Kathryn's Inbox

What a charming little tale is Emma of 83rd Street, a sweet retelling of Jane Austen's Emma. Switching Regency England for 21st Century New York, we meet a thoroughly modern and thoroughly imperfect Emma Woodhouse. She lives in a close-knit upper east side community and following on from making a successful match of her sister with their best friend and neighbour, she soon sets her sights on other things ... with well, the kind of results that her conservative neighbour, George Knightley keeps trying to warn her about.  This one is a charming read for Austen fans. Emma retellings are nothing new, but this one has such a fun spin on the character that it is impossible not to be drawn in to the spoiled and optimistic Emma Woodhouse's world. Parts of the novel follow the original very faithful, while the authors use a dash of artistic licence to suit the setting and situation. Things come right in the end, of course, but the adventure is in the how ... and what Emma learns along ...

The graphic novel adaption of Jane Austen's beloved classic Pride and Prejudice is a delight from start to finish. With graphics that seem somewhat reminiscent of the 2005 film adaption  the story is lovingly retold. Many visitors to this blog will be familiar with the story already, but for those who came in late ... Elizabeth Bennet is the second oldest of five daughters, all of whom their mother is keen to marry off--otherwise British laws of inheritance of the day would leave them at the mercy of their cousin. The fortunes take a turn for the better when a wealthy young man moves to the neighbourhood and takes more than a passing interest in oldest sister Jane. Then Elizabeth meets Mr Bingley's close friend, the proud and disagreeable Mr Darcy, and a few tiffs, misunderstandings and dramas occur, during which Jane Austen takes a humorous and slightly wicked, but never scathing, look at British society in the early 19th century.  As I stated previously, this one is a deligh...

I had so much fun reading There's Something About Darcy last week that of course I had to follow it up by reading a Jane Austen novel. This time around, I decided to turn my attention to Northanger Abbey, which I had not read since I was nineteen, and was the Austen novel that I remembered the least about. Although Northanger Abbey was written in 1803 and later bought by a publisher, the novel itself was not published until after Austen's death in 1817, along with Persuasion.  (Random Austen fact: only four of her novels were published in her lifetime, Sense and Sensibility, Pride and Prejudice, Mansfield Park and Emma.) It turns out there is a reason for that. Although Northanger Abbey is an entertaining read, it fails to make the impact of some of Austen's other much loved novels. The novel opens with a character who is innocent and, as the author is at pains to tell us, unremarkable. Despite being unremarkable, Catherine Moreland, who comes from a big family who are by...

Let's face it, Mr Darcy is the ultimate hero for a lot of Jane Austen fans. Quiet, a deep thinker, proud, rich and above all, a thoroughly good and principled man deep down, who truly loves the heroine of Pride and Prejudice, Miss Elizabeth Bennett. But why is this character so appealing? In There's Something About Darcy, author, scriptwriter and academic Gabrielle Martin seeks to answer this question by studying both the original text, various film and television adaptions and even some surprising contemporary retellings and interpretations of the character. This was a fun read and for me, a great way to return to the characters and the story I've loved since I was nineteen in a slightly different way, without having someone else's interpretation of who Elizabeth and Darcy should be ruin it for me. That said, there isn't much in here that I didn't know already. I've seen nearly all the adaptions (but for the Faye Weldon one,) mentioned in the book, and I a...

Emma , Jane's Austen's third novel, shows a slight change of direction for the author. After penning two similar but different tales of young women whose futures depended on them marrying well (and in spite of some surprising odds,) Austen turned her hand to Emma, a story featuring a spoiled and imperfect heroine.  Emma is beautiful, part of England's upper middle classes and basically born into a life of privilege. She has no need to marry and is determined that she will not--however that does not stop her from trying to matchmake her friend Harriet, who is not quite so well off. Or to be more honest, for Emma to meddle and break up the blossoming romance between Harriet and a local farmer and set her up with the local clergyman, which has disastrous results--something which her good friend Mr Knightly cautioned her against. After this, several months pass in which Emma learns a number of useful life lessons, mostly in not interfering, being a bit nicer to people a...

Image courtesy of Project Gutenburg When Pride and Prejudice was released I sincerely doubt that Jane Austen would have had any idea that, some two hundred years after its release, the character of Mary Bennet would see a rise in popularity. The least amiable of the five Bennet sisters, Mary is described as being rather plain and bookish, and something of a boor as she over-estimates her ability as an intellectual and a musician. In the book, she provides little more than comic relief. And, let's face it, Mary is a supporting character in a novel that is intended as a social satire. She doesn't have to be accomplished. All she needs to do is find some way to unintentionally cause embarrassment to her older sisters Jane and Lizzie. In recent times, though, readers have taken a more sympathetic view to Mary. After all, it is not easy being the middle sister, especially when the others have all paired off, and nor could it be easy being the least attractive of the sister...

He was not handsome, and his manners required intimacy to make them pleasing. Sense and Sensibility  by  Jane Austen

The Beautifull Cassandra [sic] is a small volume of short stories that were written by Jane Austen when she was in her teens for the amusement of her family, ones that were later discovered after her death and published because well, readers never seem to be able to get enough of Jane Austen. These stories were republished last year as part of the Penguin Little Black Classics series and for me, provided an entertaining distraction on an otherwise boring evening. Though a little bit childish in places, the stories are written in the authors trademark style, with a lot of social commentary in there and a genuine disdain for the boorish upper middle classes. Despite its silliness (and the fact that the twelve chapters are rather short,) I loved the title story The Beautifull Cassandra, which tells the story of a wicked young woman who spends the afternoon doing well, wicked things ... A treat for Austen fans that should be taken lovingly and not at all seriously. Recommended.

Pemberley, the great manor owned by Mr Darcy becomes home to a murder in Death Comes to Pemberley , author P.D James cleverly plotted continuation of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice . Six years have passed since the Fitzwilliam Darcy married Elizabeth Bennett and the marriage has been a success. The pair are the parents of two boys and, each year host a ball at Pemberley in honour of the late Late Anne. This year, however, things take a strange twist when on the eve of the ball, Elizabeth's wayward sister Lydia, arrives uninvited and announces that a murder has just taken place. Is Mr Wickham guilty of murder, or can Mr Darcy prove that his old rival is innocent? Through crime and murder are not really the subject of Jane Austen novels, this one was highly enjoyable and it is not surprise why, considering the author. P.D. James combines her skill of writing tightly written crime novels with an exceptional amount of research and understanding of Pride and Prejudice --i...

Jane Austen, I suspect, would secretly be very pleased with this modern-day adaption of her classic novel, Sense and Sensibility . Author Kaitlin Saunders (who has previously written a modern-day adaption of Persuasion ,) seamlessly moves the characters and settings from the classic novel to the United States and makes quite convincing arguments for the set up of the story--including most importantly how the Dashwood sisters lose their inheritance to their half brother and his conniving wife, who has been renamed Fancil in order to fit in with the novel's contemporary setting. Sanders cleverly follows the plot of Sense and Sensibility throughout the novel, while adapting it to present day America--in this narrative for example the Dashwood sisters find themselves living in a substandard apartment building in Oregon. Elinor, or Ellie, remains the sensible sister, Marianne remains fanciful. Love interests Edward, along with the caddish Willoughby remain in keeping with the origin...

Just for fun today, I thought I would share a small extract from one of my favourite novels, Pride and Prejudice. I first read this novel one warm evening when I was eighteen and unable to sleep. At that time, it was the only book on my bookshelf that I had not read. Once I picked it up, I could not put it down ...   Chapter 1   It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife. However little known the feelings or views of such a man may be on his first entering a neighbourhood, this truth is so well fixed in the minds of the surrounding families, that he is considered the rightful property of some one or other of their daughters.   "My dear Mr. Bennet," said his lady to him one day, "have you heard that Netherfield Park is let at last?"   Mr. Bennet replied that he had not.   "But it is," returned she; "for Mrs. Long has just been here, and she...