Years back we took a family vacation and visited several counties in England, On my birthday we visited Bath. You would be amazed how much Jane Austen memorabilia you can find there. For me it was intriguing to walk where Miss Jane Austen lived.
This book, All Roads Lead to Austen, called to me as it was about travel, adventure and, of course, Jane Austen books. I have to admit straight away that I did not finish this book. I just plain ran out of steam and got a little…..bored.
The idea of spending a year traveling in foreign counties is very intriguing and adventurous. I know this not only by reading as much as I did of this book, but because I have done just that. Decades back I traveled around Europe for an entire year and half. No plans in particular, just roaming and enjoying other cultures. That is an adventure in itself, although my father didn’t quite agree with that sentiment at the time. LOL
I could relate to that part of the story about picking up books from the countries she visited. Being a bookworm I am guilty of packing a suitcase with books from foreign places, dragging heavy luggage along to enjoy my treasures when I got home. The author did manage to come up with a good reading list from the countries she traveled.
Talking about the Austen novels with her book “clubs” was also enjoyable. But I started losing interest in her nattering on about her family, her mother and the sometimes pretentious observations about her love life. Do I believe she honestly met a Mexican man and moved in with him without knowing much about him? No, I don’t. Maybe it happened but it seemed exaggerated. So did her affair with the Argentinian.
Basically, there wasn’t enough Jane Austen in a story with a title All Roads Lead to Austen. That’s my humble opinion.
Now, one day I need to post about my trip to Bath and Austen-centric wanderings there.
Linking up with Joy’s British Isles Friday
Novel Meals 
Would you believe I’ve never read any of her books? I’m just not a fan of that genre.
I would love to hear about your travels though.
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Maybe I should write about that one day. Traveling around in the 1970’s!
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I don’t think Jane Austen would have appreciated being called just “Jane” in the subtitle or “Austen” in the title of this book! Seems a little disrespectful, doesn’t it? 😉
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You certainly have a point, Laurie! I wanted to like this book but it fell flat for me.
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Tina, like Vicki, I’d love to hear your travel tales from the 1970’s! A year and a half! Yes, please, drag out your travel diaries or dust off your memories and get to it.
I’ve done a teeny bit of writing about travels on my blog but but my trips were much shorter, iit sounds like you’d have many more stories to tell!
Here’s one of mine, just in case you’re interested.
Storming the Bastille
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Thank you Sim., it wasn’t remarkable but my ex husband and I did get run out of Vienna! We just traveled until,the money ran out, saved for years to do that trip and were actually surprised the money stretched that long.
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Intriguing to get a glimmer of your long-term adventure. I’d love to do that at some point. Have to figure out how to make it work.
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In a nutshell, my husband (now ex) & I worked a job where the living quarters were included. That meant our salary wasn’t high but we were able to save for about 18 months.
We bought one way tickets to Luxembourg, bought an old van from a guy leaving the Army and traveled until the money ran out.
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