Becoming Jane

Well, I watched "Becoming Jane" on cable the other night. Honestly, I am not sure about it. Anne Hathaway is a pretty girl but somehow she doesn't look very English (despite the name). Maybe she looks too modern? Or perhaps the eyebrows? Whatever it is, she looks like a changeling amidst her brothers and sister Cassandra.

The story centres around Jane's relationship with a young Irish lawyer, Tom Lefroy (played by James McAvoy). We all know the end - it doesn't work out. But in the meantime, we are invited to draw parallels between the Jane-Tom and Lizzy-Darcy romances - Jane initially prejudiced against Tom, but after that drawn by his charm (ok that doesn't sound so much like Darcy). Plus another suitor who has an aunt just like Lady Catherine de Bough.

I did enjoy the exchanges between Jane and Tom. But there are elements that don't ring true - somehow it is hard to picture Jane attempting to elope. She is a vicar's daughter, after all. More importantly, I would have liked to see a little more of Jane's artistic development and her relationship with the other members of her family - aspects brought out so well in "Miss Potter", the movie on the life of Beatrix Potter. But see this note about the production which supposedly provides more insights on the film.

All in all, a pleasant movie about a failed romance but nothing much about the deeper influences that resulted in a young woman, from a pretty ordinary family, becoming one of the most enduring and celebrated writers of all time.

More Jane

Further to my earlier post, Wannabe Jane, I have read all of 3 more Jane paralit books. For a change, one was a Persuasion rather than Pride & Prejudice knock-off!

Captain Wentworth's Diary is another effort by Amanda Grange to dig deep into the innermost thoughts and feelings of Jane Austen's heroes. It is pleasant and a nice enough read. Grange spends some time and effort on how Anne and Captain Wentworth first met and fell in love, and how their engagement was broken. The next section then goes into how he returned to England, to stay with his sister Mrs Croft and then meets Anne again. My main problem with the book is that there are no surprises, whether in the plot or in how the characters are developed. Grange could, for example, have spent more time on the relationship between Wentworth and his brother, or between Wentworth, Harville and Benwick, to bring out the cammeraderie and solidarity amongst the naval officers as a powerful sub-theme of the book. Alas for an opportunity missed.

I also finished reading The Way of the World (subsequently published as Mr Darcy's Daughters) and The Exploits and Adventures of Miss Alethea Darcy, both by Elizabeth Aston. I started off enjoying Elizabeth Aston's books and it is perhaps fortunate that I started off with The True Darcy Spirit for if I had started off with The Way of the World I may not have picked up another book! Granted, one should not import expectations and views about the various characters in Pride & Prejudice into the reading of these Jane knock-offs, and they should probably be treated as totally separate books, but it is very hard to picture Darcy and Elizabeth trotting off to Constantinople just when their daughters go off to London for the first time! Darcy, the careful brother who took such great care of Georgiana? Elizabeth, who was so worried about the possible impact of her frivolous sister's trip to Brighton? It is just not consistent with what we know about these characters. For an author who is trading on Jane fans' love of her work and characters to get people to read/buy her work, I'd have liked to see greater efforts to be true to the characters. And this holds true even if the Darcys do not actually make an appearance in the books! Way of the World also suffers from too many undeveloped characters and plotlines; probably just too ambitious an undertaking in the first instance. As for Miss Alethea's exploits and adventures, they certainly take place at a breathless pace, so much so that one is a little tired of them by the time the book ends. Fortunately, Aston has developed as an author since these earlier efforts; I vastly prefer her subsequent books such as The True Darcy Spirit.

Thanks to my efforts, my mother has started reading these Jane paralit books too, the first being Capt Wentworth's Diary. I asked her how it was and she expressed some disappointment. Well, what does one expect? Just because it is Jane Austen paraliterature does not mean that it is anywhere near Jane's standards! One does not exactly expect these books to be in print 200 years into the future. But they are entertaining reads in themselves, well worth picking up to fill an idle hour.

Wannabe Jane

Over the past few months, I have been reading Jane Austen paraliterature. i.e. books inspired by the writings of Jane Austen, in particular, "Pride and Prejudice". How did this start? Of course, it is my mother's fault. She bought my cousin a birthday present, "Mr Darcy's Diary" by Maya Slater. Of course neither of us could resist reading it first. (Incidentally my gift was a spa treatment.) In the past, I do recall reading sequels such as Joan Aiken's "Mansfield Revisited" and Emma Tennant's "Pemberley" (recall this was really bad). But not much else.

I have now realised that over the past few years, in particular after the screening of the landmark BBC production of "Pride and Prejudice", Jane's characters and stories have inspired many writers to pick up the story where she left off. Specifically, most of these writers seem to be inspired by Colin Firth in a wet shirt. There's of course, the one and only "Bridget Jones' Diary". But to be fair, despite the name of the leading man, and the similarities to P&P plot lines, Bridget is her own woman and we love her, just as she is :-)

After reading through a few of these Jane Wannabe books, I thought I'd better start keeping track. By and large, they fall into a few categories:

• The alternate perspective: Principally, Darcy's. There're not one but two entitled "Mr Darcy's Diary". The first I read, by Maya Slater, portrays Darcy as a Regency Rake. Hmmm. I don't think so! But I liked the second, by Amanda Grange. It sounds like Darcy's voice throughout, and she expands on the action at critical points quite well, especially Darcy's search for Wickham and Lydia in London. She also expands the story a little at the end to include a Christmas at Pemberley. I just got a little tired of the word "satirical" especially in relation to Caroline Bingley - her "satirical" comment, look, etc. Another book in this category is Janet Aylmer's "Darcy's Story". That one reproduces massive chunks of dialogue from the original book (boring!), and doesn't really expand very much on the original story. Granted, there is some effort to expand on the relationship between Darcy and Georgiana in particular - but it's just not enough.


• The Sequel - ok I admit I can't remember what happened in the Joan Aiken and Emma Tennant sequels mentioned earlier. Maybe a re-read is necessary. But I did read the Mother of All Sequels, Sybil Brinton's "Old Friends and New Fancies", written in 1913, and which aims to provide a sequel to all the Jane Austen books! I admit that it is a major task and she gets kudos for effort. But at the end, there were too many threads to weave together, too many characters to follow-through on - at the end of it, I find I really don't care two hoots. What I did enjoy, however, were Elizabeth Aston's charming novels on the next generation of Darcys. I'm not too sure whether these are properly called "sequels" as they are self-contained stories in their own right. I've only read two - "The True Darcy Spirit", and "The Second Mrs Darcy". The characters have some connection to Mr and Mrs Fitzwilliam Darcy, eg their daughters, Darcy's cousins, cousin's wife etc but the notable exceptions are Elizabeth and Mr Darcy who are only mentioned and never actually appear in the books! The novels don't try to be written in the style of Jane Austen - indeed, Aston owes a far greater debt to Georgette Heyer in coming up with these Regency romances. Which still makes them fun and highly enjoyable!


• The Modern Jane - Finally, modern chicklit meets Jane Austen. Mr Darcy throws a long shadow into the lives of modern gals who dream of meeting him in their daily lives. So these American misses (I suppose this is so that they can appeal to the US market) fly over the Atlantic to find the England of Jane Austen. In "Austenland" by Shannon Hale, American girl goes off to a stately home in England for a month's "theme vacation", where all the guests pretend they are living in the days of Jane Austen. "Mr Darcy and Me", by Alexandra Potter, is about an American on a guided tour of Jane Austen's England where she realises that the Mr Darcy she fantasises about can't match up to the real life reporter who joined the tour trying to work out what's so great about this Darcy chap. The BBC production is featured in both books, with special mention of the lake scene. Neither book is that great - eg the plots are a little predictable but I did derive some moderate enjoyment from these books (particularly Mr Darcy and Me) because they did not pretend to be anything other than chick lit. Neither of the main female characters can hold a candle to Bridget, though.

The ultimate test - most of these books were borrowed from the library. Which would I actually want to buy and keep on my bookshelf? Hmmm... tough one there. I think only Amanda Grange's Darcy's Diary passes that test and maybe I could consider an Elizabeth Aston book.

Now to move on to the novels inspired by the other JA books!