I'm a Jane Austen fan from way back - admittedly I came to her via some BBC productions even before I read any of her work (I was young!) - and can still remember how tense that first viewing of the Colin Firth version of P&P was when I wasn't sure if and how Lizzie and Mr. Darcy would end up together. I have since read the book several times on my own and also as part of my favorite-ever English major class, called "The British Novel". But I digress... My love of Jane of course makes me a sucker for any retelling or homage to her work, and here I've got a round-up of great options no matter what genre you enjoy - historical fiction, contemporary romance, YA, even middle grade.
The Jane Austen Society
In a fictionalized version of 1940s Chawton, a small village in England famous for being the final home of Jane Austen (I've been there!), an unlikely group of people - from a war widow to the local doctor to a shy farmer to an American movie star - come together to protect Austen's legacy. They all have their own reasons for loving Jane Austen but also for needing this new-found community as they create the Jane Austen Society. It sounds a bit cheesy, and that it is (plus the characters' "spontaneous" dialogue about their love/knowledge of Austen is a bit overdone) - yet I also found myself quite drawn in and comforted by this feel-good read. It would 100% make for a Masterpiece miniseries that I would adore; focusing on the time period with the setting and clothing, and focusing on the characters and their quiet struggles and budding relationships would make for a very compelling period drama. So if you like period dramas, talking about Jane Austen's history, and feel-good stories - pick this one up!
3.5/5 stars, selected from the MMD 2020 summer reading guide
The Next Great Jane
Jane Brannen is a 12-year-old who aspires to be the "next great Jane" (Austen); she lives with her ocean biologist father in a tiny coastal town in Maine, and her wildest dreams are coming true: a famous author is coming to their off-the-beaten-track town, and she's going to hear her speak and learn the keys to literary success! But the night doesn't go as planned (a hurricane hits, she has to deal with the most annoying boy she's ever met - oh, and her mom breezes in unexpectedly from Hollywood), which sets into motion a different start to the school year than Jane would have expected, challenging her writing, her relationship with her parents, and her love of her home and community. This middle-grade read is an homage to Jane Austen not in trying to be a re-telling of any particular piece of her work, but by incorporating some similar scenes, interactions, characters, and names from all of her work, as well as the general spirit of her writing. This made it a delight - super fun to pick out all the bits that were familiar from Austen, but the story was sweet and the characters great on their own too. The book also reminded me of Julie Murphy's Dear Sweet Pea, with the humorous and heartfelt tone, and with the aspiring writer protagonist of a similar age, who is navigating her parents' divorce/dating, the way friendships change and romantic feelings increase in middle school, etc. It's definitely geared toward 10- to 12-year-old girls, but a very fun read (palate cleanser!) for grown-ups who like Jane Austen and Julie Murphy, spunky protagonists, charming small-town settings, and sweet middle-grade reads. Also loved that while it's about a girl who wants to be a writer, she also learns a lot about science and climate change - yeah, girls + STEAM!
4/5 stars, heard about on From the Front Porch
Dangerous Alliance
Lady Victoria Aston is an unusually educated and independent-minded young woman in 1800s England. She loves her life of horseback riding around her family's grounds, helping with the management of the estate, and of course, reading her Jane Austen novels. But then her parents insist that it's time for her to get married, and marry just the right kind of man, because it turns out the estate is not doing so well after all. Meanwhile, her older, married sister has become a bit distant, and her neighbor and former best friend Tom shows back up, now a handsome young man, but there's a weird strain between them. Normally Vicky would turn to her favorite Austen heroines to figure out what to do, but with these new circumstances, even Jane doesn't seem to have the answer. Part romance, part mystery, part feminist twist on historical fiction - overall this YA romp is a bit of a category mash-up, but that made it quite fun (f not a tad fluffy feeling at times). If you've read To Have and To Hoax, also a fun Jane Austen-era setting book), I would say you might enjoy this one as a far-less-steamy historical romance counterpart.
3.5/5 stars, BOTM club pick (back when they had the YA club, which I kinda miss!)
Pride
Set in current-day Brooklyn, this is billed as a "Pride & Prejudice remix" - and what I interpret "remix" as is that you shouldn't necessarily be looking for every P&P scene and character, but the general structure and themes are brought in to tell a story about a girl who has pride in her hood but who also is learning to be open to others, and to not make assumptions about where they're coming from. Zuri Benitez is the second of 5 sisters in a boisterous family; she wants to go to Howard University when she graduates from high school but fully intends to return home after, because she has great pride in her Bushwick neighborhood, her close-knit family, and her Afro-Latino roots. When the wealthy Darcy family renovates and then moves into the house across the street, she is upset by the gentrification of her neighborhood and the changes that will continue to bring - and she especially can't stand arrogant Darius, the younger Darcy son, after they start off with a bad impression of each other on their first meeting. In general the rest of the plot goes as you'd expect, but I really liked how the author didn't try to completely fit her story to P&P but instead used it as a general structure for telling a story about family, class, and cultural identity and what it's like for teenagers to navigate these things. In addition to fans of Jane Austen, I'd recommend this to fans of the smart, real-girl protagonists written by authors like Angie Thomas.
3.5/5 stars, for YA and Austen lovers alike
By the Book
I'm a sucker for a book with a cover/title like this and bought it on a whim from a remainders section for super cheap a while back without even really knowing what it was about. Then this year I somehow caught wind that it's actually a retelling of Persuasion, and it then jumped to the top of my pile - my favorite Austen book (I mean, the main character is named Anne!) in a modern-day setting? Yes, please! In this retelling, our protagonist is an adjunct English professor, working doggedly toward a tenure-track position, at a idyllic sounding liberal arts college in California; her old flame, Adam Martinez, who she declined to marry in grad school on the (not so good?) advice of her PhD advisor, unexpectedly shows up on the scene as the new president of the college - and therefore her new boss. It might not be the greatest literature ever, but goodness was it an enjoyable and satisfying reading experience - with the campus setting, very fun for English major types, or for those involved in academia/publishing, since the characters are often navigating syllabi, department meetings, academic conferences, and the like, encapsulating the feel but also poking a bit of fun. It reads like a contemporary romance, bordering on rom-com, that is pretty low on the steam factor, so if you like that kind of thing this is a great pick, even if you're not in it for the Persuasion connection.
4/5 stars, random bookstore grab that was worth it!
Are you into Jane-adjacent stuff too? I saw a fun roundup of Austen-inspired books for Janeites of all ages on Modern Mrs. Darcy recently, and I co-sign on a bunch of them, such as Longbourn (historical fiction extending the P&P universe), Eligible (P&P retelling), Dear Mr. Knightley (Emma retelling), and The Jane Austen Project (time travel!).
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