Catharine, or The Bower

What do we usually find in Jane Austen's novels? At least one girl with a conflict and a handsome man or two to rush in and save the day. If nothing else, Jane was a romantic through and through! Catharine is a young orphan being raised in the country. Her best friends are the four children of the vicar. After the vicar’s death, they have been sent off to various locations to make their way in the world. Mr. and Mrs. Stanley come to visit Catharine and her guardian aunt. They have a daughter Camilla, and a handsome son Edward. Camilla and Catharine become friends and Camilla is sure that Catharine and Edward will become a couple. The heroine, Catharine Percival, is young and naive, but intelligent and spirited. Although she is an orphan, as befits the heroine of a novel written in the late eighteenth century, she is hampered in her adventures by her loving aunt who is overprotective and fearful of the world Catharine is soon visiting London as well. Will she reunite with her old friends? Will Catharine and Edward become a couple or will something from the past force them apart?