Eligible by Curtis Sittenfeld – Review
Audiobook reviews , Book Reviews / April 22, 2016

Eligible by Curtis Sittenfeld is the fourth in the Austen Project of modern retellings of Jane Austen’s novels and attempts to bring her classic Pride and Prejudice into the 21st century.  Having read the other three Austen adaptations, I was intrigued to see how Sittenfeld would update the story of Elizabeth, Darcy, Jane and Bingley.  From experience I know that Austen adaptations, when done well, can be wonderful. (check out The Lizzie Bennet Diaries on YouTube if you don’t believe me.) I really, really wanted to like this book – I love Jane Austen, and the pre released teaser sample sounded excellent – but no matter how hard I tried, it didn’t sit well with me.  In the interests of fairness, given how well known and beloved Pride and Prejudice has become, it was always going to be one of the trickier ones to adapt.  Let me talk about what I liked first. What I liked The modernisation.  Many things in the update worked surprisingly well.  The transfer of the action from Hertfordshire to Cincinnati was seamless and gave a very similar flavour of the small town mentality that caused Darcy’s snobbish attitude.  The Bennet family’s future being at risk…

Sense and Sensibility by Joanna Trollope
Audiobook reviews , Book Reviews / November 4, 2013

Sense and Sensibility by Joanna Trollope is the first in The Austen Project series of books in which contemporary writers rework Austen’s classics to bring them into the modern day. In a world without the Lizzie Bennet Diaries, Emma Approved and Clueless, Trollope’s updating of Sense and Sensibility might appear fresh and fun.  In comparison to these other modernisations, however, it comes across as unimaginative and safe.  Too often it appears Trollope has simply transposed the characters and situations from Regency England to the modern day without using more up to date equivalents.  A few references to Facebook and Twitter don’t make a modern adaption.  In all fairness, perhaps Trollope was given a tight brief by HarperCollins to keep it close to the original.   What I liked  Faithful to Austen’s characters. Trollope stayed true to Austen’s characters.  Elinor is still the level head of the family, Marianne is still a hopeless romantic, Willoughby is still a cad.  The relationships between them remained true to the original – the interactions between the characters still follow the same themes.  The characters follow the same development arcs.  It’s clear Trollope understands the motivations of her characters and the main themes of the…

An Elizabeth Bennet for the Modern Day (spoilers)
Miscellaneous / February 4, 2013

I have been reminded lately that great quality drama – both writing and acting – is no longer limited to the silver screen, TV and stage. I am an avid follower of Bernie Su’s and Hank Green’s The Lizzie Bennet Diaries. The “LBD” is a transmedia modernisation/adaption of Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice, and is another great example of quality writing and acting. It is well worth viewing if you have not yet seen it. The main content is based around twenty-something grad student Lizzie Bennet’s YouTube blog in which she discusses her daily life with her parents and sisters Jane and Lydia. The Mary Bennet of the original becomes a cousin, and Kitty is Mary’s cat. Lizzie’s vlogs are supplemented by in character tweets and also vlogs by younger sister Lydia. Her best friend and blog editor is Charlotte Lu, and she has a volatile relationship with one William Darcy. Speaking of Twitter, one of the real challenges the writers of the LBD had not faced by Jane Austen was to keep the in world characters ignorant of events in our world dominated by cell phones, YouTube, Twitter and Facebook. The main characters all have Twitter accounts. The writers…