Longbourn by Jo Baker: audio edition read by Emma Fielding (Pride and Prejudice Bicentenary Challenge: November)

Once again I’m blogging this review in the nick of time – tomorrow is the last day of November and I’ll be out all day anyway.

I’ve had Longbourn downloaded to my phone for some time and finally got to listen to the bulk of it whilst driving to and from my sister’s in the North West at the beginning of last week. In the little car I’d hired there was nowhere to plug my phone into, so I had to rely on its own speakers and the volume turned up as high as possible to compete with the sound of the engine and variable road surface, but I discovered in the end that I could hear it quite well if I had it in my lap, and only had to pull over a couple of times when, frustratingly, the Audible app froze and needed restarting (it’s a very elderly iPhone which I’ve somewhat overloaded and occasionally it protests and requires kind words and soothing taps to placate it).

Anyway – for those who haven’t heard of it, Jo Baker’s Longbourn is a novel which takes place over roughly the same time period as Pride and Prejudice (with a flashback to some years before, and a continuation at the end), but is told from the point of view of the servants who work in the Bennets’ house. Mrs Hill, the housekeeper, at least, will be known to the readers of Pride and Prejudice (and certainly to the viewers of the BBC television adaptation, thanks to Alison Steadman’s frequent screeching of her name!). Alongside her, the staff comprises her husband Mr Hill and housemaids Sarah and Polly. A manservant, James, joins them early on the story, and readers also meet some of the staff of Netherfield and Pemberley at times.

The story piques the reader’s interest from the outset – who is the fleeting figure Sarah glimpses in the road outside the estate, whilst she’s hanging out the washing? Why is Mrs Hill shouting at Mr Bennet in his library – and how does she have the nerve? As Sarah goes about her daily business of laundry, cleaning, cooking and dressing the young ladies of the house, not to mention the seemingly endless washing up, she’s aware that there might be more to life than what she’s experienced so far. With vague memories of her life before she came to Longbourn and ideas from the books she borrows from the Bennet family, she wonders if she should be content with her lot in life. The new arrivals at Netherfield bring more upheavals and romantic notions and Sarah begins to question who she is, and who she wants to be. Meanwhile Mrs Hill and James are both struggling with secrets from their past which affect their hopes for the future, and the Bennet family’s concerns about their future security when Mr Collins inherits their home are echoed by the staff, whose own future is in jeopardy if they fail to impress him during his visit.

As the events of Pride and Prejudice progress, observed in part by the servants (although sometimes with their own take on things, such as the occasion on which Jane falls ill at Netherfield and it is proclaimed in the kitchen to be “just a cold” that she would soon be over), they have as much impact, in a different way, on the lives of Sarah, James, Polly and the Hills as on Elizabeth, Jane and their family. I don’t think it’s too much of a spoiler, however, to say that ultimately all the loose ends are tied up in a very satisfying – if at times unexpected – way.

On the whole I really enjoyed this book. It’s very long – quite a commitment, as it mimics the traditional three volumes popular in Regency times, and covers a long period of time – but for me that makes it more of a worthwhile read (or listen, in my case). I found the insights into life in service at the time fascinating and enlightening, and a vivid contrast to the world portrayed in Pride and Prejudice – I’d never thought, for instance, despite the fact that it’s pretty obvious when you consider it, that whilst the girls are dancing and enjoying themselves (or being snubbed and offended) at balls and assemblies, the drivers who brought them and who will take them home are sitting outside waiting in the cold, unless a kindly housekeeper invites them inside for a while. Elizabeth’s petticoats, famously three inches deep in mud, need to be cleaned and perfectly white again for the next wearing, however much scrubbing and soaking and bleeding chill-blains that entails. There was a lot of local colour, sometimes in the form of swearwords (which took me by surprise at first, when the language and style is similar to that of Austen herself, but as time went on felt more natural to the characters), and sometimes in rather bald references to differences between then and now, which I found rather jarring. For example, in a passage describing Sarah dressing Elizabeth, there’s a reference to the “musky down” revealed when Elizabeth lifts her arms (I think those were the words – that’s the difficulty with audiobooks, it’s harder to quote from them reliably), which felt almost as unnecessary as if Baker had written “in those days, of course, women didn’t shave their armpits”. As it was so common, it would hardly have been remarkable to Sarah (from whose point of view the story is being told at the time), and therefore really not worth mentioning.

Those moments aside, however, there wasn’t much that I disliked about the book. As I mentioned, there were a few surprises about some of the characters which I found interesting, but not necessarily in a negative way. I’m not sure how I feel about the development of Mr Bennet’s character, as I thought it was a real departure from what we see in Pride and Prejudice – not impossible, but in Longbourn he seems rather spiteful and hard at times, rather than merely weak and acquiescent. I really loved the way Baker allows Wickham’s true colours to be revealed amongst the staff, whilst not for a moment making him into a pantomime baddie, but a charming, confusing, complex man who wants it all without having to lift a finger for any of it. And it was good to see Mr Darcy taking his proper place as a man of whom little, if anything, is seen until the later moments of the book!

I haven’t much to say about Emma Fielding’s narration, which I think is in itself an endorsement – it was never intrusive, her character voices and accents were helpful to the understanding of the story and her gentle narrative tones were easy to listen to. Altogether, it was a very different experience from the previous audiobook I reviewed here.

I’d definitely recommend this to anyone, particularly lovers of historical fiction and Austen-lovers who’d like to consider more of what was going on below stairs and out in the gardens and fields (and battlefields), whilst Austen’s heroines are closeted in their relatively safe little worlds. I’ll also be looking out for more of Jo Baker’s novels to read myself.

Finally I’d like to thank Jane of What Jane Read Next for reminding me that this book was in existence, since I’d meant to read it when I first heard about it (pre-publication) and then completely forgotten about it until I read her review. This was one I wouldn’t have wanted to miss out on, and a useful way to pass two long and tedious car journeys.

For my next (and final) review, I’d really like to cover the BBC TV adaptation of Death Comes to Pemberley which is scheduled to be broadcast in three episodes over the coming Christmas period. However, I’m not sure if this will be contained within December or whether it will spill over to January, in which case it wouldn’t qualify! No doubt I’ll discover more when the Christmas issue of Radio Times comes out shortly. I haven’t read PD James’ novel, so it will be fresh to me, but the cast looks like a good one and I can particularly imagine Jenna Coleman (of Doctor Who fame) making a wonderful Lydia Bennet.

Thankful for…

• Some time with my sister and her family last week, and the opportunity to visit the care home where my Gran now lives.
• A lovely friend who has taught me to crochet
• Christmas preparations coming apace, including being very close to finishing my Christmas shopping (just a few stocking bits to get now)
• Really uplifting choir rehearsals, preparing for next week’s performance of Handel’s Messiah
• A couple of days spent with the Butterfly whilst she’s been off school with a bad cold
• The prospect of advent’s being almost upon us, and two new books (this one and this one)

Doctors Austen week, 2013 BBC series (Pride and Prejudice Bicentenary Challenge: October)

Wow, this was confusing!  First I read that there’s a whole week of Austen-related specials on Doctors.  I watch two of them (Austenland: Part 1 and 2) and judge by the preview of the supposed third episode (Charlotte’s Web) that it has nothing to do with Austen and that in fact it was just a two-part special.  Before I get round to reviewing it, we find a letter in the following week’s Radio Times discussing the Austen-inspired episodes on “14-18 October” and realise that I need to watch the rest after all.  In fact, it turns out that there are six in all – seven, if you count the episode in which the main, stand-alone story hasn’t anything to do with Austen (that I could spot) but the ongoing story arc does – spilling over into the start of the following week.

Doctors

For a summary of the series as a whole, see my previous post.

The background to the specials is that there is to be a Jane Austen exhibition held somewhere in the locality, which one of the regular cast is encouraging others to attend.  Also ongoing seems to be a sponsored read they are taking part in to raise money for charity.  Some of the characters who have never read any Austen are being sponsored to get through one book, but must pay the money themselves if they fail in the attempt.

Plot summaries and comments

Austenland: Part 1 and 2

The two Austenland episodes (nothing to do with Shannon Hale’s novel of the same title) seemed distinct from the rest of the series, except for a few references to the sponsored read and a shot of the poster advertising the launch of the exhibition.  The story concerned a girl in her late teens or early twenties who had been the victim of a mugging some time before and was now selectively mute, choosing to carry around a computer tablet on which to write any communication.  She was shown with her head in an Austen novel from the outset.  I felt that the design of her costume was very clever as she looked quite Regency in style whilst wearing modern day clothing – a long dress with a high waist and a cropped denim jacket with a very Spencer jacket look to it.  Unfortunately this was about the only thing I did like, and to be honest if I hadn’t decided to review the episodes (and that I wouldn’t have time left this month to listen to the audio version of Longbourn) I’d have stopped watching after the first one.  The girl, whose name is Lizzie, visits the the GP for a reason that now escapes me, although it can’t be connected to her trauma problem as the doctor quizzes her about why she hasn’t been attending her counselling appointments.  The girl becomes even less communicative but it’s clear she doesn’t want to belong to our world, but to retreat into the society of Austen’s novels.  She falls suddenly unconscious and begins to dream a strange version of Pride and Prejudice in which she is Lizzy Bennet and other characters from the book are played by characters she has met around the surgery.  She has clearly developed a crush on one of the doctors and casts him in the role of Darcy, whilst a practice nurse plays Lydia (the only other sister present) and a receptionist plays Mrs Bennet.  Before long Mr Collins appears on the scene (played by one of the nicest doctors – I felt a bit sorry that he had to have such a ghastly part but he did it very well!), along with – inexplicably – Frank Churchill and General Tilney.  Despite her confusion over where these characters have come from, she’s enjoying herself and goes out, only to find herself at the picnic scene from Emma.  Mr Woodhouse and Miss Bates are there, and Lizzie insults Miss Bates in the way Emma does.  Embarrassed, she leaves the party and finds Mr Darcy, who scolds her.  She returns to the house and discovers she’s now at Northanger and must endure a terrifying night during a storm.  From then on things deteriorate further – she’s discomfited by Mr Collins’ lecherous looks as he proposes and won’t take no for an answer, she’s alarmed by the violence Darcy shows when he rescues Lydia from a gypsy and she’s horrified when she discovers Darcy and Caroline Bingley in a passionate embrace in the gardens.  Everything is going wrong, and she’s confused because it’s a world of her own creation.  The doctor finally succeeds in wakening her and she is now able to speak.  She agrees to return to her appointments to help herself reintegrate into real life, but by the time she has got through the very busy reception area she’s obviously having second thoughts and as she leaves she spots a man who’ll make a perfect Captain Wentworth…

I really wasn’t sure what to make of those two episodes.  There didn’t seem to be any clear message in them and it looked rather like the cast had all had the chance to pick an Austen character they wanted to be and a story had been woven around that.  I thought they all did very well in their characters but the whole thing didn’t hang together very well, the doctors were unable to help the patient and the status quo was restored by the end of the episodes.

Charlotte’s Web

The other episodes focused on one book each.  Charlotte’s Web was a modern take on the story of Charlotte Lucas.  I think I found this the most interesting.  It investigated the idea of marrying for money and security, but the main difference was that the modern-day Charlotte seemed to be doing this out of laziness and a disinclination to work, rather than the need for protection that a Regency woman would have had.  However, it examined the effects on her other relationships, including with a close male friend who obviously has feelings for her, and raised the question over whether, like Austen’s Charlotte, she would sacrifice as much as she gained in the marriage.

Northanger Bungalow(!)

This covered the story of Catriona Morbrook, a teenager living with her recently separated mother, and obsessed with horror films and zombies.  She becomes convinced that the previous occupant of her home had murdered his wife.  Whilst searching the loft for evidence she believes she sees her own mother who has now become a zombie.  It turns out to be a type of epilepsy, but whilst it was a good way of updating the story, I was unimpressed with the hallucinations and the very casual treatment of apparent mental illness (similar to the Austenland episodes).

Gemma

This episode was a reworking of Emma in which a young girl from a council estate becomes frustrated that she can’t be as in control of her friends’ lives and events around her as she would like.  It turns out that this is her reaction to the discovery that she has rheumatoid arthritis and her fear that this will stop her dancing, which she wants to pursue as a career.  I quite liked this story apart from its rather laboured use of signs such as “Hartfield Estate” and “Randalls Park”, in case we couldn’t work out the connection!

Remission

This was the story of a man who’s celebrating his five years clear of cancer.  As he arrives at the health centre to invite the staff to his party he bumps into his former boyfriend, who disappeared overseas during his illness with little explanation.  The staff work together to uncover the cause of the split (the mother of the recovered cancer patient who had in fact given the impression in an email that her son was dead!) and reunite the pair.  Although this was a little predictable at times, it was probably the best updating of one of the stories and I also liked the title, which was enough to give a clue to the source novel but also describe the focus of the medical storyline.

Background story

Running throughout the latter four episodes, and continuing into the subsequent, non-Austen, episodes, was the ongoing story of a mother and daughter who were opening a beauty salon locally.  It quickly became clear that this was a Pride and Prejudice idea, the twist being that the mother was both Mrs Bennet and Jane.  They turn up at the health centre to register and Gloria, the mother, quickly becomes convinced that Kevin, a young GP, will be the perfect partner for her daughter Sigourney.  Sigourney, however, is unconvinced that she’s in need of a man and has a low opinion of the medical profession.  Gloria falls for an older doctor, Heston, who’s quite flattered by her attentions, but Kevin convinces him Gloria’s a gold-digger and he’d be better off steering clear.  At the launch of the Jane Austen exhibition Kevin becomes keener on Sigourney and “rescues” her from the attentions of her landlord who’s also the security guard at the health centre (in fact, this was one of the most poorly attended launches I’ve ever seen, since everbody there, but for Gloria and Sigourney, was a staff member of the health centre!)  Next day, Barry the security guard turns up at the salon to mend a leak and takes the opportunity to impart some information about Kevin’s past (it’s all true – I knew just enough about the history of the programme to know that! – but slanted to make Kevin look bad).  Kevin turns up later and tries to ask Sigourney out, but she throws it all in his face, along with the accusation that he split up Heston and her mum.  Before he can leave, the leak – which Barry had repaired badly so he’d have to come back again – bursts and Kevin comes to the rescue.  He defends himself against Barry’s rumours and then storms off.  Later, however, he encourages Heston to think again about Gloria and finally Sigourney turns up in the health centre car park and kisses Kevin.

Conclusions

My thoughts on the short series are that the on-going story was well thought through, although I’d imagine the more familiar you are with the series and the characters, the more you would get out of it.  There was another storyline in which Emma, a doctor, and Howard, the practice manager, were seen separately on several occasions reading Persuasion for the sponsored read, usually with the other’s voice heard as a voice-over reading the passage from the book.  I assume they have had a previous relationship a long time ago but I don’t know this as the last time I watched it, Emma had not yet arrived.  If I were a regular viewer, no doubt those scenes would be more meaningful to me.

I didn’t feel that the individual stories worked very well, however.  Because there was no time to develop the guest characters, a very broad-brush approach had to be used in order to establish their personality as well as make the link between the episode and the source book.  This led to the issues I’ve already highlighted surrounding mental illness, along with the fact that everything felt rushed and forced.  And why no Mansfield Park or Sense and Sensibility episode?

Overall I was disappointed; when I was still a regular viewer I saw a short series of Shakespeare-themed episodes which were much better constructed.  The stories were developed over several days, making them more believable and involving, and nobody had to dress up in period costume! In addition, much of the action took place on location in Stratford-on-Avon itself, which made it seem more of a special event.  A shame the Austen season didn’t achieve as much.

My November review will definitely be of Jo Baker’s Longbourn (audiobook).

Thankful for…

• An enjoyable (if brief) trip to Kent to visit friends and relatives
• Surviving the storm whilst we were there, with no damage to property or person
• Ann Voskamp’s recent series on Missing Jesus, which I’ve found encouraging reading
• The chance to spend time with my parents, who arrive today
• The decisions over the Bookworm’s high school applications finally completed

Lions and Liquorice by Kate Fenton (Pride and Prejudice Bicentenary Challenge: September)

It is a truth universally acknowledged – at least according to certain shiny magazines – that a single actress in possession of fortune, fame and more work than she can handle, must be in want of something.  Otherwise life wouldn’t be fair, would it?  And when that actress has reached the age of twenty-nine, it seems reasonable to assume that she might be in want of a husband.  Babies, even.  In fact, it would be nice to think she’s secretly yearning for some plain, routine domesticity of the kind experienced by us ordinary mortals who read such magazines.

This is the modern twist on the opening of Pride and Prejudice, which forms the not-quite-opening (there’s a prologue and a quotation first!) of Lions and Liquorice, Kate Fenton’s modern twist on the novel itself.

Despite the light, rom-com feel of this book, I found it extremely clever.  I knew from the start that it was a version of P&P in which all the genders were reversed, but picking it up to read at a time when I was exhausted and under the weather, I decided I didn’t have the energy to be on the look out for parallels all the way through – I’d just read it, and see what I thought.  Well, I didn’t have to be on the look out, because they were all there – not in a blindingly obvious, in-your-face-can-you-see-what-I’ve-done-here sort of way, but popping up and surprising me in every chapter.  Well, often after I’d finished the chapter and gone onto the next one, and then suddenly thought “oh yes! ha!” (I did say I was tired!)

Now, at this point I’m going to have to deviate from my stated aims regarding spoilers (you can read about them in this post), because I absolutely can’t continue to review this book without discussing the structure, and that means I have to talk about the content.  You’ll see what I mean if you read on – I’m not going to tell you everything that happens, but if you’d like to read this book and come to it fresh then I’ll bid you farewell now and welcome you back for my next post in October!  If you do read it, please pop back and see if you agree with my comments!

So, the book begins with the prologue – a phone conversation between author Nick Llewellyn Bevan and his ex-wife Caro.  She’s needling him about his recent lack of success and his current writer’s block.  He mentions that he’s about to appear on an arts programme alongside a bestselling romantic novelist who’s now publishing a book of tips for those interested in following in her footsteps.  Anyone could write that kind of trash, though, he remarks, to which his ex responds that if that’s true, she’s amazed more people don’t, given the money it makes…

Episode One begins by looking at by introducing various characters – Candia Bingham (the actress described in the opening paragraph), Bernard and Sarah Nuttall, proprietors of the Red Lion pub, their son Christopher, Nick (known, in the Yorkshire village where they all live, as Llew) and his friend John, a widower, who lives in a converted outbuilding of Llew’s house.  Mary Dance, Roderick Chatterton and Patrick Mather.  Candia, Roddy and Patrick are starring in a new production of Pride and Prejudice which is being filmed in the local area and directed by Mary.   The arrival of the cast and crew in the village gives Llew the idea of writing a modern version of Pride and Prejudice, and the events which follow provide him with plenty of fodder for his story.  The characters all meet up at a cricket club disco in the village and, to everyone’s amazement, John is singled out to dance by the lovely Candia while Llew, who sees Mary as a potential contact who might help him get one of his novels filmed or televised, finds himself snubbed and described as “halfway presentable”.  Time passes, John and Candia become inseparable and Llew and Mary begin to form a friendship.  However, Mary, keen to impress upon Candia the need to stop relying on her looks and work harder at furthering her career, is horrified to hear that her young friend plans to move John down to London when they leave Maltstone.

A sub-plot begins to develop surrounding the freehold to the Red Lion, which until recently was held by Bernard’s elderly uncle.  It was always expected that it would pass to the Nuttalls on his death, until he unexpectedly remarried, aged 72, and then died, leaving the pub to his recent bride Irene (pronounce Irenee).  As Nick is sitting writing one day, the doorbell rings and there stands Irene herself.  She’s looking for John but has come to the other house by mistake.

At this point, for few minutes, I became totally confused.  The narrative stops half way through a word, there’s a gap in the page and then the text begins again with another ring of the doorbell.  This time it’s Caro, who becomes confused when he tells her it was supposed to be the Reverend Collins at the door.  Caro discovers and reads the half-written manuscript of his modern-day Pride and Prejudice and it becomes clear that the previous 100 pages of the book were, in fact, that manuscript.  I’m not sure if the reader is intended to understand that in advance (looking back for the purposes of this review, I realise that there is half a page in which he’s described as Nick, not Llew, and contemplating the next scene, so it’s possible I was just being a bit dim) but it certainly took me by surprise!

Episode Two covers “real life”, which means all the surnames are changed – it’s a bit confusing for the reader at times, but no more so than for poor old Nick who even struggles on occasion to remember that they are real people and not characters he’s invented!  Most of the events in his story really have happened, as he explains to Caro, although Bernard and Sarah own their own freehold and their son Chris actually belongs to Nick and Caro!  The film party leaves Maltstone and a devastated John is abandoned by Candia, who heads off to New York.  The story progresses loosely along the lines of Pride and Prejudice, with Nick visiting his friend Charlie (the real husband of Irene, who is every inch the female Collins!) whilst in Llandudno for an arts festival.  He meets Mary again and their relationship progresses, despite negative stories he’s heard of her from her former employee Sasha, but when he hears that Mary was responsible for the end of John’s relationship with Candia he’s furious and walks out on her.

In Episode Three, Nick receives a letter of explanation from Mary.  His agent, George, mistakes his misery since returning from Wales as upset over Caro’s imminent remarriage, and arranges for him to accompany George and his wife on a trip to America, ostensibly for networking purposes.  Nick searches for Candia in New York and eventually tracks her down at a party held by Mary’s father.  Life begins to imitate art ever more seriously as Candia immediately asks after John (despite Roddy’s attempts to steer her away) and Nick and Mary are reconciled over the phone, only to discover before they can be reunited that Christopher has gone missing and Nick has to return to the UK to search for him.  This parallel to Lydia’s crisis in Austen’s original novel was very well-conceived, I thought, and accurately portrayed the sense of panic experienced by parents when a child disappears.

If you know P&P, you’ll be able to guess how things turn out, although the finer details are slightly different.  I really enjoyed this novel – there’s plenty of comedy and enough twists to keep the reader’s interest, even one as familiar with P&P as I am!  I thought that the story within a story element worked very well (despite my initial confusion) and demonstrated that sometimes real life is more exciting even than anything we can imagine.  There’s a lot of knowing references to Nick’s writing and its relationship with the events taking place, which I found entertaining, and the structure overall worked really well.  Altogether, I think this book was better than I expected – I felt I would enjoy it, but I had anticipated a “re-write” of a Jane Austen novel to be more predictable and have less of its own plot.

There’s an interesting story behind the writing of this novel which you can read on Kate Fenton’s website here.  The only thing the website didn’t tell me was why the title was changed for the US market to Vanity and Vexation.  Lions and Liquorice has a somewhat tenuous connection to the plot (in case you’re wondering – Mary found the location for the Pride and Prejudice shoot when she was researching for a film about liquorice making which is a local industry; Llew is Welsh for lion – there you go!), but I don’t think the ideas of vanity and vexation are any more representative.

For October I intend to review the audio book of Longbourn by Jo Baker, which I’ve heard a lot about and am looking forward to.

UPDATE: In fact I shall be reviewing Longbourn for November, as for October I watched a short Austen-inspired “season” on the BBC daytime soap Doctors.

Thankful for…

A smooth(ish) start to the school term

A lovely coffee morning on Friday, which raised £25 for Macmillan Cancer Support and was a good time catching up with friends

The reappearance of a missing schoolbook which has caused much stress

Progress in looking for a secondary school for the Bookworm (to start September 2014)

Georgiana Darcy’s Diary by Anna Elliott (Pride and Prejudice Bicentenary Challenge: August)

It’s not often I get the chance to read a whole book in one sitting these days, but on Friday, after a busy morning and lunchtime entertaining friends who dropped in on their way further south, I found myself feeling a little under the weather and Southern Daddy offered to entertain the girls whilst I had a quiet rest (to be honest, I don’t know how much entertaining he did – they’re fairly self-sufficient so I suspect he sneaked off somewhere to fine-tune the sermon he was preparing for Sunday morning!).  I decided to use the time to make a start on Anna Elliott’s Georgiana Darcy’s Diary, which has been hanging around on my phone’s Kindle app for over 6 months now whilst I somehow keep finding other things to do, and ended up reading the whole way through before I was called upon to read a bedtime story!

I think I was a bit nervous of reading another tribute set in a contemporary time to Pride and Prejudice after my dislike of Darcy’s Story – you’ll see that everything since then has been an updated version in one way or another.  However, I very quickly got into this and I enjoyed it very much.

The story is told in diary form, as the title would suggest, and begins in April 1814, just over a year after the events of P&P come to an end (admittedly there are no dates in P&P itself, but Georgiana states that that amount of time has elapsed since Darcy’s marriage to Elizabeth).  It’s a light and easy read and concerns itself with the events over the course of five weeks or so, during a houseparty at Pemberley.  Peace has been declared, Darcy and Elizabeth are still enjoying married life, Caroline Bingley is still bitter and Lady Catherine de Bourgh is still attempting to dominate everyone around her.  “Aunt Catherine” has invited several eligible young (and less young) gentlemen to stay in the hopes of marrying off the 18-year-old Georgiana to one or other of them, and she’s not particularly bothered which one.  In the meantime, Georgiana is already in love and attempts, in turn, to avoid the attentions of some of her suitors, to force herself to fall for another, to forget the true object of her affections and to encourage her cousin Anne (daughter of Lady Catherine) to enjoy life a little more.

To add to the intrigue, there’s the arrival of a French aristocrat, recently restored to some of the fortune he left behind in his homeland and in search of an English estate to settle in, the young granddaughter of a local couple who is staying in the area and intending not to return home until she’s “engaged, at the very least” and the mystery of a missing necklace which creates conflict throughout the household.  The action culminates in a ball which is given in Georgiana’s honour at Lady Catherine’s insistence, and several matters come to head that even leading to a satisfying conclusion.

I felt that Elliott captured the spirit of a teenage girl’s diary very well, focusing on the typical romantic and somewhat self-centred concerns, and using the device cleverly to give background to the story by having the girl imagine that, although this is a personal diary, it might at some future time be discovered by “members of a future generation [who] will come across it one day in a musty old trunk and waste countless hours trying to puzzle out who everyone is.”  This means that the book can be read on its own, as well as being a sequel to P&P, since all the characters are described and explained.  The book also contains some line drawings which are referred to as Georgiana’s sketches, which I found interesting and quite natural for a diary.

At the same time the narrative shows Georgiana’s character developing, so that she’s able to overcome her shyness (without ever becoming too bold or rude) and develop more of a genuine concern for others which will enable her to become a respectable and sensitive woman.  There are several strands of dramatic irony, in which Georgiana herself is too innocent to interpret events which the reader will have no problem understanding, and whilst the eventual outcome is predictable, that doesn’t prevent the story from being enjoyable and there are still plenty of surprises in store along the way!

This is an enjoyable and undemanding sequel to Pride & Prejudice and I’d recommend it to those who enjoy Regency romance.  I can’t vouch for the authenticity of all the references and turns of phrase, but there was very little which felt uncomfortably out of place (the only phrase which springs to mind is smart aleck, which feels more modern – a google search reveals that its earliest known use was in the 1860s, so it is a little anachronistic, but not as much as I’d thought!).  If you have an e-reader or a Kindle app, the Kindle edition is available free.  I’m not sure I’m as keen to read the next in the series, however, partly because it’s priced at £3.08 and I generally try to stick to cheap or free Kindle editions, but mainly because it seems to be set at Waterloo and that doesn’t appeal as much.  One of the reasons I enjoy reading Austen’s novels, I think, is the small social microcosm they focus on, with no reference to anything particularly political or martial.  I am still stuck in the middle of Georgette Heyer’s An Infamous Army because of its inclusion of precise military detail so I’m not that excited about reading anything else set at Waterloo just yet!

My September choice for the challenge will be Lions and Liquorice by Kate Fenton.  I’ve never read any of her novels but I’m looking forward to being introduced to a new writer and, hopefully, a new seam of fiction to mine in my future spare moments!

Thankful for…

Time with many different friends over the Bank Holiday weekend (and our anniversary weekend – all anniversaries should be on a Bank Holiday Friday!)

The on-going beautiful weather which continues to astound and delight us

A surprisingly easy trip to town to buy school shoes yesterday – the Bookworm got shoes and trainers for less than half price each, the Butterfly was miraculously fitted with a pair of Clarks, meaning no trip to the expensive shop where they sell European shoes for people with tiny feet this year, it was all over in half an hour and we celebrated afterwards with milkshakes and waffles at a lovely 50s American-style diner we’ve “discovered” recently

The prospect of meeting a new friend tomorrow

The pleasure of spending time playing the piano, which I’ve neglected recently

Great news about the start of a new season at choir

Love, Lies and Lizzie by Rosie Rushton: audio edition read by Kate Byers (Pride and Prejudice Bicentenary Challenge: July)

So, the school term is finally over and summer holidays have begun.  For Southern Daddy and myself, along with several others at our church, the first week of the summer holiday is always Holiday Club week, where 75+ primary school children descend on the church building, 5 hours a day for a week and we entertain them with songs, games, crafts and drama, as well as teaching them about Jesus and the crucial difference he makes to our lives.  It’s exhausting but ultimately feels very rewarding and it’s lovely to get to know the children so well, and especially to see them coming back year after year and seeing them grow (in their understanding as well as their height!).  The teaching is a challenge in many ways as most of the children aren’t familiar with the Bible passages and explaining them at holiday club is very different from teaching Sunday School or a Bible time with our own children, but the unexpected ideas and questions which cropped up helped us to examine the way we explained our faith to them and make sure we were really clear.

One of the things I was especially thankful for was that throughout the week I didn’t suffer from any migraines.  Not that I feel I’m indispensible, but I know what a complication it would have been for the co-leaders in my group, especially when having to decipher the notes I’d made for my teaching times!  So I was very glad to be able to be there all week and not struggling at any point and wishing I could go home.

When I’m suffering the best course of action (after appropriate medication has been administered) is to lie down in a darkened room, and to help me relax and pass the time I enjoy listening to audio books.  It can take me a long time to get through one as it generally relaxes me enough to fall asleep, meaning I have to find my place again when I wake up, but they’re very useful when I’m not able to read.  Recently I listened to a recording of Love, Lies and Lizzie, an updated version of Pride and Prejudice written for the YA market by Rosie Rushton and read by Kate Byers (Chivers audiobooks).

I had high hopes for Love, Lies and Lizzie, as I’d already enjoyed reading three of Rosie Rushton’s Jane Austen in the 21st Century series: Secret Schemes and Daring Dreams (her version of Emma), The Secrets of Love (Sense and Sensibility) and Summer of Secrets (Northanger Abbey).  She’s adept at translating the situations into a modern-day setting, using modern communications technology to good advantage, and also applying them to teenage characters (which works well with many of the elements of Austen’s novels, such as the amount of spare time the characters have, the absence of a work life or any real responsibility, etc).

What I found, on listening to the recording, was that my responses to the book and to the reading were very different.  Kate Byers, the reader, is an actor, producer and communications coach (although I’m not familiar with her work in any of these spheres) and has recorded several audiobooks spanning various genres.  Sadly, I was not impressed with her work on this recording.  I didn’t find her reading to be that clear, her emphasis in certain sentences was off the mark, making it difficult to understand what she was saying, and the voices she adopted for the various characters were nowhere near wide-ranging enough to provide the necessary distinction.  Now, I read to one or both of my daughters every night, and I know that Doing The Voices isn’t at all easy.  It’s not bad if you can make each character come from a different region or country (although on one famous occasion I got half way through The Gruffalo and couldn’t remember what voice I’d used for the Fox, much to the disgust of the pair of two-year-olds who made up my audience!), but an obligation to voice a whole group of characters from the same social and geographical background can present a challenge.  Nonetheless, there are things you can do to provide distinction.  (For one thing, ensuring that men have lower voices than women is a fairly fundamental requirement, and Byers didn’t always manage to achieve this).

Despite the presentation, however, I found that I enjoyed Rushton’s story.  I felt that she took rather too long to set up the scenario, although that was at the same time as I was contending with the confusing character voices (and I did fall asleep during the early part) so it could have been that which made it more irritating.  But once it properly got going, the plot flowed quite well. I loved the way she had expanded the range of travel to suit the modern setting, so that the equivalent of the Hunsford/Rosings visit became a work placement in France, and the (kind of) Pemberley equivalent is India.  Pride and Prejudice is a well-populated novel so the author had done well to find parallels for all the characters, from the arriviste Mrs Bennet and the eco-warrior Mary (now Meredith) to the pompous hospitality intern (Drew) Collins and the ultimate bad boy George Wickham.

One of the challenges of a modern-day Pride and Prejudice is obviously going to be Lydia’s scandal.  Obviously, in the present day, a teenage girl running away with an older and unreliable man is cause for concern, but even though Lydia is under age, there would be nothing like the resultant scandal that would have ensued in Austen’s day, and which was only partially averted by Lydia’s marriage to Wickham.  Rosie Rushton has here managed to find a treatment of the situation which is believable and fits well with Darcy’s testimony of his experiences the previous year.  What intrigues me, however, is the way in which both this book and The Lizzie Bennet Diaries chose to provide redemption for Lydia, rather than making her the incorrigable character she is in Austen’s original, where she’s left to lie in the bed she’s made for herself.  I’m not saying I don’t like it, I’m just not sure about its being so different.  Is it, perhaps, just too difficult to find a modern parallel which fits well enough for Lydia to continue to be the unapologetically spoilt, silly, selfish girl she always was, rather than emerging chastened and wiser from her experiences?  I certainly don’t have the answers – it’s just something I’ve observed.

A couple of things I didn’t like were the unnecessary changing of names – why does Charlotte Lucas have to be Emily?  And why James Darcy?  It’s not as if Charlotte and William, Will even, are less popular names amongst young people – and the fact that, having taken a while to get started, the book ended in quite a rush – I was expecting it to go on for much longer and in the end Lizzy’s two trips (to Hunsford and to Derbyshire) were rolled into one to save on time.  Lady Catherine (Katrina) de Bourgh made very little impression on me as a character, which feels wrong, given her presence in P&P which overshadows much of the book, despite her comparatively small number of appearances.

All-in-all, however, I enjoyed the story and feel I’d have enjoyed it still more, had I read the book rather than listening to the recording.  I’d really like to read the other two in the series (yes, I’ll even give the one based on Mansfield Park a try!), but I don’t think I’ll take the risk with the audio versions!

August’s pick for the challenge will most likely be Georgiana Darcy’s Diary by Anna Elliott as I’ve had it on my phone for months now!

_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Thankful for…

• The AMAZING weather we’ve been having
• A really wonderful Holiday Club week
• Keeping free of migraines for all of last week
• Our holiday plans (which had to undergo a rather dramatic change very recently but are still lots to look forward to!)
• A chance to relax with my girls now
• The prospect of seeing my parents next week
• My new vacuum cleaner, which arrives tomorrow
• A really sweet friend who turned up with crocheted toys for the girls this morning

The Lizzie Bennet Diaries by Hank Green and Bernie Su (Pride and Prejudice Bicentenary Challenge: April)

Oh, my goodness!

I really don’t know how to begin a post on something which has been so new to me in lots of ways, and has covered so many different modern media.  What would you even call it – a TV programme?  A social media experiment?  An internet tribute to a classic novel?

Described on its own website as “an online adaptation of Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice“, The Lizzie Bennet Diaries is all of those things and – without wanting to sound too clichéd – many more besides.  When I first “discovered” it, via an organisation I follow on Facebook, it was already half-way through and it took me weeks to realise just how far-reaching the contributions and updates were.  What I first encountered was essentially a TV programme, broadcast via YouTube in short, twice-weekly episodes typically lasting between 2 and 5 minutes.  (You can read my initial responses here).  I also discovered that there had been spin-off webisodes featuring blogposts from Lydia Bennet and Maria Lu (sister to Charlotte, the LBD version of Charlotte Lucas) and that various social media sites (Facebook, tumblr, etc) had pages concerning the show.  There were twitter accounts for just about every character but I did not realise for a very long time that reading and following these would enhance the experience, as the characters posted comments and photos and held conversations with one another which expanded and furthered the story (I was never very good at following these as my activity on twitter is sporadic and I’m not very good at isolating the accounts I want to read, but I did manage to catch up on occasions via storify).

Whatever I might have said in the past about post length, to describe in detail the LBD universe would take more space (and time) than I have here, and there’s also the spoiler issue for those of you who haven’t yet experienced this for yourself and might like to (there are plenty of other places on the internet to look if you’d prefer the concise spoiler version to the full experience!).  So here I intend to provide a brief summary and talk about some of my favourite elements and points of interest.

Lizzie (I know, but it’s a modern-day adaptation, and after a while you get used to the spelling) Bennet is a grad-school student in America, studying mass communications.  The vlog diaries which constitute the episodes are a project, produced with her lifelong best friend Charlotte Lu.  In the early episodes the viewers also meet Lizzie’s elder sister Jane, who works in fashion, is kind, generous and softly spoken, and their younger sister Lydia, who lives life to the full, eschews any kind of serious activity and isn’t afraid to speak her mind (as I mentioned in my previous post on this series, Mary and Kitty are present but it cousin and cat form respectively).  The rest of the characters referred to in their conversations are portrayed in “costume theatre” moments, in which Lizzie and any of the other three who are on hand don particular garments and accessories to represent the people they have met.  Lizzie begins her vlog just as a local house has been sold to a wealthy single man, which has excited Lizzie’s mother whose ultimate aim in life is to subscribe her daughters to the “2.5 WPF club” (2.5 children and a White Picket Fence).  The way the first line of the novel is incorporated into the video is ingenious!  Via costume theatre we’re introduced to her parents, then to the new owner of the house – Bing Lee – his sister Caroline and his friend Darcy whom they meet at a wedding.  Some characters eventually appear in the flesh (there’s a wonderful on-going joke about what Bing thinks is going on), whilst others, such as Lady Catherine, never do.

As time goes by, just as in the novel, Lizzie sees Jane become involved – and then much less so – with Bing, Charlotte move away to be with Mr Collins (although not in quite the same way as in Austen’s version!), Darcy being pompous and irritating, George Wickham being charming but rather shallow and her mother being obsessive and neurotic.  She visits Charlotte, meets Darcy’s friend Fitz and ends up in the same, very surprising, conversation with Darcy.  She spends time at home feeling the loss of both Jane and Charlotte.  She goes away again for an internship with Pemberley Digital (oh yes, it’s a real company now) where, of course, she becomes better acquainted with Darcy (the boss) and his sister Gigi.  Just when it’s all starting to go better she has to return home in a hurry when a terrible crisis occurs concerning Lydia.  Eventually the story reaches similar (but not identical) conclusions to the novel and Lizzie decides to wrap up her vlog at episode 100.

What impressed me most about this series is undoubtedly the way in which the writers have moved away from the recent fixation with the Lizzy/Darcy romance.  As I said in a previous post, Pride and Prejudice is Lizzy’s story, which includes her relationship with Darcy, but also her relationships with her parents and sisters, the development of her understanding of the way the world works and her growth to more maturity of outlook and opinion.  All of this can be found within The Lizzie Bennet Diaries.  It’s been said often, all over the internet, but it’s certainly true that one of the best decisions the makers made was to confine Darcy to costume theatre until more that half way through the series, despite the repeated pleas from the growing fan-base for him to make a personal appearance.  In Pride and Prejudice we often see Darcy through Lizzy’s eyes, especially earlier in the novel, and so it’s right that this should be reflected here.  The costume theatre device was a wonderful way of recreating that (Charlotte and Jane even draw our attention to this in Episode 15: Lizzie Bennet is in denial), so we don’t get to see Darcy for himself until her own views begin to change.

The other most impressive element was the treatment of Lydia’s disgrace.  Clearly a girl running away with a young man who isn’t her husband, whilst concerning for her family, isn’t going to garner much in the way of long-term social disapproval in the twenty-first century.  The writers approach to updating what happens (I really, really don’t want to spoil this for people but if you want to know without watching the series then Wikipedia is your friend) is perfectly conceived and the use of the internet for Lydia’s spin off vlogs leading up the the crisis (powerful acting, especially if you’ve been in, or know someone who has been in, that kind of relationship), for the problem itself, and for its resolution, fits so well.  The change it all brings about in Lizzie’s relationship with Lydia is lovely, and adds an extra element of realism to the updated version for a time when family relationships are more intimate and informal and we talk more openly about our feelings.

What makes this series so different from other adaptations is the fresh and spontaneous feel.  Part of that is the way the videos are edited (“the video feels more authentic when it’s not too polished”, as Charlotte tells us in an early episode) but much of it is the script and the way that the vlogs fit together with other elements of the adaptation, such as Gigi’s Domino videos, which are ostensibly intended as a demonstration of Pemberley’s new product but actually become the means for something much more significant, and the twitter posts.  Seasons of the year (summer, Thanksgiving, New Year) are mentioned as the series plays over the course of a real year which makes it all the more believable (if you start watching it now at 2 episodes a week it would probably work out right again, actually, although I defy you not to keep watching once you’ve begun!).

I’d like to give balance to this review by saying something more critical, but I really don’t have a bad word to say about it!  It’s obviously possible to dismiss it as teenage candyfloss, not worth any serious attention – it was on the internet, for goodness’ sake! – but actually the acting is good, the casting is good (Laura Spencer is my new favourite Jane!) and it’s all so much fun it would feel churlish to find fault.  Its credibility was borne out when the DVD set was advertised on Kickstarter and 100% of the funding was pledged within three hours (some of the money will be ploughed into the next project, which I’m eagerly awaiting!).  It has introduced me to to a whole new vocabulary (probably one I’m far too old to be using!) where “fangirl” is a verb (as in “fangirling so hard over this”), “awesome” is a noun (“check out the awesome and the adorbs!”) and “shipping” has nothing to do with P&P and everything to do with rooting for two characters to form a romantic relationship!

My summary is a quotation from this article:

So thank you Lizzie Bennet Diaries, for reminding us why we love Pride and Prejudice so much. You have breathed new life into a story which didn’t need it, but has benefited greatly from it all the same.

Some things were different, some things were left the same, but every decision was appropriate and well-executed.  I’m really glad I found it.

If you’re interested, prior to the commencement of the next main project, a mini-series called Welcome to Sanditon, featuring Gigi Darcy, will be broadcast in May.

Thankful for…

Wonderful friends to meet with, eat with, chat with and pray with

The recent sunny weather – long may it continue!

My children settled in new clubs and projects

The prospect of a public holiday next week

A lift in energy from a change in diet

Good news about some household repairs we require

Darcy’s Story by Janet Aylmer (Pride and Prejudice Bicentenary Challenge: March)

If I tell you that I’m starting this post at 8.10pm on 31st March (happy Easter, by the way!) and that I finished reading Darcy’s Story just over 2 weeks ago on 15th March, you might guess that I’ve been putting off sitting down to write this review. My feelings about this book were mixed, and I was surprised because from the research I did before compiling my list (which wasn’t much, but I did do some) it seemed to have been very well received. But overall I couldn’t help feeling disappointed.

Perhaps I should begin at the beginning. The action, as one might expect, begins in the summer prior to Bingley’s move to Netherfield and the opening chapters of Pride and Prejudice. The opening sentence is well thought out and reflects Jane Austen’s own opening, both in style and tone:

It is a consequence of possessing an income of ten thousand pounds a year that a man may order his life to his own liking, and choose his own society.

This line does foreshadow most of the action of the novel, from Darcy’s point of view, as his behaviour is justified mainly as taking advantage of the privilege he has to choose where he goes and what he does, as well as – crucially – whom he sees. Darcy is at Pemberley, reflecting on his life, and some of his family history as described, as well as his close friendship with Colonel Fitzwilliam (whose own circumstances are also explained at this point, and there’s a family tree in the back so you can understand just who is related to whom, and how). During the first two chapters he reflects on his concern for his sister, his awareness that his aunt, Lady Catherine, not only feels that it’s time he was getting married but that her daughter would constitute the perfect spouse – and his lack of enthusiasm for either of those plans – and his memories of his previous, distasteful dealings with Wickham. This detail is obviously all necessary if the book is to stand alone (although, to be honest, I can’t imagine anyone choosing to read it who hasn’t read Pride and Prejudice, because – well, why would you?) but delivered in a slightly clunky way. Once this is out of the way, our hero journeys to Ramsgate to make his infamous surprise visit to his sister, just in time to prevent her from eloping with Wickham. In Aylmer’s version of events he has had some warning from Georgiana’s letters that this is on the cards (although names are not mentioned) and this is his main reason for going to visit her at that particular moment. Personally I prefer the idea presented by Austen that he just wanted to surprise her and fortuitously chose to do so at the right moment, which reveals to Lizzy and to the reader a hitherto unseen side to his character of the family-loving, generous and slightly impulsive man he can be when he chooses. Here, although a vague plan to visit at some point has been mentioned, the driving motivation is certainly the “horrible thought” which occurred to him on reading the letter (just after a lengthy memory of his previous problems with Wickham).

However, despite my objection to his motivation at that point, there was at least some element of originality in that early section, which I’m afraid I was not to find again for some time. Once Darcy had dispensed with Wickham, hoping once more to be rid of him for good, things became a little dry. Still shaken from his experience, he meets up with Bingley in town and agrees to visit Netherfield with him, whereupon we find ourselves in more familiar territory. There’s a little mention of how he finds Caroline quite witty but has no ideas of marrying her, but very little else in the way of new information and I found myself wondering what the other reviewers I’d read had found praiseworthy. To be honest, though, when I think back to their comments, “very faithful” was the over-riding conclusion. And let’s face it, this kind of book is going to be very faithful if the majority of it is the same as the original! For so keen has Aylmer been to preserve the mood and tone of Jane Austen’s novel (she describes this concern in an author’s note at the start of the book, which I read afterwards) that she has ended up copying almost verbatim all the scenes in which Darcy and Lizzy appear together. Whole conversations appear transplanted, and to make matters worse, whereas in Pride and Prejudice the conversation is interspersed with Austen’s insights into the characters’ thoughts (Lizzy’s, mostly, but not exclusively), in Darcy’s Story there is very little of substance to expand upon the speech.

“Surely not too much of a problem?” I can almost hear you responding. “Darcy doesn’t appear that much in Pride and Prejudice, there’s plenty of scope for the rest of the action, in which the two protagonists are apart.” And you’re right – Darcy doesn’t appear that much (unusually, for a hero, but true). And there is plenty of scope, but unfortunately, Aylmer doesn’t make the most of it. Not at first, anyway, although things do pick up, but sadly I can’t say I saw anything which I found worth remarking on between page 12 (when Darcy decides to go to Ramsgate) and page 102. 90 pages of nothing much. It’s not awful, but then again, most of it was written by Jane Austen and the parts in between – when Darcy is away from the central action of the original novel – are very short and uneventful (most of the time Darcy is thinking about Lizzy and then thinking how inappropriate it is to think about Lizzy). Then comes the point at which – following his utterly disastrous proposal at Hunsford Parsonage – Darcy decides to write to Lizzy and account for the two main criticisms she has leveled at him: that he was instrumental in separating Bingley from Jane, and that he has unjustly denied Wickham of the life and income intended for him by Darcy’s father.

Darcy tossed and turned through all the dark hours, composing in his mind a letter that might remove her admiration for Wickham and at least absolve himself from unreasonable prejudices as far as Miss Jane Bennet was concerned.

I rather liked that idea, that – still smarting from the unexpected rejection and hurt by her confusing accusations – he is partly motivated by the idea that he can “remove her admiration for Wickham”. He has seen that way the object of his loathing and the object of his affection have become close to one another in Meryton, and has no idea that Lizzy has since “got over” Wickham after the transfer of his affections to Mary King. His jealousy, intensified by the fact that it’s of the one man he considers worse than any other, is a driving force behind his letter. He also still considers himself completely innocent at this point when it comes to Jane and Bingley, and it’s only later in the novel when his character has developed that he understands how wrong (and hypocritical) he was to interfere, which he demonstrates by suggesting a return to Netherfield but then leaving Bingley to make his own decisions regarding his future with Jane.

The second half of the book is an improvement, and although still quite short, the section in which Darcy seeks out Wickham and Lydia in London is by far the best. It draws on the relationship with Colonel Fitzwilliam established at the start of the book and goes into some detail about his dealings with Mrs Younge, Wickham and Lydia and the Gardiners, his efforts to conceal his errands from the Bingleys (who are his houseguests) and the continuing change of attitude and behaviour he is undergoing as his love for Lizzy deepens. Afterwards, Darcy dashes back and forth between London and Netherfield, unsure of where he stands with Lizzy until his visit from Lady Catherine, when she describes her unsuccessful attempts at Longbourn to gain assurance that Lizzy will not marry Darcy (which, he later says, “taught [him] to hope”). I was really looking forward to this conversation, an opportunity for an open stand-off between nephew and aunt as he finally rejects her plans for him, but I was distracted by Lady Catherine’s apparent knack for recalling and repeating a conversation word for word, as Aylmer returned to the business of transcribing swathes of dialogue from the scene in the “prettyish kind of a little wilderness” at Longbourn. It’s a good scene, I know, and Lizzy has some cracking lines, but Lady Catherine doesn’t strike me as the kind of person who would take the trouble of keeping in mind the exact words of someone she considers so far beneath her and capable of “polluting” Pemberley’s shades. Surely this would have been better as reported speech, followed by the more dramatic conclusion as Darcy tells her his intentions. As it was, by the time the fateful moment came, it was an anti-climax. After Darcy’s initial refusal to comply, we are told that his aunt kept on at him for fifteen minutes. I’d have preferred to read more of that than her uncannily accurate report of her conversation with Lizzy!

So, finally, the book draws to a close. Darcy and Lizzy finally reach an understanding, he applies to her father (who is unsurprisingly taken aback but equally unsurprisingly agrees) and they are engaged. A nice touch just prior to the wedding is Darcy’s idea to take Lizzy to London, where she can stay with the Gardiners and he can see her every day, away from the difficulties and distractions of Longbourn where Mrs Bennet is going into overdrive making preparations for the weddings. Lizzy gets to spend time with her favourite people – her father and her Aunt Gardiner – as well as her fiancé, and to get to know her future sister-in-law a little better, and to visit the London house where Darcy consults her on refurnishing the rooms which used to belong to his mother and which he is now pleased to be allocating to his wife. Unfortunately, though, this final happy episode was marred for me by an unexpected reference to sex. Darcy discovers that Lizzy had received her first proposal from Mr Collins and, while Lizzy makes light of it, displays a struggle of emotions on his face. When pressed by Lizzy to explain himself he responds:

“It is the thought of Mr Collins and you … of him having the right to … No, it does not bear thinking about!”

which causes his poor fiancée to blush, not surprisingly, before managing to take control of the situation in her own way. I felt deeply uncomfortable myself, on reading it, because it’s both unnecessary and unrealistic. I can see that Aylmer wanted to portray more of Darcy’s feelings for Lizzy in anticipation of their marriage, but I can’t believe that this kind of a conversation would take place between an engaged couple at that time. If it were necessary to the plot for Darcy to experience this reaction, it should have been described as a thought, rather than spoken out loud (and if he had said it, Darcy would have said “his”, not “him”!).

In summary, this book was, in the main, well-written and faithful to Austen, but I can’t help but feel that it compares rather unfavourably with the likes of Amanda Grange’s Mr Darcy’s Diary. Whilst Aylmer has taken a more serious, and mostly more authentic, approach, the result is somewhat dry and the reader takes away little more of Darcy than can be gained from Pride and Prejudice (and a lot less of everything else). I found the original plot sections sparse and uninspired and I’ve read online fanfic which is more imaginative. I can see how it might have achieved initial popularity, being published in 1996 in the wake of Darcy-mania after the broadcast of the 1995 BBC series, but there’s little doubt that it has since been superseded by other retellings and re-imaginings.

What I should mention, however, in closing, are the illustrations, which are quite interesting (my edition being The New Illustrated Darcy’s Story from 1999). These line drawings, by Hugh Thomson, were created for the 1894 edition of Pride and Prejudice. Most depict scenes from the book, but some are more whimsical, such as the one showing Bingley, surrounded by little cupids, in a tug of war with his sisters and Darcy as they seek to detach him from Jane, and one of a lady holding a piece of paper in one hand and a pair of scales in the other, which I think is intended to illustrate Lizzy’s feelings as she attempts to reconcile Darcy’s version of events in his letter with the previous histories she has heard! I’d love to show you the final page, to close with, but out of concern for copyright (and having heard scary stories about legal pursuit and online photos recently) I shall have to content myself with describing it: picture, if you will, a cupid, seated on a classical-looking plinth, his bow in his lap and his left hand resting on it. His right arm, inexplicably, is wrapped around the neck of a peacock on whose breast he rests his head, as the bird looks down on him (with a slightly menacing air, I think, but then again I’m of the opinion that all birds are evil), and the tail feathers of the peacock curve round underneath the pair, framing the words THE END.

Thankful for…

Getting all my preparations done for everything I was doing last week!

A happy morning on Good Friday when 28 children came to church to make an Easter garden and hear about the Easter story

The 30+ adults who worked hard to help me make that happen

A chance to rest over the holiday

Jesus being alive!

Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice BBC DVD set (Pride and Prejudice Bicentenary Challenge: February)

So, here we are at the end of February and I’m ready to review my second Pride and Prejudice-inspired choice for the year.  A while (maybe as long as two years) ago, I spotted this DVD set online at a bargain price and decided to buy it, but I never got round to watching it.  This is the series made by the BBC and first broadcast on Sunday evenings in September and October 1995 as a 6 part series.  At the time of buying it I was under the impression that this edition was created and released for the 10th anniversary, but I don’t know where I got that from now as there’s no mention of it anywhere on the box and the copyright date is 2009, so I (or the online advertising) must have been mistaken.  That said, the set is classed as a “Special Edition” on the grounds that it features “frame by frame restoration from the original negative”.  There are also three extras in the form of featurettes, which, as they contain clips from the original, allow the effects of the restoration to be seen very clearly by the viewer.

My first observation concerns the plot summary on the back of the DVD case:

Elizabeth Bennett, a spirited and independent young woman, is the subject of her mother’s obsessive goal to marry off her five daughters to the wealthiest gentlemen available.  But Mrs Bennett’s plan is compromised with the arrival of the proud and enigmatic Mr Darcy, as he and Lizzie embark on one of the most famous and compelling romances in history.

In addition to the spelling mistakes and the rather confusing factual error (the idea that Darcy’s arrival might “compromise” Mrs Bennet’s plan surely implies that he is not one of the “wealthiest gentlemen available”), this sort of synopsis frustrates me, chiefly because that isn’t what the book is about.  The story concerns a series of unexpectedly connected events during a year in Lizzy’s life, during which she matures in all sorts of different ways and learns to be less hasty when forming opinions.  During this time she gets to know a man whom she eventually begins to love and respect enough to want to marry him.  In the meantime he, and some of the other characters in the novel, are also able to improve and develop their characters, especially when they see in some of the others what they might become if they don’t work to change themselves.  Now, obviously, that doesn’t really grab the potential viewer as a plot summary, but I hate to see any of Austen’s novels reduced to a mere love story.  They are always observational, didactic and entertaining – there’s nothing wrong with a simple love story but this is so much more complex and I feel that should be respected.  There are enough people in the world who believe that it’s all about Colin Firth Mr Darcy, without the BBC encouraging them.

The DVD set

I have to say that I was slightly disappointed with the lack of extras on this, as I thought a “Special Edition” should contain more and expected at least a commentary on some of the episodes.  However, the featurettes themselves were interesting.  The one on disc one, accompanying the first three episodes, was about how the series was adapted from the book and included interviews with Andrew Davies who adapted it, producer Sue Birtwistle and director Simon Langton, as well as the costume designer and the location manager/set designer (whose contributions I found fascinating, especially footage of the set team trying to decide how to arrange chairs in the sitting room at Longbourn!).  What made a real impression on me was Andrew Davies’ account of his desire to bring a physicality to the characters and make them more real and concrete in the minds of the audience.  His method of doing this seems to be to see them in states of undress as much as possible (Darcy in a bath, Lizzy and Jane frequently in nightwear, talking in the privacy of their bedrooms) but it also extends to scenes of action (various characters riding horses, the gentlemen shooting, Darcy fencing, lots of running – or “haste”, as Mrs Bennet might call it!) which help to show the characters as more than just figures in Regency costume exchanging witty repartee, as can be the danger in adaptations from books of this kind which are driven primarily by conversation.

The other two featurettes, on disc two, focus on the restoration of the film itself and on the lasting effect this adaptation has had on period drama adaptations.  The latter discusses how this series became “watercooler TV”, the most discussed feature of people’s weekend when they returned to work on Monday morning.  This was as unexpected as it was phenomenal – the series creators had expected to appeal to those with an interest in literature, mainly older people who had already read the book and were interested in seeing how it translated to screen, and instead they quickly found they had an audience of 10 million which spanned ages, genders and backgrounds.  Simon Langton calls the series “the Big Brother of its time” (and, as the film was made a few years ago now, we might well update that currently to the X Factor of its time), because of the impact it had on the population, the media (articles about the series and photos of the characters frequently popping up even in the first few pages of daily newspapers).  As I’ve mentioned before, I missed out on this spectacle by leaving the country early in September, so I never saw any of the attention it was attracting.  Perhaps it’s for this reason that I’ve never been able to “get” what it is about this adaptation that people love so much.  Perhaps you had to be there, surrounded by all the fascination and the attention and photos of Colin Firth (“who? Oh, the posh guy from Circle of Friends, I remember”), at that defining moment in TV history, to appreciate the obsession it generated.  I watched the video recording my dad had made for me (because I’d studied the book for ‘A’ Level) during my Christmas holiday, and reflected that it was a lot better than the version we’d watched at school (the 1980 series – just as a by the way, can you now picture this man playing Mr Darcy?!).  Whatever the reason (and I know I’m in a small minority here, so please try to accept my views and move on!) I just can’t seem to love it the way so many of my friends do.

The series itself

That said, this is probably my favourite “straight” adaptation of the novel (can’t help loving the twists on the original, like Lost in Austen, Bridget Jones’ Diary and Bride and Prejudice).  The casting is almost flawless (my main reservation is over the choice of David Bamber as Mr Collins, who – whilst undeniably excellent and quite incredibly oily – is at least ten years too old) and a lot of attention to detail has gone into the scenes, the locations and the acting.  Jennifer Ehle and Colin Firth in particular can convey a huge amount with their facial expressions without ever needing to speak: one scene in particular comes to mind, in which Lizzy is visiting Pemberley and she and Georgiana are at the piano, whilst Darcy looks on from across the room.  His expression conveys a real sense of pleasure that his sister and the object of his affection are getting on so well together, and when Lizzy manages to distract the attention away from Caroline Bingley’s catty remark about Wickham he positively glows with approval.  In return her smile expresses her new-found respect and growing fondness for him.  The two other actors I found particularly pleasurable to watch are Crispin Bonham-Carter, as a hugely enthusiastic and completely adorable Mr Bingley, and Susannah Harker, elegantly serene as Jane.

I was pleased to find online a list of the locations used in this series, as these really added to its overall effect and I wanted to know more about them.  I hadn’t expected there to be so many! Most of the buildings used different places for the exterior and interior shots, such as Pemberley, whose grounds and exterior are those of Lyme Park in Cheshire but (some of) whose interiors are in Sudbury Hall, Derbyshire.  We visited Sudbury a few years ago whilst on holiday (I strongly recommend the Museum of Childhood), and was surprised to find that it had been filmed there as I hadn’t realised.  (I’m always very pleased when Chatsworth isn’t used as Pemberley since, although it’s said that Austen modelled her fictional estate on that real one, she also mentions that Lizzy and the Gardiners visit Chatsworth on their tour, which makes it feel slightly wrong if they then go to it as somewhere else!).  Belton House, which is used as Rosings, is very near my parents’ home and we used to visit there a lot when I was growing up*, so I was pleased to be reminded that both the interior and exterior make appearances.  I was interested in the use of Thorpe Tilney Hall (apparently nothing to do with Northanger Abbey!), as that is also fairly near my parents’ and I knew it had been used as Longbourn in the previous BBC adaptation, but couldn’t picture where it could be in this one.  However, further research into that has convinced me that it’s a mistake and wasn’t used.

A “newbie’s” response

Finally, I just wanted to record the responses of my daughters, who came to the series with no prior knowledge of the story or the characters at all.  I thought that the Bookworm would enjoy it but I offered both of them the chance to watch, as it was half term so I didn’t want the Butterfly to be left without entertainment.  She watched all but one episode but found them long and sometimes wanted them to hurry up and be over so we can do something else.  The Bookworm, on the other hand, was quite captivated by it and found it difficult to wait between the penultimate and final episodes (she only had to wait a day!).  It took her a while to “tune in” to the style of speech and language (she’s only 10 after all) and in the first couple of episodes we had to keep pausing to catch up on what they had said, and what it all meant.  But towards the end she was picking things up very quickly and also remembering other things the characters said which bore relevance to the subsequent plot.  She noticed, for example, that after Darcy has initially insulted Lizzy’s family (with very good reason, she acknowledged!) he then mentions on at least two occasions his respect for them – signs of his personal transformation, as well as his developing esteem of Lizzy.  She adored Mrs Bennet and her frequent outbursts, and could quite see how she had missed the point about Lydia’s disgrace by focusing mainly on the idea that Mr Bennet might be killed in a fight and then she would lose her home (and on Lydia’s need for new clothes).  Despite Southern Daddy’s persistent attempts to make it all about Darcy and Lizzy when he discussed it with her (there is still much work to be done with him), she picked up a good understanding of the story and hugely enjoyed watching with me.  I’m wondering what we can watch together next!

My next review will be of Darcy’s Story by Janet Aylmer, which is apparently the first “tribute” book written after this ground-breaking TV series was broadcast.

UPDATE: 1/3/13 – I’ve just discovered that  The Lizzie Bennet Diaries is set to reach its final episode on 28th March, so I’m now considering making that my March selection and keeping Darcy’s Story for April.  I’ll see how it pans out!

_________________________________________________________________________________________________

*It’s also the setting for a children’s novel – and subsequent TV series – called Moondial, by Helen Cresswell, which I’d strongly recommend if you get the opportunity to read/see it)

Thankful for…

A relaxing and refreshing half term holiday

A fun cake decorating lesson with a friend on Monday!

Good, supportive Bible study friends whom I saw today

Summer Holiday plans

A new doormat and runner in our front hall

Mr Darcy’s Diary by Amanda Grange (Pride and Prejudice Bicentenary Challenge: January)

A NOTE ABOUT SPOILERS: For the purposes of all these reviews I am assuming that the reader has already read Pride and Prejudice and I shall therefore feel free to make reference to any events in the “tribute” works which occur in the original.  I shall, however, endeavour not to reveal too much of any extra or alternative plot details which may spoil the enjoyment of these works themselves.

My first review for the Austenprose Pride and Prejudice Bicentenary Challenge is of Amanda Grange’s Mr Darcy’s Diary.  There are many, many retellings of Pride and Prejudice in diary form (I discovered today there’s even another one actually called Mr Darcy’s Diary) and I have three on my list of prospective reads for this challenge.  It does seem an obvious way of lending another point of view to the events played out in the novel.  I would, however, like to reiterate at this point something I mentioned in my review of the original novel, back in December 2010: that we tend to forget, from long over-exposure to alternative versions and TV adaptations, that Austen doesn’t just tell the story from Lizzy’s point of view.  Whilst the action remains with her the whole time, and she is undoubtedly the central character of the novel, there are paragraphs and comments devoted to other characters – Darcy in particular – describing their feelings and their state of mind, and any author who attempts to write something from a different point of view must take this into account and pay careful attention to clues in the original as to how their character might be feeling in certain situations.

I feel that Amanda Grange has achieved this quite well with Mr Darcy’s Diary.  Of all the books on my list, this is the only one I have read before, so I knew what I was expecting.  Despite (or perhaps because of) this, I found it difficult to get into at first and only really settled into it on my third or fourth “session” with it.  The action begins in early July, a few months before the opening events of P&P.   The reason for this is to hear first hand from Darcy of his sudden discovery that his sister intends to elope with George Wickham, and his feelings on the subject, given Wickham’s motivation and past behaviour.  I think this was a good decision on the part of Grange, as it sets the context for Darcy’s mood – and to a certain extent, his behaviour – once he arrives in Hertfordshire, but there was a certain amount of difficulty in that when the shocking events of the planned elopement are revealed, the book has hardly started and the characters not really established.  This means that it is more difficult for the reader to respond emotionally to the news, than it is when it is reported in Darcy’s letter to Elizabeth at the end of her stay at Hunsford in P&P.

However, this short opening section aside, the story soon gets under way with Bingley’s plans to find a house (partly, it would appear, in response to Caroline’s nagging).  Through Darcy’s writing we have an insight into the characters of Bingley and his sisters which matches and enhances those portrayed by Austen (comments regarding Bingley’s capricious nature, for example), and we also see Darcy’s opinions on each of them.  There’s a certain dramatic irony in places, where he misses the mark on something which seems obvious to the reader – particularly where Caroline is concerned.  Although he has a feeling that Caroline might be angling for the position of future Mrs Darcy, it’s not until quite late in the book that he understands the extent to which she has set her heart on being mistress of Pemberley.  By this point, Darcy has already proposed to, and been rejected by, Lizzy, which contrasts quite starkly with Caroline’s fawning attention to him.  Through this, coupled with an earlier comment from Colonel Fitzwilliam (which really struck Darcy) about the importance of having a wife who looks up to you for who you are, Darcy is able to understand that whilst Pemberley might be a draw to the myriad women who usually court him, Elizabeth is interested only in a husband she can respect personally, and sets out to become that man.  From then on he records the ways in which he recognises how he has changed and developed, as well as his attempts to improve his behaviour towards strangers (because she has teased him about it) and to temper his pride.

The description of Darcy’s growing feelings towards Elizabeth is well written – understated at first, as he tries to master his feelings and subdue them, gradually becoming more obvious as he realises that he thinks about her more than he would like to and struggles to reconcile his love for her with his repugnance at her family and her connections.  These descriptions, however, do not dominate the book, and there is a good balance in the portrayal of him as a loving and concerned brother (even more so since the attempted elopement), a misguided friend who allows his snobbery to colour his feelings towards Bingley’s romantic attachment to Jane and a respectable and respected employer to his staff.  Some of my favourite passages are at times when he is not part of the P&P action and Grange’s imagination has been allowed free rein as to how he might have spent his time.  There we see his Christmas celebrations with Georgiana (wistful that his baby sister is becoming a young woman who no longer takes such a childish pleasure in the games she once loved), his foray into the seedy part of London where Wickham has taken Lydia after Brighton (despairing that the girl seems quite happy with the situation, even when Wickham spells it out in front of her that he has no plans to marry her) and his breakfast with Caroline Bingley after he has announced his engagement to Lizzy.  There is also a section at the end of the book which charts the couple of months following the weddings of the Darcys and the Bingleys which, although pure whimsy on Grange’s part, is very entertaining and a final chance to observe the personalities of the various characters as they gather for a Christmas party.  Interestingly, Grange chooses to give a much bigger part to Anne de Bourgh than in the original and kindly develops her character into something far more likeable.  It seems that out of the shadow of her overbearing mother, Anne has her own feelings, ideas and opinions and looks likely to become a good friend to Lizzy in the future.

In summary, as I’m sure I’ve said before of Grange’s Austen Heroes Diaries, they are in no way any kind of rival to Austen’s originals (nor, I am sure, would she expect them to be considered so).  However, I have found them to be entertaining, faithful, well-researched and an enjoyable complement to the original, and Mr Darcy’s Diary is no exception to that.

In my next review I’ll be looking at the 1995 BBC adaptation of Pride and Prejudice starring Jennifer Ehle and Colin Firth.  I plan to watch it with the Bookworm (who’s 10) during the February half term holiday, so that I can record her response as a newbie as well as my own as a previous viewer, so I expect my review to be ready in the last week of February.

 

Thankful for…

Good reports on both the girls at their parents’ evening today

Managing to stay on top of housework planner despite not being well this week

The snow having all gone!

New Year Sales! – I’ve got lots of birthday presents for children we give to (and consumable ones for adults – more on that soon!)

My sister and family coming to visit for the weekend

It’s challenge time again!

That’s right – it’s time for another blogging challenge!

January 28th 2013 marks 200 years since the publication of Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice, many people’s favourite Austen novel and the one she herself referred to as her “own darling child”. To mark the occasion, the Jane Austen blog Austenprose has launched The Pride and Prejudice Bicentenary Challenge 2013 and I hereby announce my participation.

The aim is to celebrate Pride and Prejudice and the many adaptations, tributes and re-imaginings it has spawned by committing to read/watch/use, and then review, as many of them as possible throughout this year. There are three levels of participation: “neophyte” (1-4 selections), “disciple” (5-8) or “aficionada” (9-12). Naturellement I am plumping for the biggest challenge and aim to post one review of a P&P-based offering each month during 2013.

One of the greatest challenges for me is to choose my 12 selections. Having taken part in a previous Austen-themed challenge in 2010 I have previously read and reviewed several books linked to Pride and Prejudice. I can’t re-post those reviews as the activity has to be from 2013, and it would be rather lazy of me (not to mention tedious for you) to re-read and re-review the same items. I shall, therefore, not be reviewing the following (which you can click on if you care to read my review from 2010):

Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen

Prawn and Prejudice @ Salcombe by Belinda Roberts (now republished as Mr Darcy goes overboard)

Being Elizabeth Bennet by Emma Campbell Webster

The League of Austen’s Extraordinary Gentlemen by Austenblog

I’m delighted to be able to include Mr Darcy’s Diary by Amanda Grange – I have read it already but my so-called review of it was, quite frankly, rubbish and amounts to two lines or so in the middle of a post on another Austen Heroes Diary. So I’ll be including it this time, along with some non-book media items and some other books. My selection criteria for the books were not deeply exacting – I had no idea which of the multitudinous spin-offs to choose, so I visited a review page provided by the Republic of Pemberley and chose three titles which seemed almost universally liked by those who had submitted a review. I also chose a fourth title because it was free on Kindle – this could prove to be awful and provide some balance with the more approved stories!

The projected list currently stands thus (alongside I have given the way in which it relates to the events of P&P and my reasons for choosing it):

January: Mr Darcy’s Diary by Amanda Grange [prequel + alternative concurrent p.o.v; already own it]

February: Pride and Prejudice BBC adaptation, 1995 [TV adaptation; already own it but haven’t watched it since I bought it!]

March: Georgiana Darcy’s Diary by Anna Elliott [sequel; free on Kindle]

April: Darcy’s Story by Janet Aylmer [alternative concurrent p.o.v.; rated highly on Republic of Pemberley]

May: Wickham’s Diary by Amanda Grange [prequel; previously impressed with Grange’s Diaries and thought it would be interesting to look at a villain for a change!]

June: Lydia Bennet’s Story by Jane Odiwe [sequel with small overlap; rated highly on Republic of Pemberley and to parallel consideration of Wickham!]

July: Lions and Liquorice by Kate Fenton [modern-day re-imagining; rated highly on Republic of Pemberley]

August: Happily Ever After by Susannah Fullerton [non-fiction examination of Pride & Prejudice; new for this year]*

September: Lady Catherine’s Necklace by Joan Aiken [sequel; not very highly rated in reviews but I loved Joan Aiken as a child so I’m intrigued!]

October: Love, Lies and Lizzie by Rosie Rushton [modern-day re-imagining for the teen market; I’ve read & loved three of Rushton’s Austen updates already…]

November: Celebrating Pride and Prejudice by Hazel Jones and Maggie Lane [non-fiction celebration of the novel; new for this year]

December: The Lizzie Bennet Diaries by Hank Green and Bernie Su [modern-day re-imagining broadcast in episodes online]

UPDATE (June 2013): My May/June review was eventually of Shannon Hale’s Austenland and ITV’s 2008 series Lost in Austen, neither of which appeared in the original list but just presented themselves at an opportune moment!

UPDATE (October 2013): My October review was eventually of the BBC daytime soap Doctors which had a short Austen-inspired “season” over 6 or 7 days

UPDATE (November 2013): My November review was eventually of Longbourn by Jo Baker, as an audiobook read by Emma Fielding

UPDATE (December 2013): My December review was eventually of the BBC adaptation of PD James’ novel Death Comes To Pemberley .

This list is subject to change, however – I don’t currently own many of the books, so my reading of them will depend on my financial situation or how easily I can access them through the library, etc. I might also switch the order around depending on when I’m able to come by certain titles. In particular, the review of The Lizzie Bennet Diaries will come once the series has ended, or in December, which ever occurs sooner (! – I know I have already shared some of my thoughts on it but it seems to be spreading over the internet more than I’d thought possible and I’m fairly confident it will end this year, leaving me with plenty more to say for a review!). I hope the list will present enough variety, as well as opportunity to compare and contrast within the various categories.

My reviews will typically come at the end of the month, especially this month, as I’m in the middle of Zola’s The Ladies’ Paradise for book group and can’t really stop to re-read Darcy’s Diary just at the moment.

I hope you’ll enjoy reading about my thoughts and responses as the year progresses, as well as any other ways in which I find to mark the bicentenary. Will you be participating in this or any other commemorative events? Please share them with me and let me know how they go!

______________________________________________________________________________________________

*I’m still unclear about whether this book is the same as Celebrating Pride and Prejudice: 200 Years of Jane Austen’s Masterpiece by the same author. It seems odd that she might publish two books on very much the same subject at the same time!

Thankful for…

Having remained below my target pre-Christmas weight for the whole of the Christmas period!

A wonderful day’s singing at the Sage Gateshead last weekend.

Lovely new books to read.

A great night out last night to see Les Miserables at the cinema (more on that soon).

A clean and tidy kitchen.

Settling quickly back into our routine, with some small amendments.