Are there any modern authors whose writing is comparable to Jane Austen, L.M. Montgomery, etc.?
Though I would say there is no author quite like Jane Austen (Pride and Prejudice is my all-time favorite novel), I would echo Georgette Heyer and I’ve heard that Joan Aiken is good. There are many authors who have tried to continue the Jane Austen’s stories (in one way or another); some successfully, some not. Stephanie Barron, on the other hand, has chosen to write mystery novels that are done as though from Jane Austen’s own diary. I love these novels, because you can actually “hear” the words as though they are coming from Jane Austen herself. She doesn’t try to change the manners and civility of that period of time to reflect modern times; she’s true to the period and the woman. The mysteries, themselves, are enjoyable. The first one is Jane and the Unpleasantness at Scargrave Manor. I highly recommend this series. There is a novel called Later Days in Highbury by Joan Austen-Leigh (one of Jane Austen’s family’s descendants). This book continues the story of Emma, but from Mrs. Go
