a book he suggested the subject and title for, Northanger Abbey.
This novel alternates chapters between the present day and 1796 - 1817. It is not difficult to keep track of where you are in time because the manner of speech is naturally so different in the two time periods. The author uses the known history of Jane Austen to make her story in this novel fit in with the writing which will figure so large in the criminal activities taking place in the modern times related to those same writings. I'm sure researchers and writers are always looking for any lost Austen manuscript which will rock the literary world. In this case it was supposed to be a short story with disputed authorship which had never been found before. Except by one person, of course, who never revealed that it existed. Was Jane Austen a plagiarist? If so, does the world need to know?
I wish I could say I enjoyed the book, but I only read through to the end to see how the author would try to resolve all the problems of proving authorship of the story. Sophie was not a character who inspired sympathy or kind regard in me and having the author take the easy way out of challenging situations by having her steal books and literary material certainly did not help me enjoy the book. Jane Austen in love? Well, don't get your hopes up.
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