I'm happy to share my latest essay, which unearths a hidden-in-plain-sight work of short fiction that must now go down as the first-known piece of Jane Austen-inspired fan fiction. It's in this week’s TLS, available here, with full text of the newly unearthed 1823 piece of fan fiction here. There's a conversation on the TLS podcast, if you'd rather get the audio version first. The December 13th issue has several great Austen and Regency-related reviews, including work by Paula Byrne and Gillian Dow.

I'm excited to share my piece because I think it's an Austen afterlife bombshell—and not only because it imagines her wearing a blue dress, lace cap, and pink ribbons (great details!) but because it also describes her as a night-owl writer in life. She even comes back as a ghostly figure to kiss would-be female authors with gilt-covered copies of Persuasion. Really!  It's  a fascinating read. It's likely by the writer Mary Russell Mitford, who knew people with firsthand access to Austen's looks and habits. To learn more about Mitford, check out Digital Mitford. To learn more about the periodical in which this work of short fiction was published, check out The Lady's Magazine Project. I learned last week that Professor Jennie Batchelor has been writing about this 1823 piece, looking at Austen through the lens of The Lady's Magazine. We have her further thoughts on it, and her forthcoming book, to look forward to in 2020. I'm eager to hear what others make of it, too. Do you think it's by Mitford? Do you think it could be fiction based in fact?