Spin-offs and Sequels

Today is the 200th anniversary of the publication of Pride and Prejudice.  I'm participating in a blog hop co-hosted by Alyssa Goodnight and Stiletto Storytime by sharing my favorite sequels, spin-offs, and homages to my favorite novel. (Clicking on the titles will link to my reviews.)

In the comments, please share some of yours.

Prada and Prejudice by Mandy Hubbard. 

To impress the popular girls on a high school trip to London, klutzy Callie buys real Prada heels. But trying them on, she trips...conks her head...and wakes up in the year 1815!
There Callie meets Emily, who takes her in, mistaking her for a long-lost friend. As she spends time with Emily's family, Callie warms to them - particularly to Emily's cousin Alex, a hottie and a duke, if a tad arrogant.
But can Callie save Emily from a dire engagement, and win Alex's heart, before her time in the past is up?


Death Comes to Pemberley by P.D. James.

In their six years of marriage, Elizabeth and Darcy have forged a peaceful, happy life for their family at Pemberley, Darcy’s impressive estate. Her father is a regular visitor; her sister Jane and her husband, Bingley, live nearby; the marriage prospects for Darcy’s sister, Georgiana, are favorable. And preparations for their annual autumn ball are proceeding apace.
But on the eve of the ball, chaos descends. Lydia Wickham, Elizabeth’s disgraced sister who, with her husband, has been barred from the estate, arrives in a hysterical state—shrieking that Wickham has been murdered.  Plunged into frightening mystery and a lurid murder trial, the lives of Pemberley’s owners and servants alike may never be the same.


Pride, Prejudice and Jasmin Field by Melissa Nathan.

It starts as a lark for Jasmin Field, the charming, acerbically witty columnist for a national women's magazine.  She joins a host of celebraties gathering in London to audition for the season's most dazzling charity event:  a one-night only stage production of Jane Austen's immortal Pride and Prejudice, directed by and starring the Academy Award-winning Hollywood heartthrob Harry Noble.
And nobody is more surprised than Jasmin herself when she lands the role of Elizabeth Bennet.  But things start to go very wrong very quickly.  Ms. Field's delicious contempt for the arrogant, overbearing Harry Noble goes from being wicked fun to infuriating.
Her brief moment of theatrical glory looks as if it's going to be overshadowed by the betrayal of her best friend, the disintegration of her family and the implosion of her career. And suddenly she can't remember a single one of her lines.  But, worst of all, Harry Noble -- who, incidentally, looks amazing in tight breeches -- has started to stare hard at Jazz with that sort of a glimmer in his eyes...


Love, Lies and Lizzie by Rosie Rushton.

What would happen if Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice was set in the twenty-first century?
When Mrs Bennet inherits enough money to move to the kind of village she has always dreamed of, her daughters find themselves swept up in a glamourous life of partying and countryside pursuits.
But Lizzie and her sisters soon discover that, beneath the very smart surface, lurks a web of intrigue and rivalries . . .

Pride and Prejudice turns 200!

Monday, 28 January 2013 will be the 200th anniversary of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice, which just happens to be my favorite novel of all time. 

Alyssa Goodnight, author of Austensibly Ordinary, is co-hosting a blog hop to celebrate, and I'm playing along.


Drop by Stuff and Nonsense on Monday to see what I'll be doing, and join my little party.

Just finished reading...

Love, Lies and Lizzie by Rosie Rushton.

It's been a while since I reviewed a young adult novel here, and I thought this was a great time of year to do it. This is not a mystery, but one of my other passions, an update of a Jane Austen novel.

Rosie Rushton takes on what is probably Austen's best-known work, Pride and Prejudice (she has also written similar books based on Northanger Abbey, Sense and Sensibility and Emma.

She doesn't make the mistake of trying to follow the Edwardian story too closely. For example, Mr. and Mrs. Bennet call each other by their first names, as contemporary adults are likely to do. Nor is it shocking for a young woman to be alone with a young man or speak to him first.

Here, Mrs. Alice Bennet has inherited a large sum of money from a distant cousin, and promptly moves the family to a new development overlooking a golf course. She's still as flighty as Bennet mère. What has remained the same is the class distinctions: James (who would name their child "Fitzwilliam these days?) Darcy looks down at people who went to state schools and the nouveau riche, like the Bennet family.

The book does take place in England, and North American readers may have some difficulty with some of the slang used, but generally it's decipherable by context.

This is a charming, light riff on Pride and Prejudice, barely touching on the secondary plots concerning Mr. Collins and Darcy's aunt. It will most likely be enjoyed by teens who like the Georgia Nicolson books by Louise Rennison or the Girls Quartet by Jacqueline Wilson. But there's always the possibility that some young reader will use this as a stepping-stone to the actual Austen novels.

Just finished reading...

Pride, Prejudice and Jasmin Field by Melissa Nathan

Published in 2001, this is one of the earlier members of the Jane Austen spin-off club. It's the story of Jasmin Field, a columnist for a women's weekly, who lands the part of Elizabeth Bennet in a charity production of Pride and Prejudice.
Almost immediately, there is friction between her and the director, Oscar-winning actor Harry Noble.

Yes, it's pretty obvious where this hostility will lead, but Nathan is not precious enough to have her characters pretend they don't see the parallels. And though the parallels with the plot of P & P are many, they are made different enough by the time and setting to avoid feeling like carbon copies.

Nathan has also written a novel called Persuading Annie, based on (you guessed it!) Persuasion, which I plan to find.