Category Archives: Re-Interpretation

July 14, 2017 · 5:45 am

First Impressions – Charlie Lovett

First Impressions – Charlie Lovett

I felt a bit of trepidation about reading this one – I have been burned before (sometimes I even wonder if we are reading the same novels to start with!), however, this one is a pleasant surprise.

Here is the blurb …

A thrilling literary mystery co-starring Jane Austen from the New York Times bestselling author of The Bookman’s Tale.

Charlie Lovett first delighted readers with his New York Times bestselling debut, The Bookman’s Tale. Now, Lovett weaves another brilliantly imagined mystery featuring one of English literature’s most popular and beloved authors: Jane Austen.

Book lover and Austen enthusiast Sophie Collingwood has recently taken a job at an antiquarian bookshop in London when two different customers request a copy of the same obscure book: the second edition of Little Book of Allegories by Richard Mansfield.  Their queries draw Sophie into a mystery that will cast doubt on the true authorship of Pride and Prejudice—and ultimately threaten Sophie’s life.

In a dual narrative that alternates between Sophie’s quest to uncover the truth—while choosing between two suitors—and a young Jane Austen’s touching friendship with the aging cleric Richard Mansfield, Lovett weaves a romantic, suspenseful, and utterly compelling novel about love in all its forms and the joys of a life lived in books.

It is written in two different times – modern day and 1796 – one with Austen as the heroine and one with Sophie. It is a mystery (who is Richard Mansfield? and who can Sophie trust?), romance and historical fiction all rolled into one. It has a very interesting premise, which I won’t spoil for you, that I found to be plausible. The writing was lovely and swapped easily between the two time periods. My main issues were with plot – the villain was a tad too obvious and Jane Austen attended a funeral (women didn’t attend funerals in her day – pedantic I know).

It is an enjoyable to read and makes me want to read Pride and Prejudice again (not to mention Agatha Christie and several other novels mentioned in the text). It is a book for book lovers as well as Austen fans and would make a great movie.

More reviews

First Impressions: A Novel of Old Books, Unexpected Love, and Jane Austen, by Charlie Lovett – A Review

https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/books/book-review-first-impressions-by-charlie-lovett/2014/12/02/9e32ef4c-7038-11e4-8808-afaa1e3a33ef_story.html?utm_term=.f05f2da7025f

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March 29, 2014 · 1:47 am

Austenland

Austenland

Austenland

I was really keen to see this movie based on Shannon Hale’s novel, but it wasn’t played in any cinemas near me. I bought it as soon as it was released on DVD. It has had some poor reviews, but I thought it was hilarious. An over-the-top romp through most of the conventions that make up Austen adaptations. The actors appeared to be having a ball over-playing their parts – I suspect the critics were expecting something more literary.

In case you don’t know the plot …

Jane Hayes is a seemingly normal young New Yorker, but she has a secret. Her obsession with Mr. Darcy, as played by Colin Firth in the BBC adaptation of Pride and Prejudice, is ruining her love life: no real man can compare. But when a wealthy relative bequeaths her a trip to an English resort catering to Austen-crazed women, Jane’s fantasies of meeting the perfect Regency-era gentleman suddenly become realer than she ever could have imagined.

Decked out in empire-waist gowns, Jane struggles to master Regency etiquette and flirts with gardeners and gentlemen;or maybe even, she suspects, with the actors who are playing them. It’s all a game, Jane knows. And yet the longer she stays, the more her insecurities seem to fall away, and the more she wonders: Is she about to kick the Austen obsession for good, or could all her dreams actually culminate in a Mr. Darcy of her own?

Austenland_02

Jane’s Bedroom – A life Sized Mr Darcy

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Arriving at the Manor House

Jane could only afford the Copper package (rather than the Platinum package) and hence no seat inside the carriage for her. Doesn’t Jane sit in this spot in Joe Wright’s Pride and Prejudice adaptation?

Our first glimpse of the Mr Darcy character (played by JJ Feild)

Our first glimpse of the Mr Darcy character (played by JJ Feild)

Sneaking off and meeting the help.

Sneaking off and meeting the help.

Learning how to shoot a rifle (with the help again)

Learning how to shoot a rifle (with the help again)

Being rescued by Mr Nobley -after her horse wouldn't go.

Being rescued by Mr Nobley -after her horse wouldn’t go.

The aim was to immerse your self in regency life.

Accomplishments - singing, playing the piano and embroidery

Accomplishments – singing, playing the piano and embroidery

Reading

Reading

Having a picnic in the grounds

Having a picnic in the grounds

Jane would often sneak off and meet Martin (the stable boy).Austenland_09

Wandering the grounds.

Bit of a moment in the dark with Mr Nobley

Bit of a moment in the dark with Mr Nobley

Jane decides to be a true Austen heroine and take charge.

Here she is in charge - and with better clothes (she stole one of the other ladies clothes)

Here she is in charge – and with better clothes (she stole one of the other ladies clothes)

They put on a play to entertain themselves before the ball.

 

Rehearsing - perhaps Mr Nobley is not so bad?

Rehearsing – perhaps Mr Nobley is not so bad?

The play

The play

The night we have been waiting for the Ball!

The Ball

The Ball

Escaping to 'something real'

Escaping to ‘something real’

Returning to the real world – disillusionment.

Was Martin a cad after all?

Was Martin a cad after all?

Removing Austen from her house

Removing Austen from her house

Spoiler Alert!

 

 

 

 

 

Happy Ending!

Austenland_20

Austenland_21

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January 4, 2014 · 10:45 pm

Longbourn – Jo Baker

Longbourn - Jo Baker

Longbourn – Jo Baker

I thought I should read this book as it has been much discussed – and I do like Pride and Prejudice. This novel is written from the servants point of view.

Here is the blurb …

Pride and Prejudice was only half the story •
 
If Elizabeth Bennet had the washing of her own petticoats, Sarah often thought, she’d most likely be a sight more careful with them.
 
In this irresistibly imagined below stairs answer to Pride and Prejudice,the servants take center stage. Sarah, the orphaned housemaid, spends her days scrubbing the laundry, polishing the floors, and emptying the chamber pots for the Bennet household. But there is just as much romance, heartbreak, and intrigue downstairs at Longbourn as there is upstairs. When a mysterious new footman arrives, the orderly realm of the servants’ hall threatens to be completely, perhaps irrevocably, upended.

Jo Baker dares to take us beyond the drawing rooms of Jane Austen’s classic—into the often overlooked domain of the stern housekeeper and the starry-eyed kitchen maid, into the gritty daily particulars faced by the lower classes in Regency England during the Napoleonic Wars—and, in doing so, creates a vivid, fascinating, fully realized world that is wholly her own.

First, I thought there weren’t enough servants. Only three and then a fourth when the ‘mysterious footman’ arrives. They seem to be very poorly dressed as well – I am sure there would have been some kind of uniform? What is clear is how much work is involved in keeping house prior to the industrial revolution; emptying chamber pots, fetching water, heating water, lighting fires, cooking, cleaning, washing clothes, ironing clothes. etc.

This is a very political novel – Ptolemy Bingley is dark skinned and comes from the Bingley’s sugar plantation (we suspect he is Mr Bingley Senior’s natural child), Sarah’s (the housemaid) parents died when she was a child and she was rescued from the workhouse by Mrs Hill and we read about how the army treats its more humble soldiers.

I am not the target audience for this novel – not being into gritty realism – I would have preferred a jollier downstairs (and certainly a better dressed and cleaner one) and a bit more interaction with the upstairs. I appreciate that servants lives in this time could be dreadful – full of drudgery, dirt, neglect and despair, but I prefer my reading to be lighter and brighter.

More reviews …

http://austenprose.com/2013/10/16/longbourn-a-novel-by-jo-baker-a-review/

http://austenblog.com/2013/11/03/review-longbourn-by-jo-baker/

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/13/books/review/longbourn-by-jo-baker.html?_r=0

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July 22, 2012 · 9:34 pm

Mary Bennet – Jennifer Paynter

I found this novel at the airport – heading home from a girls weekend away – and had to buy it despite my plan of only buying digital books from now on.

Here is the blurb …

 ‘No two views of a ball will be exactly alike. So many separate little worlds make up the whole (most of them whirling mindlessly about), and my own view of that Meryton assembly cannot help but be different from that of my sisters. For the first part of the evening, I was a mere onlooker—unmoving and unmoved. Nobody turned my head with compliments. Nobody asked me to dance.’

What if Pride and Prejudice were to be retold from the viewpoint of Elizabeth Bennet’s younger sister, Mary, the ‘odd one out’ of the Bennet family?

This is what playwright, author, and Jane Austen Society of Australia member, Jennifer Paynter, asked herself before writing Mary Bennet – the plot of which eventually transports the heroine all the way from Hertfordshire to Macquarie’s New South Wales.

The familiar and much-loved characters of Pride and Prejudice appear in Mary Bennet – though they may be a little altered when seen through Mary’s eyes. From her post in the wings of the Bennet family, Mary is well-placed to observe Mr Fitzwilliam Darcy, for instance, but while she is able to view him quite dispassionately (and as it turns out, accurately) Mary may not be quite so clear-sighted when she finally falls in love herself.

Mary Bennet is the story of a young girl, desperate for attention and approval, who at last learns to question her family’s values and to overcome her own brand of ‘pride and prejudice’.

The novel covers time before, during and after the action of Pride and Prejudice. The way this novel fits in with Pride and Prejudice is very clever – Ms Paynter even manages to make Mary sympathetic. All those pompous statements, like …

 “Unhappy as the event must be for Lydia, we may draw from it this useful lesson: that loss of virtue in a female is irretrievable; that one false step involves her in endless ruin; that her reputation is no less brittle than it is beautiful; and that she cannot be too much guarded in her behaviour towards the undeserving of the other sex.”

don’t seem so silly when you have Mary’s point of view. Some of the minor characters from Pride and Prejudice are fleshed out – Mrs Long’s nieces for instance – and extra characters added.  Although the style isn’t the same as Austen’s, it is well written and didn’t have any of those anachronistic moments, which remind you that you are reading a modern regency novel. This novel is different form the current spate of re-interpretations, re-tellings etc, in that it is more than just a romance – there is romance, but there is social commentary as well.

Other reviews …

http://readinginthebath.wordpress.com/2012/05/12/mary-bennet-jennifer-paynter/

http://thebennetsisters.wordpress.com/2012/05/20/book-review-and-qa-mary-bennet-by-jennifer-paynter/

 

 

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July 9, 2012 · 6:11 am

From Prada to Nada

From Prada to Nada

From Prada to Nada

 

This was in the discount bin at JBHIFI and I definitely thought it was worth buying.

It is a modern retelling of Sense and Sensibility. This is from Wikipedia …

From Prada to Nada is an American romantic comedy film directed by Angel Garcia and produced by Gary Gilbert, Linda McDonough, Gigi Pritzker and Chris Ranta. The plot was conceived from Jane Austen’s Sense and Sensibility.[2] The screen play was adapted by Luis Alfaro, Craig Fernandez and Fina Torres to be a Latino version of the English novel, where two spoiled sisters who have been left penniless after their father’s sudden death are forced to move in with their estranged aunt in East Los Angeles.

 I enjoyed it – it is light and entertaining (focussing on the romantic aspects of Austen). I didn’t find the romance between Edward and Nora (the Elinor character) to be very convincing – she had a ten year plan and was focused on her career because she felt (after both her parents had died) that was all she could count on and so rejected Edward’s advances (the Lucy character comes later).  The Mary (Marianne character) was probably handled a bit better – although Mary herself is an idle snob. The setting worked well – Beverley Hills to East LA is as big a shift as Norland to Barton Cottage.

It is probably not as good as Clueless (a modern retelling of Emma), but worth watching if you come across it while renting a DVD of perusing the TV Guide (i.e. don’t buy it).

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November 2, 2011 · 4:31 am

Vanity and Vexation – Kate Fenton

Years ago I read a novel by Fenton called Lions and Liquorice and loved it. So I snapped this one up when I saw it in the Borders closing down sale. Be warned: it’s the same novel renamed for the US market. Not to worry, I didn’t own a copy and I enjoyed reading this again.

Here’s the blurb …

A clever and cunning modern day retelling of the adored Jane Austen novel

“Tall, dark, and arrogantly handsome—not to mention distinguished, powerful, and rolling in money. Mr. Darcy? No, that’s just the woman director of Pride and Prejudice,” reports Nicholas Llewellyn Bevan, impoverished novelist and occasional (reluctant) journalist, when a TV production company trundles into his sleepy North Yorkshire valley. Amusedly he watches these glamorous invaders combine the filming of Jane Austen’s romantic classic with the much less modest pursuit, off-camera, of real-life romances with the locals.

Under his very nose, his bashful handsome neighbor John is plucked out of a village dance by the famously gorgeous (and wealthy) leading actress, Candia Bingham, with whom he at once falls completely in love. Our would-be hero manages only to trip over the black-booted foot of the intimidating and imperious director, Mary Dance. So he’s amazed—and a little bit alarmed—when her steely eye seems to be straying his way.

A witty and entertaining update on Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice, Austen fans old and new will adore Vanity and Vexation’s modern take on her sublime blueprint of the romance game complete with sex, money, and power. With an assured and respectful hand, in the context of the contemporary world, Kate Fenton has penned a riveting story with a hilarious twist.

After all, it is a truth universally acknowledged that Hollywood taking an interest—better still an option—in a novelist’s work is a surefire way to propel that novelist into serious sales figures and the bestseller lists.

If you are a Pride and Prejudice  fan, then you will enjoy this modern, gender swapping version. Mr Darcy is Mary Hamilton (or Mary Dance) a successful film director and Elizabeth Bennet is Llew Bevan an aspiring novelist. This novel contains another novel where Llew (or Nick as he is known in real life) is writing a modern gender swapping version of Pride and Prejudice – confused yet? It will make sense when you read it. All of the major events of Pride and Prejudice are replicated, for example, the Lydia character (Nick’s son Chris) is rescued from Bangkok by Mary Hamilton (and her father’s private jet).

It is cleverly done and a light, entertaining read.

The story is a bit dated – quite a bit of time is spent using pay phones, finding pay phones and running out of coins for pay phones! It is a shame it didn’t get updated for it’s re-release, although whole climax might not work if everyone had a mobile phone.

This is one of my favourite Pride and Prejudice re-workings.

More reviews …

There is a whole page of reviews at Pemberley.com

 http://janicu.wordpress.com/2009/11/29/vanity-and-vexation-a-novel-of-pride-and-prejudice-by-kate-fenton/

 

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October 24, 2011 · 2:02 am

A Weekend With Mr Darcy – Victoria Connelly

My local Angus and Robertsons has gone out of business, but the space now has one of those $5 book shops, which was where I found this novel. How could I not buy it?

Here’s the blurb …

Full of characters obsessed with Jane Austen and set in Jane Austen locations in England, this lively modern Jane Austen romantic comedy trilogy features two pairs of lonely hearts who find each other and themselves at a Jane Austen Addicts weekend.

Dr. Katherine Roberts is a Jane Austen lecturer at St Bridget’s College, Oxford, who secretly loves the racy Regency novels of Lorna Warwick. But Lorna is really a man who’s slowly been falling in love with Katherine. He’s hoping that the Jane Austen Addicts weekend will be the perfect opportunity to declare his feelings..

This was a light, entertaining and fun novel that didn’t take it self too seriously. I read it on a weekend and thoroughly enjoyed myself – it is escapist fiction, but the writing is good (and Ms Connelly didn’t try to replicate Austen’s style) and the author is obviously familiar with Austen’s novels.

This novel is a good romantic comedy (which is quite rare these days) and I have no hesitation in recommending it to fans of the romantic comedy genre (You don’t even need to be an Austen fan to enjoy this one).

More reviews …

http://austenprose.com/2011/07/06/a-weekend-with-mr-darcy-by-victoria-connelly-–-a-review/ 

http://savvyverseandwit.com/2011/07/a-weekend-with-mr-darcy-by-victoria-connelly.html

http://fansofjane.wordpress.com/2011/10/19/a-weekend-with-mr-darcy-by-victoria-connelly/ 

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July 19, 2011 · 5:48 am

A Modern Day Persuasion – Kaitlin Saunders

I’m not sure what happened to April, May and June – a nit of a gap in the Jane Austen reviews!

I think Austen fans read Austen related texts for different reasons. Some read it for the romance, others for the period detail and others (myself included) for the wit and beautiful prose. I admire anyone trying to emulate Austen. The fans are a tricky group quick to criticize and slow to praise.

Ms Saunders has re-worked Persuasion in a modern Californian setting. Here is the blurb …

Nearly eight years ago, Anne’s family, specifically her father, convinced her that she was too young to wed and insinuated that her fiancé Rick was solely interested in her wealth and status. Against her better judgment, Anne agreed to postpone the marriage, only to watch the love of her life walk away, never to be heard from again. Almost a decade later, still single and no longer wealthy, Anne struggles to make a name for herself designing greeting cards. Unable to move on with her life, she finds herself still emotionally bound to the man who disappeared the moment things didn’t go his way. Through a series of serendipitous events, however, Anne is reunited with her old love—just as a new beau enters the scene. Only time will tell if her heart can finally be set free to love again, or if Rick’s initial betrayal will leave her single…forever.

The plot follows Persuasion closely although with a modern twist. For example, Rick Wentworth is a successful novelist. The re-invention of some classic Austen scenes was very well-handled. In particular, the scene where Lady Dalrymple’s carriage collects Miss Eliott and Mrs Clay, but there is no room for Anne, because it is raining is replaced with Elizabeth’s car breaking down and Missy Dee arriving just in time to save Elizabeth and Susan.

If you love Austen for the romance, then this is the novel for you.

Here is the author’s website which has links to other reviews.

 

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June 29, 2010 · 4:48 am

The Three Weissmanns of Westport – Cathleen Schine

 

This novel is based on Sense and Sensibility. I have been disappointed in the past with sequels, prequels, etc, but being eternally hopeful (or just wanting more Austen) I’m always prepared to try another one.

Here’s a synopsis

Jane Austen’s beloved Sense and Sensibilityhas moved to Westport, Connecticut, in this enchanting modern-day homage to the classic novelWhen Joseph Weissmann divorced his wife, he was seventy eight years old and she was seventy-five . . . He said the words “Irreconcilable differences,” and saw real confusion in his wife’s eyes.“Irreconcilable differences?” she said. “Of course there are irreconcilable differences. What on earth does that have to do with divorce?”Thus begins The Three Weissmanns of Westport, a sparkling contemporary adaptation of Sense and Sensibility from the always winning Cathleen Schine, who has already been crowned “a modern-day Jewish Jane Austen” by People’s Leah Rozen.In Schine’s story, sisters Miranda, an impulsive but successful literary agent, and Annie, a pragmatic library director, quite unexpectedly find themselves the middle-aged products of a broken home. Dumped by her husband of nearly fifty years and then exiled from their elegant New York apartment by his mistress, Betty is forced to move to a small, run-down Westport, Connecticut, beach cottage. Joining her are Miranda and Annie, who dutifully comes along to keep an eye on her capricious mother and sister. As the sisters mingle with the suburban aristocracy, love starts to blossom for both of them, and they find themselves struggling with the dueling demands of reason and romance.

I enjoyed reading this novel. The author didn’t try to emulate Austen’s style but took the situation (mother and two sisters in reduced circumstances) and made a whole new (modern) story from it.

It is one of the better re-interpretations that I have read.

Here are some reviews …

http://janeaustensworld.wordpress.com/2010/05/19/the-three-weissmanns-of-westport-by-cathleen-schine-a-review/

http://mrsodellreads.com/2010/06/23/the-three-weissmanns-of-westport-by-cathleen-schine-review/

http://austenblog.com/2010/06/07/review-the-three-weissmanns-of-westport-by-cathleen-schine/

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April 28, 2010 · 5:03 am

Lost in Austen – Episode 2

In the second episode Amanda tells Mr Bingley she is a lesbian (to avoid his advances). She entertains Mr Darcy, Mr Bingley and Miss Bingley with a rendition of Downtown – unfortunately this is edited from the DVD – you can find it at Youtube.

Returning to Netherfield they encounter Wickham when their carriage breaks down and he comes to their rescue. Mr Collins visits Longbourn, Amanda tells Miss Bingley that she has ‘£27 000’ a year, she becomes engaged to Mr Collins (to stop Jane from marrying him), Mr Wickham tells everyone she is the daughter of a fishmonger, Mr Collins breaks of the engagement, she ‘assaults’ him and Jane marries Mr Collins. It is all going horribly wrong.

Some great moments …

Amanda telling Mr Bingley she is a lesbian

Mr Bingley: I am drawn to you! I am a man.

Amanda: And I am a woman! And I am drawn … to other women.

Mr Bingley: You mean there really are ladies who… steer the punt from the Cambridge end?

After Amanda sings Downtown

Mr Bingley: Brava, Miss Price! And whenever life is gettin’ me down, I shall be sure to go ‘downtown’. Eh, Darcy?

Mr Darcy: With alacrity

I think it’s extremely clever the way the plot is spiraling out of control.

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