The Reader's Shelf: No Persuasion Necessary: Jane Austen's Eternal Appeal, September 15, 2010
Sep 15, 2010As any publisher or filmmaker can attest, Jane Austen is a hot literary commodity. Every week seems to bring a new continuation, reimagining, mashup, or modernization of her novels. There is more than one book where Mr. Darcy turns out to be a vampire, to say nothing of the zombies and ninjas dashing about the countryside. What is it about Austen that has started this trend? Is it her vivid characters, clever prose, or the passionately restrained romances? Or was it Colin Firth’s wet shirt? Whatever the reason, books inspired by Austen are a publishing phenomena that can’t be ignored.
Often compared to Austen’s works, Georgette Heyer’s witty, lighthearted Regency romances paint a vivid picture of Austen’s time period and launched a popular genre. You can’t go wrong starting with Frederica (Sourcebooks. 2009. ISBN 9781402214769. pap. $13.95). The titular protagonist is a sensible girl who takes her young siblings to London to make a good match for her beautiful sister Charis. She asks the Marquis of Alverstoke, a very distant cousin and confirmed cynic, to help introduce the family into society. This is a charming love story featuring an engaging and lovable heroine.
Stephanie Barron’s “Jane Austen Mystery” series stars the author as a sleuth, ably solving a string of baffling crimes. In her first outing, Jane and the Unpleasantness at Scargrave Manor (Bantam. 2008. ISBN 9780553385618. pap. $14), Jane visits her recently married friend Isobel, whose husband dies suddenly and mysteriously. In order to save her friend, Jane must find the murderer among a large cast of characters in this stylish and witty comedy of manners.
In Austenland (Bloomsbury, dist. by Macmillan. 2008. ISBN 9781596912861. pap. $12.99) by Shannon Hale, Jane Hayes’s obsession with the fictional Mr. Darcy has more than likely jeopardized each of her past relationships. When she inherits an Austen-themed vacation to Pembrook Park, Jane has a chance to live out her fantasy and hopefully get Mr. Darcy out of her system. With a cranky Regency gentleman (an actor) and a handsome gardener (background staff member) vying for her attention, our heroine has her work cut out for her. This humorous novel with a cast of well-drawn characters will charm fans who wish to relive their favorite books.
Many authors have transplanted Austen’s novels to the present day. In Helen Fielding’s Bridget Jones’s Diary (Penguin. 2010. ISBN 9780143117131. pap. $15), based on Pride and Prejudice, Bridget is a modern London “singleton” in her thirties who is looking for love with the aid of self-help books and her friends. She is initially attracted to her charming scoundrel of a boss, Daniel Cleaver, but the shy barrister Mark Darcy also attempts to win her heart. Bridget is an everywoman, and her diary of her misadventures and observations about life is both hilarious and touching. Don’t miss the sequel, Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason, for a chance to see elements of Persuasion play out in 1990s London.
Like Fielding, Paula Marantz Cohen also reinterprets Pride and Prejudice and follows it up with a modern Persuasion. Her Jane Austen in Boca (Griffin: St. Martin’s. 2003. ISBN 9780312319755. pap. $14.99) is set in a Boca Raton, FL, retirement community, with a retired librarian in her seventies as Elizabeth Bennet. Cohen’s clever and amusing romp compares the rituals and social structure of the Boca lifestyle with life in an English country village. The follow-up, Jane Austen in Scarsdale; or, Love, Death and the SATs, features high school guidance counselor Anne Ehrlich reuniting with an old flame in the midst of college admission season.
In Cathleen Schine’s The Three Weissmanns of Westport (Farrar. 2010. ISBN 9780374299040. $25), two sisters, one sensible, the other overemotional, and their impractical mother start life over in a small cottage. Sound familiar? Schine’s playful novel explores how Sense and Sensibility might play out in a rundown Connecticut beach cottage. When Annie and Miranda’s father divorces their mother in favor of his scheming girlfriend and kicks his ex-wife out of their Manhattan apartment, the girls move in with their mom in a show of solidarity. The three work together to solve their financial difficulties and find love.
In his clever satirical homage, Jane Bites Back (Ballantine. 2009. ISBN 9780345513656. pap. $14), Michael Thomas Ford sends up both Austenmania and the vampire craze. Turned into a vampire in the 19th century, Jane today owns a small bookshop in upstate New York. She watches other people capitalize on her name while she attempts unsuccessfully to sell her unpublished manuscript. Complications include her fellow vampire Lord Byron and confrontations with Brontë fanatics.
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| This column was contributed by Jessica Jerrit, an MLS student at the University of Washington, Seattle |
