About us
Please note that the organizers of this book club have recently received messages from several authors who were contacted by an imposter posing as a representative of our group: someone writing from the email address "sarah.jane.austine.book.club.nyc@gmail.com". This is not us! It is spam, apparently AI-generated, and we are dismayed to find ourselves its target. Indie sci-fi writers, we love you! But our area of focus continues to be Jane Austen.
Upcoming events
7
- $4.00
Part 1 of The Female Rake: Four-Session Online Study Group in September
·OnlineOnline"I am, indeed, provoked at the artifice of this unprincipled woman; what stronger proof of her dangerous abilities can be given than this perversion of Reginald’s judgment, which when he entered the house was so decidedly against her!"
Join us on four Tuesday evenings in September for a leisurely, in-depth discussion of two works of epistolary fiction that examine the figure of the "Female Rake": Jane Austen's scandalous novella Lady Susan (composed ca. 1794) and Maria Edgeworth's cautionary tale Leonora (published 1806). Both works depict powerful, self-interested, sexually-assertive women whose behavior defies propriety, ethics, and traditional gender roles. What happens when a Regency lady refuses to play by the rules? Find out, in these gripping stories by two of the era's most prominent women writers.
Both texts are available to read for free online: you can find Lady Susan by Jane Austen here and Leonora by Maria Edgeworth here.
Please note that you are most welcome to join in at any point our "Female Rake" discussion series. You do not need to commit to all four sessions in order to participate. And first-time readers of Austen and/or Edgeworth are particularly welcome!
Schedule of Gatherings
Tuesday, September 1, 2026 at 7:00 PM Eastern US time:
Discussion of Lady Susan by Jane AustenTuesday, September 8, 2026 at 7:00 PM Eastern US time:
Discussion of Volume 1 of Leonora by Maria EdgeworthTuesday, September 15, 2026 at 7:00 PM Eastern US time:
Discussion of Volume 2 of Leonora by Maria EdgeworthTuesday, September 22, 2026 at 7:00 PM Eastern US time:
Discussion of supplemental texts related to Lady Susan and Leonora (including Mary Augusta Austen-Leigh's 1920 "apology" for Lady Susan)Meet Your Facilitator
Sarah Rose Kearns is a playwright, performer, and lifelong Jane Austen enthusiast. Her stage adaptation of Persuasion debuted off-Broadway in 2021 and has since received productions at Chesapeake Shakespeare Company in Baltimore and at the National Archives in the UK. Her one-act play Manydown, which imagines one important night in the lives of Jane Austen and her sister Cassandra, has been performed more than a dozen times in seven US states, as well as in the UK and New Zealand — and was recently adapted as a short film by Prerna Ramachandra. Rose's third and latest play The Austens, a full-length dramatic comedy about the beloved novelist and her family, has had staged readings in New York, Baltimore, Philadelphia, and at Jane Austen’s brother’s house in Chawton, the English village where the play is set. She also collaborated as dramaturg and co-librettist on Brittany Sokolowski's forthcoming opera, Sense and Sensibility. In addition to her creative work, Rose is passionate about the work of building strong communities through art. Since its inception in 2020, Rose has served as a member of the Jane Austen Society of North America (JASNA) committee for Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion; and, since 2023, as co-Regional Coordinator for the JASNA New York Metropolitan Region. She is the founding artistic director of The Holy Theatre, a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit arts organization in New York City, with a mission to make plays and other gatherings that leave people feeling nourished connected, and more able to be brave.About the Registration Fee
Your payment of $4 per session for each of the three sessions in this series will help the organizers cover monthly Meetup platform fees. Any additional proceeds will support The Imaginists, the educational programming wing of The Holy Theatre, a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit arts organization. If the fee is a barrier for you, please contact the organizers and we'll work something out!8 attendees - $4.00
Part 2 of The Female Rake: Four-Session Online Study Group in September
·OnlineOnline"If in this age of reason women make a bad use of that power which they have obtained by the cultivation of their understanding . . . they will reduce their sex to a situation worse than it ever experienced even in the ages of ignorance and superstition."
Join us on four Tuesday evenings in September for a leisurely, in-depth discussion of two works of epistolary fiction that examine the figure of the "Female Rake": Jane Austen's scandalous novella Lady Susan (composed ca. 1794) and Maria Edgeworth's cautionary tale Leonora (published 1806). Both works depict powerful, self-interested, sexually-assertive women whose behavior defies propriety, ethics, and traditional gender roles. What happens when a Regency lady refuses to play by the rules? Find out, in these gripping stories by two of the era's most prominent women writers.
Both texts are available to read for free online: you can find Lady Susan by Jane Austen here and Leonora by Maria Edgeworth here.
Please note that you are most welcome to join in at any point our "Female Rake" discussion series. You do not need to commit to all four sessions in order to participate. And first-time readers of Austen and/or Edgeworth are particularly welcome!
Schedule of Gatherings
Tuesday, September 1, 2026 at 7:00 PM Eastern US time:
Discussion of Lady Susan by Jane AustenTuesday, September 8, 2026 at 7:00 PM Eastern US time:
Discussion of Volume 1 of Leonora by Maria EdgeworthTuesday, September 15, 2026 at 7:00 PM Eastern US time:
Discussion of Volume 2 of Leonora by Maria EdgeworthTuesday, September 22, 2026 at 7:00 PM Eastern US time:
Discussion of supplemental texts related to Lady Susan and Leonora (including Mary Augusta Austen-Leigh's 1920 "apology" for Lady Susan)Meet Your Facilitator
Sarah Rose Kearns is a playwright, performer, and lifelong Jane Austen enthusiast. Her stage adaptation of Persuasion debuted off-Broadway in 2021 and has since received productions at Chesapeake Shakespeare Company in Baltimore and at the National Archives in the UK. Her one-act play Manydown, which imagines one important night in the lives of Jane Austen and her sister Cassandra, has been performed more than a dozen times in seven US states, as well as in the UK and New Zealand — and was recently adapted as a short film by Prerna Ramachandra. Rose's third and latest play The Austens, a full-length dramatic comedy about the beloved novelist and her family, has had staged readings in New York, Baltimore, Philadelphia, and at Jane Austen’s brother’s house in Chawton, the English village where the play is set. She also collaborated as dramaturg and co-librettist on Brittany Sokolowski's forthcoming opera, Sense and Sensibility. In addition to her creative work, Rose is passionate about the work of building strong communities through art. Since its inception in 2020, Rose has served as a member of the Jane Austen Society of North America (JASNA) committee for Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion; and, since 2023, as co-Regional Coordinator for the JASNA New York Metropolitan Region. She is the founding artistic director of The Holy Theatre, a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit arts organization in New York City, with a mission to make plays and other gatherings that leave people feeling nourished connected, and more able to be brave.About the Registration Fee
Your payment of $4 per session for each of the three sessions in this series will help the organizers cover monthly Meetup platform fees. Any additional proceeds will support The Imaginists, the educational programming wing of The Holy Theatre, a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit arts organization. If the fee is a barrier for you, please contact the organizers and we'll work something out!5 attendees - $4.00
Part 3 of The Female Rake: Four-Session Online Study Group in September
·OnlineOnline"Too well I know that the delicious poison which spreads through my frame exalts, entrances, but to destroy. Too well I know that the meteor fire, which shines so bright on my path, entices me forward but to plunge me in the depths of infamy."
Join us on four Tuesday evenings in September for a leisurely, in-depth discussion of two works of epistolary fiction that examine the figure of the "Female Rake": Jane Austen's scandalous novella Lady Susan (composed ca. 1794) and Maria Edgeworth's cautionary tale Leonora (published 1806). Both works depict powerful, self-interested, sexually-assertive women whose behavior defies propriety, ethics, and traditional gender roles. What happens when a Regency lady refuses to play by the rules? Find out, in these gripping stories by two of the era's most prominent women writers.
Both texts are available to read for free online: you can find Lady Susan by Jane Austen here and Leonora by Maria Edgeworth here.
Please note that you are most welcome to join in at any point our "Female Rake" discussion series. You do not need to commit to all four sessions in order to participate. And first-time readers of Austen and/or Edgeworth are particularly welcome!
Schedule of Gatherings
Tuesday, September 1, 2026 at 7:00 PM Eastern US time:
Discussion of Lady Susan by Jane AustenTuesday, September 8, 2026 at 7:00 PM Eastern US time:
Discussion of Volume 1 of Leonora by Maria EdgeworthTuesday, September 15, 2026 at 7:00 PM Eastern US time:
Discussion of Volume 2 of Leonora by Maria EdgeworthTuesday, September 22, 2026 at 7:00 PM Eastern US time:
Discussion of supplemental texts related to Lady Susan and Leonora (including Mary Augusta Austen-Leigh's 1920 "apology" for Lady Susan)Meet Your Facilitator
Sarah Rose Kearns is a playwright, performer, and lifelong Jane Austen enthusiast. Her stage adaptation of Persuasion debuted off-Broadway in 2021 and has since received productions at Chesapeake Shakespeare Company in Baltimore and at the National Archives in the UK. Her one-act play Manydown, which imagines one important night in the lives of Jane Austen and her sister Cassandra, has been performed more than a dozen times in seven US states, as well as in the UK and New Zealand — and was recently adapted as a short film by Prerna Ramachandra. Rose's third and latest play The Austens, a full-length dramatic comedy about the beloved novelist and her family, has had staged readings in New York, Baltimore, Philadelphia, and at Jane Austen’s brother’s house in Chawton, the English village where the play is set. She also collaborated as dramaturg and co-librettist on Brittany Sokolowski's forthcoming opera, Sense and Sensibility. In addition to her creative work, Rose is passionate about the work of building strong communities through art. Since its inception in 2020, Rose has served as a member of the Jane Austen Society of North America (JASNA) committee for Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion; and, since 2023, as co-Regional Coordinator for the JASNA New York Metropolitan Region. She is the founding artistic director of The Holy Theatre, a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit arts organization in New York City, with a mission to make plays and other gatherings that leave people feeling nourished connected, and more able to be brave.About the Registration Fee
Your payment of $4 per session for each of the three sessions in this series will help the organizers cover monthly Meetup platform fees. Any additional proceeds will support The Imaginists, the educational programming wing of The Holy Theatre, a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit arts organization. If the fee is a barrier for you, please contact the organizers and we'll work something out!5 attendees - $4.00
Part 4 of The Female Rake: Four-Session Online Study Group in September
·OnlineOnline"A similar intensity of feeling . . . may have seized upon Jane Austen's soul when the story of an unnatural and brutal mother was made known to her, overpowering her fancy to so great a degree that she was at last impelled to seek relief in gibbeting this repulsive being by setting down her character in writing, thus to express the depth of her disgust through the medium of her own peculiar Art."
Join us on four Tuesday evenings in September for a leisurely, in-depth discussion of two works of epistolary fiction that examine the figure of the "Female Rake": Jane Austen's scandalous novella Lady Susan (composed ca. 1794) and Maria Edgeworth's cautionary tale Leonora (published 1806). Both works depict powerful, self-interested, sexually-assertive women whose behavior defies propriety, ethics, and traditional gender roles. What happens when a Regency lady refuses to play by the rules? Find out, in these gripping stories by two of the era's most prominent women writers.
Both texts are available to read for free online: you can find Lady Susan by Jane Austen here and Leonora by Maria Edgeworth here.
Please note that you are most welcome to join in at any point our "Female Rake" discussion series. You do not need to commit to all four sessions in order to participate. And first-time readers of Austen and/or Edgeworth are particularly welcome!
Schedule of Gatherings
Tuesday, September 1, 2026 at 7:00 PM Eastern US time:
Discussion of Lady Susan by Jane AustenTuesday, September 8, 2026 at 7:00 PM Eastern US time:
Discussion of Volume 1 of Leonora by Maria EdgeworthTuesday, September 15, 2026 at 7:00 PM Eastern US time:
Discussion of Volume 2 of Leonora by Maria EdgeworthTuesday, September 22, 2026 at 7:00 PM Eastern US time:
Discussion of supplemental texts related to Lady Susan and Leonora (including Mary Augusta Austen-Leigh's 1920 "apology" for Lady Susan)Meet Your Facilitator
Sarah Rose Kearns is a playwright, performer, and lifelong Jane Austen enthusiast. Her stage adaptation of Persuasion debuted off-Broadway in 2021 and has since received productions at Chesapeake Shakespeare Company in Baltimore and at the National Archives in the UK. Her one-act play Manydown, which imagines one important night in the lives of Jane Austen and her sister Cassandra, has been performed more than a dozen times in seven US states, as well as in the UK and New Zealand — and was recently adapted as a short film by Prerna Ramachandra. Rose's third and latest play The Austens, a full-length dramatic comedy about the beloved novelist and her family, has had staged readings in New York, Baltimore, Philadelphia, and at Jane Austen’s brother’s house in Chawton, the English village where the play is set. She also collaborated as dramaturg and co-librettist on Brittany Sokolowski's forthcoming opera, Sense and Sensibility. In addition to her creative work, Rose is passionate about the work of building strong communities through art. Since its inception in 2020, Rose has served as a member of the Jane Austen Society of North America (JASNA) committee for Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion; and, since 2023, as co-Regional Coordinator for the JASNA New York Metropolitan Region. She is the founding artistic director of The Holy Theatre, a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit arts organization in New York City, with a mission to make plays and other gatherings that leave people feeling nourished connected, and more able to be brave.About the Registration Fee
Your payment of $4 per session for each of the three sessions in this series will help the organizers cover monthly Meetup platform fees. Any additional proceeds will support The Imaginists, the educational programming wing of The Holy Theatre, a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit arts organization. If the fee is a barrier for you, please contact the organizers and we'll work something out!3 attendees
Past events
124
