‘Praise the Lord for making her, and her for all she made!’ Rudyard Kipling

Book blurb

Jane Austen, one of the nation’s most beloved authors, whose face adorns our currency, surely needs no introduction, but while many are familiar with her groundbreaking novels, few have come across her brilliantly funny unfinished novella – Catharine, or The Bower.

Written when Austen was only around seventeen, Catharine, or The Bower is a short but important work, as it shows Austen’s preoccupation changing from short burlesques to the satirical novels which her name is so inextricably linked with. This edition also contains The Beautiful Cassandra, a very short ‘novel in twelve chapters’ that maps out a parody of the melodramatic novels of Austen’s day – in many ways the prototype for the legacy she left behind.

My thoughts

This is a charming story of a young woman whose two closest friends are sent away after their father dies and they are left without any means. One of is sent to family and the other is sent out to India to be married* (to someone she has never met). They write to each other and Catharine (or Kitty as she is also known) hears how unhappy they are.

Catharine lives with an aunt after her parents died. Her aunt is kindly yet strict particularly with regard to men. Still Kitty has a special place in the garden – the bower – where she goes to chat with her friends and since they have now both left it is where she finds some solace and comfort. It is a place she can think and consider things.

When visitors arrive to stay they come with their daughter a young woman around Kitty’s age but they don’t have the same relationship as with her two other friends. Kitty finds her somewhat superficial. Nevertheless when an invitation to a ball arrives both young women are happy and cannot wait for the day to arrive. However, not everything will happen as expected.

In Catharine or the Bower you really do see the start of the mature writing of Jane Austen. The beginning of a subtlety along with that very keen eye for observation and the more sophisticated sense satire for which she is known.

I found the fact that women travelled to India to get married fascinating and found a couple of interesting articles* with regard to that. The loss of home for wife and daughters is something that Jane Austen would write more on in Pride and Prejudice.

I love these small but mighty books that Renard Press publishes and Catharine or the Bower is no exception. They often have forewords and notes to aid the reader. In this book it also has The Beautiful Cassandra ‘a novel in twelve chapters’ as a delightful bonus. They can be a great way, at an affordable price, to introduce readers to an author they don’t know. For those readers that do know an author they are often some of the less well known writings they may not have had an opportunity to read previously.

*Further reading

Travelling to India ‘Husband Hunting in the Raj’ Anu Kumar (Scroll.in News – Oct 2017)

‘Manors, moieties and English inheritance law’ Kerra Patternote (National Archives blog – January 2023)

Book: Purchased

20 Books of Summer 2025

I have read Catharine or The Bowyer as part of my 20 books of summer challenge.

My list of books being read for this challenge. 

20 books of summer has new hosts Emma of Words and Peace and you can read all about it on Annabel’s blog including all the rules and sign up. It’s a challenge I’ve always enjoyed and am sure I’ll continue to do so. 

The challenge takes place between 1 June and 31 August 2025

Information

Publishers: Renard Press | Paperback £5.00 | 80pp | ISBN: 9781804471159

Buy: Renard Press | Bookshop.org (affiliate link)| Amazon | Your local bookshop | Your local library

Author

Jane Austen (1775–1817) is one of the best known English novelists of all time. She is best remembered today for her novels critiquing the upper classes, in particular Sense and Sensibility, Pride and Prejudice, Mansfield Park and Emma. Like most female writers of her era, Austen published her works anonymously, and it was only after her death that her name was set to her works.

Books

Sense & Sensibility | Pride & Prejudice | Mansfield Park | Emma | Persuasion | Northanger Abbey 

Other works

Lady Susan (unfinished) | Jack and Alice | Henry and Eliza | 
  Love and Friendship | The History of England | Catharine; or, The Bower | Evelyn