The 'Miss Austen' Premiere Sees Jane's Sister Cassandra Revisit the Past

This year marks the 250th anniversary of Jane Austen's birth. While pretty much everyone is at least in some way familiar with her works and the iconic characters she created, far fewer know much about her personal or family life. There's surprisingly little to know; one can rattle off the names of Jane's family members and the locations where she lived, but all that remains of her interior self exists only on the pages of her novels. Her sister, Cassandra, famously committed one of history's acts of literary destruction: burning the bulk of Jane's correspondence following her death. It's estimated she wrote ~3,000 letters by the time she passed at age 41, but only ~160 of them (presumably the most boring and banal) survive.

To many, Cassandra Austen is an epic villain. Eager to protect her sister and their family's reputation for unknown reasons —Fear? Jealousy? The idea that Jane could only ever truly belong to those who knew her?— She ensured no information about the real woman survived. But that's not the story the new Masterpiece drama Miss Austen is interested in telling.

Instead, this four-part drama is here to give Cassandra Austen her moment in the proverbial sun. Though she's aged down a bit by being played by future Dame Keeley Hawes (the real Cassandra was around 70 when she burned Jane's letters), her story is softened and deepened, but still firmly focused on the single key relationship of her life. It will do little to assuage the anger of the most hardcore Austenites, but it's a lovely reminder that the rich sisterly affection that infuses Jane's novels was likely something she first learned about at home.