Novels that use Jane Austen

I recently saw, in a bookstore, what I believe is a new title: Confessions of a Jane Austen Addict, by Laurie Viera Rigler. Has anyone read it?

My first reaction is that it is a tawdry attempt to cash in on Jane's reputation. Or am I being too harsh? I know a lot of Austen fans didn't think much of The Jane Austen Book Club.

What do you think of authors who write novels that incorporate Jane Austen into their title or theme?

I haven't read it. In fact, I hadn't heard of it. Guess I should check it out, thanks.

About The Jane Austen Book Club, I actually liked it.

Hmm, I don't know how many of you read Jasper Fforde's books, but he uses Sense and Sensibility as well as Pride and Prejudice in his 'Thursday Next' series. I must admit that I hadn't read "Sense and Sensibility" prior to reading Fforde's books, but plan to reread for a comparison on how Fforde captured the characters and what not. I found myself disappointed with Fforde's Mrs. Bennet, but if any of you read Thursday Next in First Among Sequels, you'd probably be, too. He got the rest of the characters just fine, though I wish they had more depth to them.

I didn't realize that Jasper Fforde wrote books about Jane Austen, though I am aware of the Eyre Affair. I'll have to check them out.

Come to think of it, this question about appropriating Jane Austen also applies to movies. What do you all think of the new movie, Becoming Jane? Is it a film worthy of a Jane Austen fan? Or is it just an attempt to make money from her fine name?

I actually really enjoyed Austenland by Shannon Hale. It's about a woman who goes to a Jane Austen-type resort to kick her Mr. Darcy habit. I had low expectations going in, but found it fun and entertaining.

As for Becoming Jane...I, personally, wasn't very fond of it, but a lot of people disagree with me. I know some felt it was historically inaccurate or not a good depiction of Jane's life. My personal problems with it were that I didn't see the appeal of the hero, and didn't buy the romance...however, the friends I saw the movie with vehemently disagreed, so I suppose that might be a matter of taste.

Last night I bought a book called Me and Mr. Darcy by Alexandra Potter.

Here is the book description:
After a string of disastrous dates, Emily Albright decides she’s had it with modern-day love and would much rather curl up with Pride and Prejudice and spend her time with Mr. Darcy, the dashing, honorable, and passionate hero of Jane Austen’s classic. So when her best friend suggests a wild week of margaritas and men in Mexico with the girls, Emily abruptly flees to England on a guided tour of Jane Austen country instead. Far from inspiring romance, the company aboard the bus consists of a gaggle of little old ladies and one single man, Spike Hargreaves, a foul-tempered journalist writing an article on why the fictional Mr. Darcy has earned the title of Man Most Women Would Love to Date.

I read the first chapter in the store and was hooked from the start. It made me laugh and look forward to what would come next. So much so that I plan on putting aside my current book to read this one instead. Hopefully the rest of the book lives up to the first chapter.

#1 -- I just finished Confessions of a Jane Austen Addict, and wasn't too terribly impressed. Basically, the author took a modern woman and tried to shove her into the Regency setting, and she didn't go gracefully. This led to a lot of non-Austen attitudes and situations, and was therefore more like reading a Harlequin regency romance than anything to do with Austen. Some might argue that Austenland (which I read a few weeks ago) tries to do the same thing, but the premise is different: in "Austenland" the protagonist goes to a sort of Austen retreat setting, so although she's acting a part, so is everyone else. This scenario made more sense to me -- in "Confessions of" I never quite understood why the swap took place, or how it got resolved.

I'll have to look up Me and Mr. Darcy, since I'm apparently on a Austen-based-chick-lit spree.

Here's another one: Mr. Knightley's Diary, by Amanda Grange "The matchmaking antics of Jane' Austen's Emma are watched and recorded by the seemingly jealous Mr. Knightley."

Has anyone read this? Opinions?

(Will try to edit for touchstones later)

I just ordered Austenland. I'm glad to hear it was fun. I'll have to order Me and Mr. Darcy. Let me know how it is!!

I just finished Austenland, it was cute and fun. I enjoyed it as a fun read, not anything that I would compare to Austen, but an interesting take.

I just finished Me and Mr. Darcy, and was initially quite taken with it. As I read on, I got bored, so had to make myself finish it. I liked Austenland much better, but neither book holds a candle to the original. So far, the only book inspired by Jane Austen that I've truly enjoyed, is Bridget Jones' Diary.

(My touchstones refuse to load--sorry!)

I've just joined this group, and look forward to participating here!

Welcome, wgyswyt! :-)

Anyone here read Highbury Days and/or Later Days at Highbury by Joan Austen-Leigh? They're out of print but they're delightful reads! There's also a statement made to the publication of an Austen novel!

I read Confessions of a Jane Austen Addict. It was fairly enjoyable in it's way (interesting premise), but also disappointing (in execution). It's about a modern woman from L.A. whose life isn't going well at all (fiance cheated on her, best friend betrayed her, dead-end job) so she escapes by endlessly reading P&P. When she suddenly wakes up in the body of a lovely upper-class Regency lady--who is furthermore courted by a handsome suitor, you'd think she'd be ecstatic--but she's not. She just worries about when she will wake up and why she can't have hot baths every day and wear make-up, etc. ... AND she distrusts the handsome suitor. I think there's a sequel, so some things remain unresolved by the end of the book.

I really enjoyed Austenland too, actually - I thought it was a really charming and frothy read, although slightly confused in what it was trying to do/say occasionally. I mean, I thought it was rather subtle in its exploration of the main character's (who name I have forgotten) love/hate relationship with her Darcy-fantasies - and although I was very very happy she got her Mr Darcy in the end, I felt it was almost at variance with the rest of the book. Possibly I'm talking nonsense.

I've just finished ((Syrie James)) (Lost Memoirs of Jane Austen) and ((Jane Odiwe)) (Lydia Bennet's Story) -I thought both were well written-the last was funny and I loved the descriptions of Regency Brighton.
I enjoyed (Lover's Perjuries) by ((Joan Ellen Delman)) too.

Currently for sale at Amazon are at least 21 Jane Austen sequels or novels using her characters, or the author herself. I found:

the Jane Austen Book Club
The Lost Memoirs of Jane Austen
Confessions of a Jane Austen Addict
Becoming Jane Austen
The Pemberley Chronicles
Women of Pemberley
Mr. Darcy Presents His Bride
Jane and the Unpleasantness of Scargrave Manor
Jane and the Man of the Cloth
Jane and the Wandering Eye
Jane and the Genius of the Place
Jane and the Stillroom Maid
Jane Austen in Boca Manor
Mr. Darcy's Dilemma
The Darcy's Give a Ball
Jane and the Ghosts of Netley
Letters from Pemberley
Desire and Duty
Emma and Knightley
Lydia Bennet's Story
Excessively Diverted

and among the many non-fiction offerings, these two stood out:
Jane Austen for Dummies (sniff! Dummies don't read Jane Austen!)
Jane Austen's Guide to Dating

Does anyone think that some people just look at Jane Austen as a way to make $$? Am I too cynical?

I too am curious... has anyone read the Amanda Grange books? Because she does three, that I know of, "diaries" from the lead male characters in Austen's novels. They are:

Mr. Darcy's Diary
Mr. Knightley's Diary
Captain Wentworth's Diary
and coming soon... Edmund Bertram's Diary

I received the Darcy one for Christmas six months ago, but haven't gotten to it yet. Anyone have an opinion on Grange?

#16
Yep, it does look like the poor girl is being squeezed dry. I knew there were some books using Austen's characters, but at this point, looks like it's a genre in itself.

It's been a long time since the above messages were posted, but I'm new to the forum so I thought, let's revive some!

And I have read Amanda Grange Mr Knightley and quite liked it. I also read Darcy's passions (of another author), of which I loved the first 3/4 up to the wedding and then wished she would have stopped there. I think it added something to reading the real novel, because you see it from the other point of view.

And I also just read Confessions - entertaining but not a really great book (thought I thought the part where she met Jane was very funny).

I'm one of those who wasn't taken by The Jane Austen Book Club, although I wanted to be. On the other had, I did enjoy Austenland, and was a bit surprised I did. It is light and frothy, as someone said above, but enjoyable. Neither author attempts to imitate her or the period's writing style.

I have tried Stephanie Barron's Jane Austen mysteries, and Carrie Bebris's Jane Austen mysteries, and one of the post-P & P novels, maybe Pemberley Chronicles, and I couldn't get over the authors falling short of her wonderful writing.

Hmm, I read a lot of Jane Austen-inspired stuff; I'm not a purist. I think there's some that's really enjoyable, and quite a bit that I don't much care for.

I really liked Pamela Aidan's Fitzwilliam Darcy trilogy (starting with An Assembly Such as This), and I enjoyed Jane and the Unpleasantness at Scargrave Manor Stephanie Barron.

I was luke-warm on The Lost Memoirs of Jane Austen by Syrie James and the movie Becoming Jane - mostly because I'm very annoyed with self-sacrificial endings in romances. They always feel so patronizing to me. I liked the execution in both, though.

Confessions of a Jane Austen Addict didn't really grab me.

On the bad front: Me and Mr. Darcy struck me as downright horrid. You would think a heroine who claims to re-read P&P every year would have more than a 7th grader's understanding of the plot and character development!

But worst of all for me was Mr Darcy Takes a Wife by Linda Berdoll. There was a LOT of consummating going on, and some of it was just kind of... icky, I thought. Plus I can't get over what she did to poor Bingley and Jane. Though I guess this is what happens when people write Jane Austen fan-fiction based only on the BBC movie...

Yeah I also didn't like the Jane Austen Book Club - I just didn't really see the point of the stories, it didn't head anywhere and I felt almost like putting the book down (which I never ever do). I haven't yet seen the film - curious if that will be any better.

I generally like the sequels etc which are written 'in style', for example there are never any explicit references to 'consummating' in Jane's book, so why read about that in the sequels? For me, that just doesn't belong in novels of that era.

I still have Pemberley Chronicles to read: I'm very curious about that!

For those of you who are wondering about Amanda Grange's novels about Austen men, I'll put in my two cents. I picked them up fully expecting to hate them, but for once I think that someone was able to retell the story without losing the essence of Austen. Give them a go!

I also LOVE Austenland, Me and Mr. Darcy was meh, and I really enjoyed Jane Austen in Scarsdale: or Love, Death, and the SATs, but I kind of hated the Jane Austen Book Club.

Two books I really enjoyed based on Jane Austen are Pride, Prejudice and Jasmin Field, otherwise none as Acting Up and Persuading Annie, both by Melissa Nathan

Whilst the Pride and Prejudice one is a little predictable, each character in the book playing their respective Austen character in a play, they are both fun and light reads, which both me and my mother enjoyed!

There's nothing like the original Jane! I just watched The Jane Austen Book Club movie again and was reminded how wonderful Austen's original novels still hold the attention of today's readers and movie goers.

I just finished a great chick lit contemporary Just the Sexiest Man Alive that uses P&P as it's basis, though it's not really advertised as such, but you'll recognize the similarities if you're familiar with P&P. It was a great read about a young, witty intelligent lawyer resisting the attentions of hearthrob actor, People magazine's "Sexiest Man Alive". It was a great book - I ate it up like candy! One of the best reads this year for me. Anyone who loves the P&P story would appreciate this, but you have to also like contemporaries as well. Well written snappy dialogue all set in LA, so good! My review

I don't think I saw Jane Fairfax by Joan Aiken on this list. I thought it was quite well done, treating the characters seriously.

I thought The Darcys Give a Ball was fluffy silly fun. (The touchstone comes up under it's earlier title, Consequence.)

There was one P&P "sequel" that I DESPISED, in which Elizabeth is miserable because Darcy barely talks to her, and cancels her Christmas party she'd been planning for the village children without telling her. Turns out (mild spoiler) that there was scare of flu or some other illness, so it had to be cancelled, only he didn't tell her THAT because he didn't want to upset her. As though canceling her party behind her back without explanation wouldn't upset her. Truly, it infuriated me because I thought it was so dumb.

I think I'd like to try Austenland and maybe Just the Sexiest Man Alive -- thanks for the recs!

I recently finished the Pemberley Chronicles and oh my god, please don't go there! Unless of course you would like to read pages and pages of lovey-dovey stuff where nothing really happens (except marriages and kids). It just goes on and on and everything that happens is an illustration of either the generosity of Darcy or the perfection of Lizzie. I waited for bad stuff to happen because then it would be interesting to see how they cope with that - but by the time a little bit of that came, I was fully convinced that about 10 pages later everything would be 100% bliss again. Wouldn't recommend it to anyone!

I also read None but you which I quite liked. But it is divided into two books, and so far I only read the first part. Now I'm hesitating about buying the second part, because I read somewhere that in the end Anne starts acting totally out of character (which is not a recommendation to me!). Did anyone read it?