Austen in the Twenty-First Century?

Those of you who’ve read some of my past posts will know of my great love of Jane Austen’s novels, and how in 2010 I enjoyed taking part in a challenge to read not only her own novels but also various tributes, sequels and prequels.  Recently, my attention was drawn to something new in this vein which on investigation turned out to be a lot of fun, so I thought I’d share it with you here.

It would appear that someone has had the idea to have a modern-day Elizabeth Bennet broadcast her experiences as a vlog on YouTube.  It’s called The Lizzie Bennet Diaries and apparently a new “episode” is added every Monday and Thursday, effectively making it a TV series (which is in fact how it’s listed on IMDB), although each broadcast lasts only about 5 minutes.  What’s interesting about it is that the vlog style first of all allows events to be reported by Lizzie, rather than appearing on screen themselves, making it inevitable that we see things through her eyes, as we do in Pride and Prejudice.  Secondly, the five minute, twice-weekly broadcasts give the action the appearance of happening almost in real time (and she refers to the time of year at some points, e.g. summer holidays – she’s a grad-school student – Hallowe’en, etc) which is a fascinating way of allowing the events to unfold.

So far there have been 61 episodes*, and you can watch them all in order by going to this page.  Although each vlog-post is very short, the whole lot runs to more than 4 hours in length so you might need to watch them over a period of time!  The broadcasts began in April and I think they must have got to about half way through the book, from the way the plot has unfolded so far.

Briefly, the premise is that Lizzie is studying Mass Communications at Grad School and her friend Charlotte Lu is studying Film and TV production, so together they’ve created the vlog to explore that aspect of film and communication.  She begins by introducing her family (just the two sisters in this, Jane and Lydia – Mary is now their (emo!) cousin and Kitty is Lydia’s cat!) and talking about her life.  Before long, events start to unfold in a similar way to the book (although obviously with some updating, which for the most part is clever and enjoyable) but the creators have done a good job of making the whole thing feel spontaneous and very fresh, rather than a planned, scripted performance.  An example is a recent episode which depicts a well-known Incident from the novel (which takes Lizzie by surprise) as something which happened just after she had finished filming the previous part and therefore got caught on camera by accident!

Throughout the course of the films so far the viewer gets to meets some of the other characters although at many points Lizzie, sometimes aided by Charlotte or one of her sisters, recounts conversations and scenarios which have taken place by using hats, props and particular voices to portray different characters – the same ones each time so that they soon become familiar to the viewer.  This has become a popular recurring feature of the shows and is particularly fun when someone else such as Lydia plays Lizzie whilst Lizzie plays someone else.

Over the last few months the idea has obviously really taken off and many of the characters (in addition to the show itself) now have Facebook pages and Twitter.  There’s a blog on tumblr, several Q&A videos have appeared as Saturday bonuses and two of the characters, Lydia and Maria, have vlogs of their own (I haven’t watched all of those but Lydia is shaping up to be a very entertaining character so her messages are bound to be interesting!)

All in all I feel this is turning out to be a very good reworking of Pride & Prejudice – there’s enough tweaks of the plot to make it believable as a modern-day scenario (although I did have slight trouble accepting that a mother would be quite so quick to start talking about marriage once her daughter had got a boyfriend – even the most marriage-obsessed usually wait a little longer!) whilst remaining faithful to the themes and ideas in the original novel.  Because most of it’s so easy to believe, it demonstrates once again how, whilst Austen’s world and culture might be long-gone, the themes she discusses are still pretty well applicable in the modern world and that some things don’t change, especially where relationships (of all kinds) are concerned.

Some of the comments underneath the clips are interesting, as viewers discuss why certain elements are portrayed in the way they are, almost like an online college seminar! (Word of warning though: don’t go to the comments unless you’ve read the book or are unconcerned about “spoilers” as there have been several complaints about the comments revealing what’s coming next!).  As with any TV dramatisation or updated classic, I don’t suppose we’ll ever know how many people, if any, are prompted to read the originals or explore the author or the genre, but it certainly goes to show that there’s always a market for classic literature, if you package it in the right way.

Give it a try, and don’t forget to let me know what you think!

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*Another episode has been added as I’ve been typing this!

Pride and Prejudice

This is my third Austen novel for the challenge, which means at least 3 more to go and there’s only 2 weeks left in the year!  But don’t worry, the holidays have started and I think I can manage it!

So, Pride and Prejudice – what can possibly be said that hasn’t already?  We’ve all been there and got the t-shirt (or in the case of fans of the 1995 BBC adaptation, the wet Regency-style shirt…), right?  Except that once again I’d forgotten just how good a read it was.  I first remember reading it aged 17, for ‘A’ Level (I think I had read it at least once before but I don’t remember anything about how I felt about it) and thought that it was OK, but a bit boring.  The problem was that I had so much else to read that I only ever read small sections at a time, as prescribed by my teacher, so although I did read the whole thing over about 6 months I never really got into it.  Also, we had to appraise the text critically which almost always ruins a book for me for ages (two notable exceptions: Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights and André Gide’s La Porte Étroite).  I remember that the teacher set us a detailed quiz to see how much we knew about it after we finished – one of the questions was “What was the name of Lady Catherine de Bourgh’s late husband?” to which my friend and I, after puzzling for some time, put down “Chris”.  My policy in those days was always  “If you don’t know, entertain the examiner.”  So you can see that although I knew enough to answer questions on it in the ‘A’ Level exam, I didn’t really get involved with the characters and the story.  If I had I couldn’t have failed to know that the answer is Lewis.  However, after watching the aforementioned BBC adaptation (faithfully recorded by my Dad as I was living in France for a year as part of my degree at the time) I decided to read it again and refresh my memory as to Austen’s version of events and was surprised by how quickly I read it and how quickly the characters became real to me, how I laughed and cringed in equal measures over Caroline’s blatant flirting with Darcy, how I felt Jane’s pain and disappointment when she realised that everything with Bingley was at an end, how I shared Elizabeth’s mortification when it was revealed that Lydia had not only eloped with Whickham but was happy to live with him whether she was married to him or not.  All this even though I knew exactly what happened, because I’d read it before and watched it on TV so recently.

Over the past 13 months I’ve been to a Pride and Prejudice themed party (great fun, can thoroughly recommend it), seen a stage play version and the BBC version again and of course read 3 rewrites of it in the name of this challenge, but none of this can compare to reading the original.  I’d forgotten that in this novel at least, Austen is truly an omniscient narrator and doesn’t tell the story solely through the eyes of Elizabeth but allows the reader glimpses throughout the text into how other characters, especially Darcy, perceive things.   This makes him a much more sympathetic character than he comes across in film and TV, where a description of his internal state isn’t possible.

The other thing that I noticed is that questions which are often discussed by people who watch the film and TV versions are actually addressed in the novel.  The most obvious example is “Why does Whickham run away with Lydia?”  At least a page is devoted to discussing this, where Lydia’s lack of fortune and Whickham’s need to marry for money are covered, and this is again touched upon by Mr Bennet’s assertion that someone (he presumes Mr Gardiner until he and Elizabeth discover the truth) has settled a lot more money on Whickham to persuade him to marry Lydia with so little.  The reader is left no room to doubt that Lydia is, for the time, completely morally bankrupt and without any scruples regarding her reputation or that of her family as the only possible reason for Whickham’s interest in her (although not expressed in so many words) is that she’s prepared to sleep with him and is therefore of use to him until he becomes bored.  I think the confusion arises from a belief that in those days women didn’t behave like that unless they were from a certain social class, whereas in actual fact it must have happened occasionally but would have caused real shock to everyone who heard about it.  Austen creates such a believable society and involves the reader so closely in the lives of its inhabitants that it is shocking, and Elizabeth’s assumption that any hopes of a relationship with Darcy are now at an end are entirely justified.

This isn’t my favourite of Austen’s novels, but re-reading it after several years has brought it up in my estimation once again.

Prawn and Prejudice @ Salcombe

This spoof novel by Belinda Roberts is my final non-Austen read for the Jane Austen challenge.  It’s a reimagining of the events of Pride and Prejudice set in modern-day Salcombe in Devon, in which the characters are supposed to be descendants of those in the original P&P, although they have exactly the same names apart from a few, whose names have been abbreviated – “Lottie” Lucas and “Chas”, “Cazza” and “Lulu” Bingley (… and “Hattie” Bingley – where did she come from, and why?  Obviously I haven’t yet reached my 2010 re-read of Pride and Prejudice but having done it for “A” level, read it several times since then, seen 4 film/TV adaptations and a stage play and been to a P&P party, you’d think I’d remember if she was in the original).

I was looking forward to reading this book because it had been recommended to me on Amazon and I’d read some great reviews but,  having finished it this morning, I have to say I have mixed feelings about it.

The premise is a good one – take an established classic which satirises the society of its time  and update it to poke fun at the upper-middle classes and above who frequent fashionable spots on the south coast during the summer.  Some of this is done to great effect and there are some excellent scenes which have been completely modernised or imagined by Roberts herself, such as Mr Collins’ attempt to make a formal speech and the meal table and ending up reciting the Prayer of Humble Access from the Communion Liturgy (although I wasn’t sure how believable I found it that a character such as Lydia would recognise it sufficiently to make a joke at his expense – she doesn’t strike me as a church-goer).  The use of University College, Durham as Pemberley was inspired, imbued as it is with all the tradition of a stately home but at the same time being a real home to students during term-time and I loved the updating of Lydia and Wickham’s elopement to Lydia’s spell as a pole dancer in Newquay!  A lot of work had obviously gone into reimagining some of the characters too:  Aunt Gardiner a fun-loving pool-player; Lady Catherine a hi-tech, self-obsessed, mutton dressed as lamb with a couch-potato, Wii-playing daughter; Sir William Lucas as an officious former health and safety officer (a kind of modern-day Mr Woodhouse from Emma); Mr Collins as an overweight, slightly lecherous buffoon (OK, probably not much imagination needed for that one!); the militia as a troupe of lifeguards on training manoeuvres.

But by contrast, other sections seemed not have had any time spent on them at all.  Speech, in the main, seemed to be lifted directly from the original, which sat at odds with the updated background descriptions and some of the characters didn’t seem to have first names (e.g.  Mr Hurst, who in this version is Hattie’s boyfriend – if you can make up a whole character surely you can make up a first name for an existing character).   Other passages seemed bizarre and unnecessary (Darcy’s knocking Lizzie out with a stone around which he had wrapped a note, for example) and made me slightly out of patience with the book.

Perhaps the mistake I made was reading it so soon after Lady Susan because the close comparison with Austen herself didn’t show it in a very good light.  It’s a light, amusing read which will appeal slightly more to those who have read the original (or seen the 1995 BBC adaptation, which would amply equip anyone to pick up the references) and probably still more to those who know the town of Salcombe (I don’t, so can’t say for sure).  In fact, even Bingley would enjoy it, despite not being much into reading himself.  As he says (my favourite line from this book): “I am afraid I am not a great reader myself so have only a few classics for you to peruse – Dahl, Potter, Blyton – the usual stuff.”

A challenge

I’m undertaking a Jane Austen reading challenge issued by a blogger called Haley.  It’s for 2010 so I’m starting a little bit late but I hope to be able to do it as I’ve already made some progress.

To take the challenge you sign up to one of 3 categories:  Newbie,  Lover and Fanatic and for each category you agree to read a certain number of Austen novels plus a selection of re-writes, prequels, sequels or spoofs.  Always one for a challenge, I have chosen the Fanatic category which requires me to read 6+ books by Jane Austen and 5+ non-Austen.

My plan is as follows:

Austen novels

1. Lady Susan
2. Sense and Sensibility
3. Pride and Prejudice
4. Northanger Abbey
5. The Watsons
6. Persuasion
7. Emma
8. Sanditon
9. Mansfield Park

Rationale: Beginning to read in order of composition (rather than of publication).  After The Watsons I plan to read Persuasion as of the remaining novels it’s the one I read longest ago.  I can’t stand Mansfield Park – I try and read it every few years in the hope of learning to love it but so far I haven’t – I read it last year so am putting it last as if  I don’t have time to read them all, that’s the one that’s being missed out!  The last 3 on the list will be read if I have time – as I’m quite so late to the party and have other reading commitments (children’s book reviews and reading group obligations) I may well not!

Non-Austen

1. Mr Darcy’s Diary by Amanda Grange
2. Mr Knightley’s Diary by Amanda Grange
3. Captain Wentworth’s Diary by Amanda Grange
4. Prawn and Prejudice @ Salcombe by Belinda Roberts
5. Being Elizabeth Bennet by Emma Campbell Webster*
6. The League of Austen’s Extraordinary Gentlemen by Austenblog

Hopefully this will work out: the non-Austen has largely been covered already and I will record my thoughts in due course.

*  I believe this was published as Lost in Austen in America