Jane Austen in Scarsdale
Jul. 22nd, 2007 07:26 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
keladry_lupinYet another book that I've finished in less than a day. *shaking my head* I'm scrambling to read as much as possible, before school begins in four weeks.
This books is a fanfic, pure and simple. It's cute and fluffy, even though the subtitle is Or Love, Death, and the SATs. As the title suggests, it's a fanfic of a Jane Austen novel; in this case, Persuasion, .
One of the most enjoyable things about reading this was finding who was who in this book. It was fun, looking for Louisa Musgrove (Jane Austen was more efficient; it took three different characters in this novel to do what Louisa did in Persuasion), Captain Benwick, and Mrs Clay. It's romantic and not explicit at all, which makes me very happy because I can recommend it to Mom.
Anne is the only character who shares a name with her counterpart in the original novel. She's a bit of a Mary Sue, but then again, so was Anne Elliot. But like the original, Anne Ehrlich does have some shortcomings -- mostly when she doubts herself. I liked her. I also felt for her when she's faced with her losses and ignored time and time again by her vain father and older sister. I liked what Anne does for a living. It seems like something the original Anne would do, if she lived two centuries later.
I also liked Ben, who played the Frederick Wentworth role. He comes into the story with a fiancée, so when faced with the woman who rejected him thirteen years before, he's uneasy and occasionally snarky. But he's also Anne's knight in shining armor at one point; she's a high school guidance counselor, and Ben walks in on an angry parent delivering a vile tirade at Anne. He admits that his current success is due, in part, to Anne's rejection of him (his actual words are something like, "I don't know how much ambition I would have had, if you hadn't broken it off").
Lady Russell was played by Anne's grandmother, Winnie. I really liked her. She realizes that she made a mistake in advising Anne to reject Ben, but she is just as kind to Ben's fiancée as she is to anyone else in the novel, even as she hopes that Anne and Ben will mend their rift.
I've been spoiled by so many wonderful fanfic writers, and this wasn't as well-written as some fanfics I've seen, but it was an enjoyable book, nonetheless.
Verdict: run, run, run to the library. One thing's for sure; I will definitely be looking out for Paula Marantz Cohen's other novels.
This books is a fanfic, pure and simple. It's cute and fluffy, even though the subtitle is Or Love, Death, and the SATs. As the title suggests, it's a fanfic of a Jane Austen novel; in this case, Persuasion, .
One of the most enjoyable things about reading this was finding who was who in this book. It was fun, looking for Louisa Musgrove (Jane Austen was more efficient; it took three different characters in this novel to do what Louisa did in Persuasion), Captain Benwick, and Mrs Clay. It's romantic and not explicit at all, which makes me very happy because I can recommend it to Mom.
Anne is the only character who shares a name with her counterpart in the original novel. She's a bit of a Mary Sue, but then again, so was Anne Elliot. But like the original, Anne Ehrlich does have some shortcomings -- mostly when she doubts herself. I liked her. I also felt for her when she's faced with her losses and ignored time and time again by her vain father and older sister. I liked what Anne does for a living. It seems like something the original Anne would do, if she lived two centuries later.
I also liked Ben, who played the Frederick Wentworth role. He comes into the story with a fiancée, so when faced with the woman who rejected him thirteen years before, he's uneasy and occasionally snarky. But he's also Anne's knight in shining armor at one point; she's a high school guidance counselor, and Ben walks in on an angry parent delivering a vile tirade at Anne. He admits that his current success is due, in part, to Anne's rejection of him (his actual words are something like, "I don't know how much ambition I would have had, if you hadn't broken it off").
Lady Russell was played by Anne's grandmother, Winnie. I really liked her. She realizes that she made a mistake in advising Anne to reject Ben, but she is just as kind to Ben's fiancée as she is to anyone else in the novel, even as she hopes that Anne and Ben will mend their rift.
I've been spoiled by so many wonderful fanfic writers, and this wasn't as well-written as some fanfics I've seen, but it was an enjoyable book, nonetheless.
Verdict: run, run, run to the library. One thing's for sure; I will definitely be looking out for Paula Marantz Cohen's other novels.
