May, Lou and Cass: Jane Austen’s Nieces in Ireland

Marianne, Louise and Cassandra Knight were nieces of the great 19th century novelist who gave us Pride and Prejudice and Sense and Sensibility. Jane knew the girls well, reading and sewing with them as they grew up, and they were often the subject of her witty letters.

The Knight sisters went on to lead lives remarkably similar to those of Jane’s heroines, experiencing the pains of blighted love, the joy of patience rewarded, and the sorrow of losing their childhood home, but even Austen could not have imagined that they would find themselves in Donegal at a time when Ireland was riven with famine and war.

May, Lou and Cass tells for the first time the story of the Knight Sisters and their extraordinary journey from the ordered world of Regency England to the turbulent upheaval of Northern Ireland, exploring Irish History and the heritage of the Austen family.