BOOK REVIEW: DIANA BIRCHALL, THE BRIDE OF NORTHANGER

As she revealed in the interview I posted opening the blog tour, the Doyenne of Austenesque fiction, Diana Birchall,  started writing The Bride of Northanger  soon after the last JASNA conference whose theme was Northanger Abbey, in Portland in 2010. 

She had always found Northanger Abbey very charming and youthful and was particularly curious about the central relationship.  

I've personally always found Northanger Abbey very entertaining and,  in the same time,  an interesting experiment in the literary world of Jane Austen's time: it blends the conventions of two differnt types of novels,  the Gothic Novel and the Novel of Manners. 

So, I was really glad  when I heard there was a sequel to Northanger Abbey by Diana Birchall coming out and gladly accepted the invitation to take part in the blog tour to promote it.  We have a lot of Pride and Prejudice material to enjoy,  but rarely get to read fan fiction dealing with the other novels. This is why I also accepted to read and review The Bride of Northanger. 

THE BRIDE OF NORTHANGER BY DIANA BIRCHALL: BLOG TOUR LAUNCH

Hello #Janeites and welcome to My Jane Austen Book Club! I'm so glad  to be opening a new great event here at our online club. Aren't you thrilled too? There aren't so many Northanger Abbey-inspired novels out there so this is a truly special event. 

The Doyenne of Austenesque fiction, Diana Birchall, tours the blogosphere starting today October 28 through November 15 to share her latest release, The Bride of Northanger. I'm in truly good company in this adventure: thirty popular bloggers specializing in historical and Austenesque fiction will feature guest blogs, interviews, excerpts, and book reviews of this acclaimed continuation of Jane Austen’s Gothic parody, Northanger Abbey.  

INTERVIEW WITH DIANA BIRCHALL

Hello Diana and welcome back to My Jane Austen Book Club. You were one the first Jane Austen Fan Fiction writers in the 1990s. Can you share your inspiration to become an Austenesque writer and your career journey so far?

“Think only of the past as its remembrance gives you pleasure,” as Elizabeth told Darcy, and it does give me pleasure, Maria Grazia, for you to invite me to talk about the past! My Jane Austen adventure began when I won a contest in the JASNA journal Persuasions, as long ago as 1984, writing Austen style dialogue, a little sketch of the chatter of Miss Bates, in Emma. It was so much fun, and I was so pleased at winning, that I decided to do more. Over the next few years I wrote lots of what I thought of as pastiche (the terms Austenesque and fan fic hadn’t yet been invented!), and this led to my writing a full-length novel: Mrs. Darcy’s Dilemma was written in 1992. At the time there had not been a Pride and Prejudice sequel since the 1940s, and I thought it was an idea whose time had come. Two other authors had the same brain wave simultaneously, and there was a fierce competition. I had an excited New York literary agent and was told to expect a bidding war – but no. The others (Emma Tennant with Pemberley and Julia Barrett with Presumption) were better known, I was as yet unpublished, and the publishing world decreed that there was no ROOM for a third Pride and Prejudice sequel, if you can believe that, in a world where there are now hundreds!