Published October 22nd, 2026 by Pegasus Books
Historical Fiction, Reimagining, Literary Fiction
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ABOUT THE BOOK:
Miss Bates, creepy, funny, and heartbreaking, is a daring reimagining of the world of Jane Austen’s Emma. But make no mistake, this is no marriage plot; it is a spinster plot. Or maybe, it is the spinster’s plot.
Henrietta Bates, the iconic bore of Emma, is the opposite of handsome, clever, and rich Emma: she is plain, ill-educated, and impoverished. An unmarried woman of quite a different order from that novel’s proudly single heroine, she is an object of scorn and pity, whose survival depends upon the generosity of her neighbors which she barters for with an unrelenting shower of banal and grateful chatter.
But what if the woman we see in Emma were actually deliberately assuming a role, donning a mask, as a means of managing an untenable situation? What if there was a world of difference between her inward and outward voice? What would the Woodhouses’s Highbury look like from herperspective?
Miss Bates by Catherine Cliff imagines answers to these questions as it chronicles Henrietta Bates’s unexpected and, at times, violent life, navigating a world with no ready-made opportunities, where the stakes are of the highest order. In a debut that is by turns comedic, tragic, startling, and altogether brilliant, Miss Bates turns Austen’s poignant and ridiculous side character into a feminist force who understands innately the life she has been dealt and how to slyly play it to her advantage.
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MY REVIEW:
Jane Austen’s Emma is a story we all know well. But how well do we really know that world and those characters? That is the starting point for Catherine Cliff’s debut, Miss Bates, which reimagines the world from the perspective of the iconic bore, Henrietta Bates. And unlike most books about that era, this isn’t a book about marriage but a book about spinsterhood, where the life of its heroine takes centre stage rather than a wedding.
Emotional, moving, witty and bold, this is a love letter to Jane Austen’s Emma. Catherine’s affection for the story is evident on every page and I finished this book wanting to reread the original. Well written, acutely observed and detailed, Catherine perfectly captures the atmosphere and dialogue of the era, transporting us back to Regency England in evocative detail. I could hear the gossip, see the luxurious gowns at the balls and feel the weight of people’s judgement.
I will confess, it has been a long time since I read Emma and I don’t remember a lot about Henrietta Bates. But I feel like I know her intimately after reading this book. Catherine has rescued her from the sidelines and given Henri a voice that demands to be heard. Plain, uneducated and impoverished, Henrie has spent her life invisible, overlooked and mocked. But from her scathing inner monologues we learn she is a strong, feisty and intelligent feminist who boils with an inner rage and knows how to play the cards she’s been dealt. And that endless chatter that makes her the object of Emma’s ridicule? We learn that this is her armor, a way for her to survive in a world that has no place for her. She isn’t always likeable but my heart broke for all she went through and I admired her resilience and how she learned to play the cards she was dealt. And I had a real soft spot for young Henri; a little girl struggling to make sense of the world who discovers that she can have contrasting inner and outer worlds, which is where a lot of the story’s humour is found. How I wished I could leap into the book and hug that little girl.
In Austen’s books we’ve come to expect a pretty, light and breezy world, but the one Cliff has created is dark, dangerous and achingly human. There is sexism, sexual assault, poverty, death, female rage and crippling societal expectations. Henri’s rage feels so relatable and I was cheering her on in many of the darker moments as she took back some of the autonomy she had been denied. And then there is Henri’s hatred of Emma Woodhouse, the spoiled, self-centred and obnoxious titular character from the original classic. I understood why Henri loathed her and couldn’t have stood being around her myself.
Rating: ✮✮✮✮✰
Thank you to Pegasus Books for sending me a copy of the book in exchange for my honest review.
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Catherine Cliff grew up in New York City. She has a BA in Classics and English from Harvard and a doctorate in English literature from Yale, specializing in English Renaissance poetry. She lived in London and Basel for many years and is now settled in western Massachusetts. This is her first novel.
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Thanks for reading, Bibliophiles xxxx
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