Pride, Prejudice, and Peril by Katie Oliver

 

Reviewed by Jeanne

Jane Austen fan Phaedra Brighton took the adage “Find what you love and then make a living with it” to heart and became an English professor so she could spend her time teaching her idol’s books to college students.  She even dresses the part, wearing period costumes so that her students can get an idea of what life was really like. She’s either a dedicated teacher or an eccentric who uses gimmicks to hold her students’ attention, depending on whom you ask.  At the moment she has her plate rather full, what with new professor Mark Selden to show around (an Oxford Shakespearean scholar, who gives every indication of being privileged and entitled) and serving as consultant on a new reality TV show, “Who Wants to Marry Mr. Darcy?” It’s basically “The Bachelor” in period costume with a Hollywood hunk as Mr. Darcy.  The show is being filmed at the stately home of Phaedra’s newly married friend Charlene Lucas, which is a story in itself. Until the last few months, the house belonged to the Fortune family, but with the death of Mr. Fortune, the house and all his worldly wealth went to a nephew—specifically, Charlene’s husband—and Mrs. Fortune and her four daughters found themselves out in the cold.  Well, living in a guest cottage, but to them that’s pretty much the same thing.

(If some of this is beginning to sound suspiciously like plot aspects borrowed from a Jane Austen novel, you’re not wrong.)

Ahem.  Not long after Jane—er, Phaedra—arrives, so does Bill Collier, Charlene’s husband, CEO of Longbourn Pharmaceutical, and heir to the Fortune fortune. He is not a nice man.  He berates his wife, makes a huge scene, and tosses out accusations.

At least then he has the good manners to get himself killed.

With her friend Charlene as chief suspect, Jane—I mean, Phaedra—sets out to prove her friend’s innocence, save the English Department, and deal with that infuriating Mark Selden, despite some prejudice against him.

With a cover model who bears more than a passing resemblance to Kiera Knightly, I found this homage to Austen to be a lot of fun. It could be read simply for the cozy mystery, but the real delight for me was recognizing characters’ names and winks at the books.  For example, William Collier makes a good stand-in for Mr. Collins, the clergyman who marries Charlotte Lucas; to sweeten the pot, references are made to Collier’s past as a shady evangelist. References such as these abound, and more than once I was mentally kicking myself for not picking up on one sooner. 

As for the rest of it, the plot is solid enough. There’s a cat, Wickham, who is handsome but not rather aloof and standoffish.  (I did not care for the catty comment that felines are not lovable but given that Wickham does play an important role, I shall be magnanimous and try to overlook it.) I loved the literary references, from sly references from characters to quotations from Shakespeare.

I’ll certainly be on the lookout for the next in the series, A Murderous Persuasion.

Sanditon by Jane Austen and Another Lady

Reviewed by Jeanne

With the recent PBS airing of ”Sanditon” and a Book Bingo square I needed to fill, I decided to give Sanditon a try.  I had some trepidation about starting it because I knew that Miss Austen had written only 11 chapters before her death. In these chapters, she sets up the story.  A gentleman and his wife, Mr. and Mrs. Parker, have an unfortunate carriage accident near the village of Willingden, leaving him with an injured leg and a disabled carriage.  They are taken in by the hospitable Mr. Heywood whose wife and daughters show them every courtesy and care.  Charmed, the Parkers insist on taking one of the Heywood daughters, Charlotte, to stay with them at their new beach side resort, Sanditon.  Mr. Parker has high hopes that Sanditon will become a fashionable holiday spot and he will recoup his investment.

Once at Sanditon, Charlotte is introduced to some of the other inhabitants, including Lady Denham and her companion, Clara Brereton; Sir Edward Denham and his sister; and of course, other members of the Parker family, which includes two other brothers, Sidney and Arthur, and two sisters, Diana and Susan. The latter three are held to have very delicate constitutions, while Sidney seems to spend most of his time away on business and—presumably—drumming up interest in Sanditon.  The town is about to receive visitors, including an heiress from the West Indies, Miss Lambe, who is "half mulatto."

Readers of Austen will recognize the excellent mix of eligible young men and ladies available; but alas, we will never know what matches would have been made.  For me, there is also a different feel to Austen's fragment, as the Parkers could be said to be entrepreneurs. While money is important all throughout Austen's work, mostly it is inherited or earned through landowning or else the military. To be "in trade" is not considered quite respectable.  I would very much like to have known how Austen viewed this trend; most agree that the book was influenced by an 1805 visit to Worthing, which was a seaside town being turned into a vacation destination much as is Sanditon in the book. 

 The “Another Lady” co-author was Marie Dobbs, who was born in Australia in 1925 before moving to England. She worked as a journalist and wrote novels under several pseudonyms.  Her continuation of Sanditon earned a great deal of praise when it appeared in 1975.

I did enjoy the book, though I admit more than once I wondered if this or that is what Miss Austen would have intended. I do think that Sidney would have been the love interest for Charlotte, though he had barely appeared at the end of the original manuscript.  Dobbs did seem to capture some of the feeling of an Austen story, more so than have many more modern authors who have taken it upon themselves to continue Pride and Prejudice or Sense and Sensibility. 

More perplexing in some ways was watching the TV adaptation while reading the book. The series has some elements of Dobbs’ continuation (I am not suggesting plagiarism!)  but diverges in other significant areas.  It also omits one character all together, changes some relationships, and creates new characters. The ending caused some controversy but I also enjoyed it, though I admit there were some elements I found a bit modern.  (No spoilers!)

I think it is indeed a testament to Jane Austen that her work, even incomplete, can still command such attention.  My advice is to read (or watch or both!) it for yourself and decide how you think the story would play out.

The Jane Austen Project by Kathleen A. Flynn

Reviewed by Jeanne

When Dr. William Ravenswood and his sister Mary arrive in London in 1815, they are all but friendless.  They are newly arrived in England, being the children of wealthy planters who, abhorring the slave trade, freed their workers and sold their plantation. Their charming manners and wealth soon attract interest, and their letter of introduction allows them to meet others of similar station.  They are looking for someone in particular, however;  Henry Austen, a gentleman who has a sister with a secret.  She’s an author.

The Ravenswoods have secrets as well.  They are not brother and sister, those are not their real names, and they have come from a great deal farther than Jamaica.

They are time travelers, sent back to try to obtain by hook or by crook a copy of a never published Jane Austen novel.

Let me say at the start that I can be a bit squeamish about light fiction using actual historical characters.  I tend to second guess a lot, wondering whether or not Ben Franklin or Edgar Allan Poe or Jane Austen would really have behaved in the manner depicted.  The reviews on this book were good, so I decided to chance it.

It is well-written and quite well thought out.  I don’t know if author Kathleen A. Flynn has ever read Connie Willis, but some elements reminded me of her marvelous Oxford Time Travel series:  the travelers’ base institute is in Oxford, for example, and the elaborate contingency plans are made.  There is some description of the rigorous training involved when time traveling back to 1815: learning to ride a horse, getting properly dressed in the garments of the time, and the crucial ability to blend in with the population.  

Characterization was well done, and the reader gets a good feel for the time period.  The story is told from the point of view of Dr. Rachel Katzman, aka Mary Ravenswood, a medical doctor who has provided humanitarian aid in various countries under difficult circumstances.  She is adept at hiding her horror at some of the living conditions—handwashing, for example, isn’t nearly as prevalent as in modern times—but occasionally chaffs at the restraints she must endure as a woman in a time when women had limited influence.  

I enjoyed The Jane Austen Project.  The author had done her research, and still managed to pull out a few surprises.  The result is a very satisfying novel.

Nevermore: Eleanor Oliphant, Lost City, Shadow Man, Lost City of the Monkey God, Inferno

To start, Nevermore dived into Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine, a debut novel by Gail Honeyman.  Eleanor Oliphant is not your average heroine.  Serious, socially awkward, and painfully odd, Eleanor tries to avoid any kind of social interaction or hiccup that might disturb her carefully orchestrated life.  That is, until she meets Raymond, the IT guy from her office, and subsequently saves Sammy, an elderly gentleman who took a spill on the sidewalk.  Now, Eleanor has to wonder if her isolated life has been worth it—and if opening her heart to someone else might be a risk worth taking.  Our reader called Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine an intensely emotional and incredibly moving novel.  “[I found it] so beautiful how her friendships help her survive” the worst parts of her life, she said.  She highly recommended Honeyman’s debut, saying it was well worth reading.

Next, Nevermore checked out The Lost City of the Monkey God by Douglas Preston.  In 2012, Doug Preston joined a team of scientists on a quest to rediscover this incredible, lost city.  Called the “White City” by the conquistadors and legendary among indigenous people, the Lost City of the Monkey God held an undiscovered trove of treasures and history.  Using LIDAR to help them chart a course, Preston and the rest of the team set off into the Honduran rain forest.  They were astonished by the discoveries they made and the dangers they faced—and brought home.  Our reader loved The Lost City of the Monkey God.  She said it offered an astonishing depth of knowledge on the history of the region, as well as detailed some of the more extreme dangers the scientific team faced.  It was truthful of the hardships and it shed light on the various plights, pitfalls, and problems with which archaeologists deal.

In Shadow Man, Detective Ben Wade has returned to Rancho Santa Elena in search of a quieter life.  Filled with peaceful streets, quaint communities, and excellent schools, Rancho Santa Elena is the perfect place for Ben to take a break and rebuild his crumbling marriage—until a daring serial killer arrives on the scene.  Now, Ben and forensic specialist Natasha Betencourt must stay one step ahead of a killer, before he chooses his next victim.  Thrilling and thought provoking, Shadow Man is a fascinating detective story on how personal secrets can quickly wreak havoc and destroy lives.  Our reader gave high praise for Alan Drew’s novel, saying he enjoyed it immensely; however, he also noted he’s ready for a change of pace:  “[I’ve come] to realize…I’ve read too many mystery books in a row.”  He’s ready for his next book to be of a scientific variety.

Nevermore jumped back in time with Jane Austen’s classic, Persuasion.  Published in 1818, Persuasion tells the story of Anne Elliot.  When she was only nineteen, Anne fell in love with Captain Wentworth; however, with neither fortune nor title to his name, she was forced to break her engagement with him and warned never to see him again.  Seven years later, Anne reconnects with beloved captain—now, a wealthy and accomplished Navy man—and she begins to wonder if second chances really do happen, or if she’s pinning too many hopes on a fond memory.  Our reader admitted she enjoyed reading Persuasion more than she expected.  She thought it was a sweet, romantic story that offered an unexpectedly astute view on class, wealth, and privilege.  It was a nice change of pace for our reader, even if she wondered how women could possibly be content with being entertained and wooed all the time.  “It seems [very] boring,” she noted.

Last, Nevermore jumped into Inferno:  A Doctor’s Ebola Story by Dr. Steven Hatch.  Hatch, an infectious disease specialist, fired worked in Liberia during 2013 at a hospital in Monrovia.  Within six months, several physicians were dead and Ebola was quickly growing into an international crisis.  Hatch also helped create the Ebola Treatment Unit with the International Medical Corps, trying to stop the spread of this horrific disease—and temper the xenophobic politics that stemmed from this crisis.  Inferno is an uncompromising look at Liberia’s violent history and the virus that nearly destroyed it.  Our reader called Hatch’s book “absolutely fascinating.  [It was] very informative and very well written.”  She added that it was very interesting to see how the history of Liberia factored into the spread of the Ebola epidemic and how doctors were able to track the virus, going into such great detail as to hypothesize on the victim of the very first Ebola infection.

Classics Corner: Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen

 Reviewed by Ambrea

(Note:  after last Friday's review of Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, we thought it was only fair to review the original.)

Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen chronicles events in the life of Elizabeth Bennet and her four sisters (Jane, Lydia, Mary, and Catherine), as her father—a man of no great wealth, by any means, but with a wickedly sarcastic—and mother attempt to find them suitable husbands.  For Jane and Elizabeth, as eldest daughters, they are implored by their overbearing (and gossipy) mother to find husbands, particularly ones with fortunes or title—like Mr. Fitzwilliam Darcy and Mr. Charles Bingley.  Pride and Prejudice is a slow-growing romance filled with interconnected webs of acquaintances, romantic aspirations, and various scandals.

To be perfectly honest, Jane Austen’s novel is a soap opera waiting to happen.  Within the pages of Pride and Prejudice, there’s romance, melodrama, elopement, social schemes, scandal, and much more.  This book has it all for the lover of Victorian—or, I suppose, Regency is more applicable—literature, but minus the backstabbing, revenge-plotting and evil twin discovering that modern soap operas sometimes afford.

Well, perhaps there is some backstabbing.  I can’t readily claim Caroline Bingley innocent of any malicious intent—or Lady Catherine, for that matter.  Both are ready social climbers and quite capable of doing anything within their power to get what they want, what they think ladies of their class deserve.  And there’s certainly more than enough scandal for everyone, especially when Lydia, who’s headstrong, flirtatious, and prone to making terrible decisions when it comes to romance, gets thrown into the mix.

Austen does a spectacular job of creating a compelling romance with intriguing and lovable characters (and not so loveable characters), who show remarkable and recognizable growth.  Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy, in particular, have an incredible capacity for change as they discover one another’s faults and, more importantly, uncover the affection they hold for one another.  It’s a rather sweet romance, one of the most iconic relationships in fiction, and it’s certainly worth reading at once—if only to see what all the fuss is about.

I will point out that Pride and Prejudice is sometimes difficult to read.  Austen manages to create memorable characters, who are greatly affected by the social expectations and class-consciousness of her day, and she crafts an unmistakably wonderful romance; however, her work sometimes feels dense and it’s occasionally difficult to understand.  It’s a product of time, which means it reflects the tone and diction that’s very different from modern English, and it sometimes proves challenging.  I find it’s a book best appreciated the second time around.