Miss Austen
Posted
30th January 2025
in blog, blogsNnews, Literature
Here at Elizabeth Gaskell’s House, we are very excited about the BBC’s latest period drama Miss Austen, staring Keeley Hawes. This latest BBC drama coincides with the 250th anniversary of Jane Austen’s birth, author of many beloved classic works such as Pride and Prejudice.
Based on the much-enjoyed novel by Gill Hornby of the same name, the four-episode adaptation explores the relationship between Jane Austen and her sister Cassandra, and the infamous case of burned letters exchanged between the two.

The series stars Keeley Hawes as Cassandra, having already starred in multiple period dramas before this role.
This of course includes Keeley’s brilliant performance as Cynthia Kirkpatrick in the 1999 adaptation of Wives and Daughters, based on Elizabeth Gaskell’s final novel written in 1864.
Wives and Daughters was Elizabeth Gaskell’s last, and unfinished, novel. It has been called ‘the most underrated novel in English’. The story centres on young Molly’s response to her father’s new marriage and its impact on those around her. Its wit and charm are often compared to writers like Jane Austen and George Eliot. In the 1999 adaption Keeley Hawes plays Molly’s fascinating and flawed step-sister Cynthia.
The novelist and critic, Rosalind Lehman writes about Cynthia in Wives and Daughters; ‘when we come to Cynthia, we are in another world, with the greatest novelists . . . Mrs. Gaskell never drew any other character like Cynthia. Indeed, we may scan the length and breadth of Victorian fiction and find nothing to compare with her: one wonders from what experience or self-knowledge her creator begot and nourished her.’
The success of Miss Austen is testimony to the long-lasting admiration for literature and the great female writers behind them. It also demonstrates the enduring demand for stories which focus on the bond of sisterhood, which both readers and viewers alike can relate to.
We hope it holds the promise of more period dramas focusing on important, female literary figures and their works in the near future, with no more interesting candidate for the screen than our very own Manchester author, Elizabeth Gaskell?
Blog by Elle Hilton, volunteer at Elizabeth Gaskell’s House

Explore the fabulously outrageous fashions of the 1830s and discover what the characters would have worn in Elizabeth Gaskell’s novel, Wives and Daughters. This talk includes a discussion about the costumes worn in the 1999 BBC adaptation of Wives and Daughters and other notable on screen dramas such as BBC’s Gentleman Jack, Pride and Prejudice and Poldark.