Writing Jane Austen [Paperback]

Note: this review is based upon the unabridged audiobook by Brilliance Audio which was performed by Julia Whelan.

I am so disappointed with this story, which is really a shame. The premise seemed compelling enough to pick it up, but what followed was not nearly as charming. It suffered from two fundamental problems:

1. The most unlikable protagonist I've encountered in some time. Georgina Jackson was amiable to most, but when she wasn't crying "why me" over a professional opportunity, she was enthralled by how much Jane Austen had manipulated the culture around her despite refusing to partake of the aforementioned author's work herself. Add to this her unwavering immaturity, it really became a wonder how the character could have reached her present station in life with such a crippling attitude. This is altogether made worse by the fact that...

2. There was not a single conflict in the entire plot. The character faced no challenge intellectually or physically, and much of the story revolved around the protagonist's refusal to do anything other than run away inexplicably and complain about something she was easily capable of doing. We are then left apathetic when we arrive at the final twists of the plot. There was no climax, nor an oomph to the progression: just a long overdue fizzle to a thankful conclusion.

So why rate it even two stars when I clearly didn't appreciate it? Julia Whelan's performance. She put forth a marvelous and incredibly enjoyable reading that she alone was the driving factor behind my continuance after three chapters. I would not have made it beyond that had I invested time into physically reading it. Those two stars are for her.

This isn't to say I've written the author off completely; that's not the case at all. I still have a weakness for Austen-esque titles, and she's contributed a great deal to that genre so the probability of my crossing paths with her work is still relatively high. I just can't recommend this book to anyone; Jane Austen fans in particular.

Elizabeth Aston has written six novels set within Jane Austen's Mr. Darcy universe. Her latest novel, "Writing Jane Austen""" is set in 21st century Britain and features a young female protagonist who is an award winning and critically acclaimed author named Georgina Jackson. Georgina's debut novel while celebrated in literary circles did not sell very well at all. She is also in a writing slump and cannot get past the first chapter of her second novel. Forty eight different versions of chapter one to be exact.

It is at this point she is presented with the opportunity of a lifetime: to finish a recently discovered uncompleted novel by Jane Austen.

Georgina is horrified because she has never read anything by Jane Austen and has never wanted to. She also is intimidated because she knows that Jane Austen has fervent, rabid fans. How could anyone try and imitate the literary style of Jane Austen? That would be impossible. It certainly could not be done in three months time which is what her shrew/harpy of an agent and her publisher give her.

Georgina hesitates, but a financial crisis forces her to take up this Literary Call to Adventure.

I found the novel to be a light, breezy read that is laugh out loud funny. Georgina's literary agent, Livia Harkness, explodes off the page as someone I would never want to meet in real life.

Aston shows how Jane Austen's works are continuing to have an impact: from academic treatises to themed tours of the city of Bath to trinkets. Almost as if her fans are making a pilgrimage to sacred sites and the venerating of saints' relics.

The story is has a delightfully quirky tone and shows the stresses of pressure put on someone to create magic with the written word.

I think fans of Jane Austen will find many Easter Eggs hidden within the text. I recognized a character insertion of Miss Bates from "Emma" and feel that there are probably more such delights to be discovered by Janeites. Those who are not big fans of Austen will also enjoy the novel.

Overall, I recommend this book. This would be a good summer beach read.

Stepping into the 21st-century, Elizabeth Aston's new novel WRITING JANE AUSTEN offers a completely different vintage of Austen inspired paraliterature than her previous six books based on PRIDE AND PREJUDICE characters and their families from the early 19th-century. Set in present day London, readers will immediately discover that Austen's influence of three or four families in a country village, social machinations and romantic entanglements are far removed from this author's intentions - and our heroine Georgina Jackson is no Lizzy Bennet. One wonders out loud if this change is a good thing. Well, this is definitely not your mother's traditional Austen sequel. With one eyebrow raised, I am reminded of Mr. Knightley's comment in Austen's novel EMMA, "surpizes are foolish things". We shall see if his advice is warranted.

Georgina Jackson is an American writer living in London with one highly acclaimed but not so best-selling book under her belt. Her specialty is grim late Victorian and her second novel is way over deadline. Her high-powered agent Livia Harkness is about to scratch her off her client list when she offers her a literary chance of a life-time to complete a recently discovered unfinished manuscript by Jane Austen. Georgina is not impressed. She does not do early nineteenth-century. She is however, getting nowhere with her present novel, over-drawn at the bank and terrified to be deported back to America with no money and a dead career. With little choice she begrudgingly accepts the job, even though she thinks Austen is only about frivolous romance and has never had a desire to read one of her books.

The pressure is on to complete the novel in three months so she sets off on a research expedition to discover everything she can about Austen in the Bodleian Library in Oxford. Overhelmed, she heads to Bath to follow in Austen's footsteps through the beautiful Georgian city. Finding the Jane Austen(tm) franchise everywhere and seemingly everyone making money off it, Georgina is repulsed and now dislikes Austen and her obsessive fans even more. Next she travels to Lacock, a Regency-era village to experience life as Jane would have known it. There she finds more trinket shops, tour buses and a film shooting of yet another adaptation of PRIDE AND PREJUDICE. Discouraged, Georgina returns to London to her rented room in a terrace house she shares with her landlord Henry Lefroy an unemployed banker, Maude his precocious teenage sister and Anna Bednarska the indefatigable Polish housekeeper. They all know and admire Austen's works and are ready and willing to coach her through any snags. Still procrastinating and stymied to write a word, Georgina finally opens PRIDE AND PREJUDICE. Engrossed, she reads all of Austen's six major novels nonstop for two days. Her life would never be the same.

This fast passed novel is packed full of Austen lore galore, though you do not have to be a Janeite to enjoy all the in-jokes and jabs at the Austen industry. Anyone who has seen the BBC 1995 adaptation of PRIDE AND PREJUDICE will get half the humor. Janeites will get all of it and laugh and roll their eyes at how Austen fandom is viewed by the uninitiated. Even though this is a new style for Aston, the framework has been around since Helen Fielding introduced us to her angst-ridden and weight obsessive Bridget Jones in 1995. Is this chick-lit you ask? Definitely. Aston's heroine Georgina Jackson is as ambitious and insecure as her pink covered compatriots but without the main drive to find a man. Instead, Georgina's objective is to find Austen and learn to write like her. Aston is a master at research and I found her historical references to Austen, her novels and her family quite impressive. By three-quarters into the book I wished the heroine would accept her plight and just get on with writing, but that was the author's prolonged point. Readers will be entertained by the quirky humor of Georgina's dilemma, charmed and annoyed by the well-crafted supporting characters and surprised by the eventual outcome. However, if you are expecting a drawing room drama punctuated by romance, WRITING JANE AUSTEN is exactly what its title implies.

Laurel Ann, Austenprose

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