So. Why retell Austen at all? Having read and reviewed Joanna Trollope’s ‘Sense and Sensibility’ (mildly amusing but ultimately unconvincing) and Val McDermid’s ‘Northanger Abbey’ (much more entertaining but still a little daft in places), I’m fast reaching the conclusion that it’s purely in order to shift a few books with minimum effort by appealing to […]
‘Pride and Prejudice’ is my favourite Austen novel. So when I heard some impudent writer had decided to add zombies to the original in an attempt to ‘transform a masterpiece of world literature into something you’d actually want to read’, I was torn between horror and intrigue. Where would the zombies fit in the already […]
I freely admit that I am slightly obsessed by in love with ‘Pride and Prejudice’. When I’m feeling ill or grouchy, I instinctively reach for the book or, if I’m feeling really awful, the 1995 BBC adaptation, and it cheers me up to read/ hear the familiar words: ‘It is a truth universally acknowledged…’ I […]
‘Sense and Sensibility’ by Joanna Trollope. This is the first novel published as part of ‘The Austen Project‘ in which each of Jane Austen’s six major novels have been / will be re-worked by modern authors. You can read my thoughts on the idea itself here and here, but it would be fair to summarise […]
My initial response to The Austen Project was the mental equivalent of a head-shake and an eye roll. WHY spend time rewriting the classics? Surely the whole point of a classic is that they are, in some ways at least, still relevant in contemporary society and culture? If a book is no longer relevant to […]
‘Sense and Sensibility’ – by Joanna Trollope? Doesn’t sound right, does it? How about ‘Northanger Abbey’ – by Val McDermid? Meet The Austen Project: six well-known authors are ‘reworking’ Jane Austen’s six completed novels. Why? Erm…because they can? This isn’t a new phenomenon by any means, and there are still fewer rewrites of Austen than […]
I LOVE Jane Austen’s works, so when I saw this book of Austen focused essays in a local charity shop I knew I wasn’t leaving without it. Pretending to my husband that this was a vital teaching resource, I dashed to the til and nearly skipped out the shop. Interestingly, my copy hails from America […]