JANE AUSTEN MADE ME DO IT - MY REVIEW

Jane Austen Made Me Do It  is a wonderful collection of Austenesque short stories and an illuminating example of how … union is strength. A group of 22 Austen Authors have been writing for the same goal and have aimed at this extraordinary achievement all together under the guide of  a very special editor, Laurel Ann Natress, who is at the same time a great expert of Jane Austen and of the book market and marketing.

It has been a delightful full immersion in Austen fan fiction. I had already read most of these authors in at least one of their personal achievements and to find them all together in one book was like … watching a firework show.  What I especially appreciated is the range of variety, the originality  and the high quality of the 22 tales. There are stories for all tastes: from gothic to comedy, from classic romance to chick lit, from  what-ifs  to sequels, from spin-offs to modernizations.

I’ve picked up 5 of my favourite stories and I want to share with you my notes, that is, what I scribbled about each of them immediately after  finishing reading.

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Notes from my reading journal

Jane Austen’s Nightmare

Wow! A very promising beginning! I’ve started reading my galley from page.1 and I don’t usually do it with short stories. However,  the opening title  is by  Syrie James  , the best selling author of The Lost Memoirs of Jane Austen, The Secret Diaries of Charlotte Bronte, Dracula My Love, and Nocturne.  She  sketches Jane Austen taken into a nightmare: her characters claim their own rights. “Too perfect” , complains Fanny Price, “Too flaw”, reprimands Emma. Poor Jane! Will any of her characters show her any gratitude? 

This little tale reminds me of a great theatrical masterpiece, gloomier and more tragic than this delightful story. It was written by Italian dramatist and novelist Luigi Pirandello. What’s the English translation for “Quattro personaggi in cerca d’Autore”?

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Waiting- A Story inspired to Jane Austen’s Persuasion 

“Good things come to those who wait”… well,  at least,  to those who are as constant and loyal as Anne Elliot and Frederick Wentworth. What happens when Persuasion closes on the last page? I’m sure we all have wondered what the meeting between Lord Elliot and Captain Wentworth might have been like or what  Wentworth’s thoughts might have been when he met Anne after he had  sent her that heartfelt  letter. Jane Odiwe has gifted us with a cute tale of those events and much more.

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Love and Best Wishes, Aunt Jane

Here I am, literally moved to tears by  Adriana Trigiani ’s letter. It got directly to my heart. This fictional Jane-style letter to her beloved niece Anna, her brother James’s daughter, is simply full of … her. Well, the Jane I have in my mind, of course, the image resulting from her letters and biographies and work.  It is a very ill woman who feels life, the life she was deeply in love with, was fading away from her and tries  to pass her young niece her precious recipe for a life of no regrets.

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Jo Beverley has created an incredibly romantic Regency Christmas tale, Jane Austen and the Mistletoe Kiss. Lively and sparkling, sweet and warming as a Christmas Carol. The protagonists,  widowed Mrs Carsholt and her three young daughters,  live in Chawton in a small cottage on the lands of Mr Danvers. Elinor hates the idea of being poor and subjected to Mr Danvers kind charity, though she must show herself grateful. Well, its not difficult: Mr Danvers is young , handsome, thoughtful, generous and very kind to them.

They also meet Miss Jane Austen and have read her “Pride and Prejudice”, although they didn’t know she had written it, at first. Mr Nicholas Danvers gave them that book as a gift, but Elinor Carsholt now doesn’t think it was a good idea to let her eldest daughter Amy read it … Her mind is full of improbable, dangerous, if not indecent, dreams.  Elinor knows the “Mr Darcys” out there, those like Mr Nicholas Danvers, don’t really marry penniless young ladies like Amy. She must be sensible for all of them and warn her daughter from the risks.

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When Only a Darcy Will Do

Beth Pattillo created a brief romantic interlude in chaotic, crowded London. The protagonist, Elizabeth, invented her job, to be  a guide for an Austen  trail in London. She even moved from the States hoping to earn money guiding tourists through the places Jane Austen visited and lived in while she was in London. But she is a bit disappointed by the results. Dressed up in a Regency costume, waiting for someone interested in Austen in the centre of London, she starts feeling out of place and a bit sad. Until a handsome young man, all dressed up in a gorgeous Regency costume comes out from the tube station and approaches her. Her Mr Darcy?

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It was great fun reading this book and discovering  all these little Austeneque gems one after one: different colours, different shades, different shape and size but all so charming! 

 Austen Authors contributing to  this collection 

Jane Austen Made Me Do It Official Site