Gotham Gal Review: Writing Jane Austen

Critically acclaimed and award-winning but hardly bestselling author Georgina Jackson can't get past the first chapter of her second book. When she receives an urgent email from her agent, Georgina is certain it's bad news. Shockingly, she's offered a commission to complete a newly discovered unfinished manuscript. Skeptical at first about her ability to complete the manuscript, Georgina is horrified to learn that the author in question is Jane Austen.

Torn between pushing through or fleeing home to America, Georgina relies on the support of her banker-turned-science-student roommate, Henry, and his quirky sister Maud, a serious Janeite.  With a sudden financial crisis looming, the only way Georgina can get by is to sign the hugely lucrative contract and finish the book.

This is the premise for Elizabeth Aston's new novel WRITING JANE AUSTEN. I really wanted to love this book, I'm a huge Jane Austen fan, and it's set in England, so it should have been a win-win situation for me. Unfortunately, I found myself bored at times, and skimming the novel rather than reading it. The biggest problem for me was the heroine Georgina. I found her incredibly annoying and childish at times. Instead of facing the problems, she runs away first to Oxford and then from Bath. She ignores emails from her agent and from the Professor who is supposed to be helping her write the book, instead of sitting down and listening. Although I understood her snobbish, dismissive attitude towards Jane Austen, it bugged me that it took until page 140 before she even read the novels. Of course, once she did, she fell completely in love with Jane Austen. But then the real problems start, we are treated to endless pages of her procrastination, and self-doubt.  After awhile, instead of having me sympathize with a fellow writer, I found her whinging a complete turnoff.

Aston sets up believable roadblocks and obstacles. Georgina's funding gets cut off from her University fellowship and her father can't help her because he's going through his 5th divorce, which leads her to finally signing the contract to write the book. She also ends up with the beginnings of karpal tunnel syndrome from typing too much, which leads to some amusing scenes with her trying to type with one hand, and then buying voice recognition software.

Another problem is there is a lot of telling and not showing. It would have helped if Aston has included excerpts from THE SADNESS OF JANE SILVERSMITH, the book that Georgina has been working on, writing 48 versions of the same chapter. That's funny, and it would have been nice to have a few snippets from a couple of the chapters as well as some tidbits from her first novel MAGDALENE CRIB, which was critically acclaimed but didn't sell. The reader is treated to reviewer which gives a plot summary of a novel more depressing than anything Thomas Hardy wrote. Since LOVE AND FRIENDSHIP is supposed to be a lost Jane Austen fragment, I would have liked to have gotten more than just a plot summary of the fragment, and also later on when Georgina writes the first draft and then revises it. I felt that this was a real weakness.

There are two minor subplots. Henry's sister Maud runs away from her boarding school, and he spents endless pages trying to find her a new one. Also, his other lodger Anna, ends up falling for his cousin Charles, which is disapproved off by his aunt Pamela, shades of Pride and Prejudice. There are other echoes of Austen in the novel, Henry's last name is Lefroy which is the name of Tom Lefroy, the man that some people feel was Austen's lost love. Some of the most amsing scenes occur when Georgina flees to Bath which Aston depicts as sort of a Jane Austen themepark. Her friend Bel even owns a shop called Darcy. It's also somewhat amusing to hear other characters she comes across diss Jane Austen, which seems to bolster Georgina's viewpoint that Austen is just a romance novelist until she actually reads the books.  It was nice to see Georgina's snobbery crumble.

Aston does get into a writer's head and the problems of procrastination, those sections felt all too real, and the ways that we authors deal with it. However, the love story between Henry and Georgina felt tacked on. I never once believed that she was falling in love with Henry, I just didn't feel it, although he is wonderfully supportive during the story. Her great realization felt false. Maud however is a delightful character, and is rightly described as 14 going on 30. She was a breath of fresh air in the story whenever it got bogged down with Georgina's whinging.

Verdict: 3 Apples, This book will no doubt please die-hard Austen fans but I found the heroine sorely lacking and there was too much telling and not enough showing.

What I'm Reading Now: Jane Bites Back

I would normally have avoided this book like the plague if it hadn't been for Sarah over at Reading the Past who reviewed this book on her site. I normally avoid Austen prequels, sequels, etc. like the plague. I've never read any of the Jane Austen or the Mr. & Mrs. Darcy mysteries either. However, I was intrigued by this book. Particularly the cover.

From the back cover:

Two hundred years after her death, Jane Austen is still surrounded by the literature she loves—but now it's because she's the owner of Flyleaf Books in a sleepy college town in Upstate New York. Every day she watches her novels fly off the shelves—along with dozens of unauthorized sequels, spin-offs, and adaptations. Jane may be undead, but her books have taken on a life of their own.



To make matters worse, the manuscript she finished just before being turned into a vampire has been rejected by publishers—116 times. Jane longs to let the world know who she is, but when a sudden twist of fate thrusts her back into the spotlight, she must hide her real identity—and fend off a dark man from her past while juggling two modern suitors. Will the inimitable Jane Austen be able to keep her cool in this comedy of manners, or will she show everyone what a woman with a sharp wit and an even sharper set of fangs can do?

After reading that how could I resist? The best part is that Jane was turned into a vampire by Lord Byron which is completely believable. If any 19th century author was going to be an actual vampire it would be him. After all his doctor, John Polidori, wrote a book called The Vampyr that most people assumed was based on Byron. Although Jane Austen still struggles with her altered nature, she doesn't spend alot of time whinging on about it. Yes, she's a vampire and she has to feed, but she finds remarkably clever ways of doing it. The supporting characters, especially her assistant at the bookstore, Lucy are warm, and witty, people that you want to spend more time with. Ford has managed to write a book that should appeal to both Janeites and lovers of vampire fiction. I'm sure there are die-hard Jane Austen fans who will think that their heroine doesn't appear particularly Jane-like but remember she's 234 years old. Ford also doesn't spend alot of time setting up the vampire mythology in his book. Although Jane and Byron go to a vampire restaurant in New Orleans, Jane admits that she hasn't spent a great deal of time with her kind.

The best part are the intriguing snippets from Jane's book Constance that are included at the head of each chapter. I hope that Ballantine at some point decides to publish Constance the way that Avon published the romance that Princess Mia was writing (with a little help from Meg Cabot). There is a sub-plot involving a literary rival of Jane's that I had thought was dropped half-way through but came roaring back towards the end.

The only negative criticisms I have are that most books aren't rushed out as quickly as they are depicted in this book. And I was a little annoyed at the depiction of the Romance Writer's Guild conference. It's a little too easy to poke fun at romance writers. Still, I thought this book was thoroughly enjoyable although slight and I'm intrigued enough that I would be willing to read the next two books in the series.

You can read more about the author at http://www.janebitesback.com/ or at http://www.michaelthomasford.com/

The Legend Continues

The Daily Mail in London reports that a tiny portrait of Tom LeFroy, a young Jane Austen knew, and who is thought to have inspired Mr. Darcy in her most popular novel Pride And Prejudice is to be exhibited at an antiques fair. The 3 inch watercolour of Thomas Lefroy was painted by the leading English miniaturist George Engleheart of the day in 1798. The movie Becoming Jane starring Anne Hathaway and the dreamy James McAvoy which came out last year was a highly fictional version of their story.

The basic facts about Jane and Tom's relationship are they met briefly, there might have been an attraction, but it went no further than that. Lefroy's family were not wealthy and they expected him to marry well, which meant a woman with a huge dowry. Lefroy met Austen while visiting his uncle and aunt in Hampshire. They were apparently very taken with one another, talking, dancing and apparently flirting. She referred to him in one of her few letters that survive as 'a gentlemanlike, good-looking, pleasant young man' and found only one fault with him - 'his morning coat is a great deal too light'.

Jane was the sixth of seven children born to a Hampshire rector. The family had very little money and she years away from her first literary success, Sense And Sensibility. With no dowry, Jane's marriage prospects were slim. Of course, even though Jane briefly accepted a marriage proposal later on, the truth is that she probably would never have become a novelist if she had married.

The portrait on ivory - on the back of which are several locks of hair - was painted two years after Lefroy's dalliance with Austen. It will be exhibited in London's Grosvenor House Hotel at the Grosvenor House Art and Antiques Fair for a week from Thursday. It is signed with Engleheart's distinctive 'E' monogram, it is one of only two portraits of Lefroy known to exist and has an asking price of around £50,000.

The dealers Judy and Brian Harden, who are selling the miniature, said they had bought it at auction some time ago without realizing its significance.

Wow, £50,000 ($100,000) for a miniature of the man that Jane once danced with. It is a really nice legend, but that is all that the story is. Still, it would be nice to own something that was associated with Jane Austen.

Stay cool!

EKM

Book Meme

I snagged this meme from the Pajama Gardener (Thanks!)

Total number of books?

If you include what's sitting on my floor, I'd have to say over 500 at the moment. But I've owned thousands over the years.

Last book read?

The Prada Paradox by Julie Kenner.

Last book bought?

The Courtesan's Revenge by Frances Wilson.

Five meaningful books?

This is a hard one. The Diary of Anne Frank. Probably the most powerful book that I read growing up. It opened my eyes to the world outside my doors, and taught me about hope, and also about evil.

Forever by Judy Blume. A banned book which is fitting this is National Banned Books month. I read this book when I was 12 in seventh grade. I'd already started reading Harlequin Romances but this was the first book that told me just how painful and wonderful first love could be.

Gone with the Wind - I don't know why it's so weird to be a woman of color who actually likes Gone with the Wind, although I have to say that I love the movie more than I do the book. Yes, its a book about the glorious South, the lost grand life of plantations but it's also a book about survival, and the passing of an era, that had to end whether with war or some other way. And I love Scarlett. She was smart and strong and did what she had to do to survive and was hated for it. Better for her to have curled up and died or whined like her sisters then pull herself up by her high button shoes. It would have been more ladylike and genteel but war isn't genteel. And I always believed that in the end she would find a way to get back together with Rhett, that now that she knew how much she loved him, she would be just as tenacious as she was rescuing her family and Tara.

Motherless Daughters - This book was a godsend for me after my mother died. I don't know how I would have coped without it.

Jane Austen's Emma - I actually read this book before I read Pride and Prejudice. I've always had a soft spot for Emma. She maybe think she knows best, be a little snobby, but her heart is in the right place. And I love Mr. Knightley. He gently but firmly puts Emma in her place, and teaches her how to grow up.

I'm tagging Megan Frampton, Mary over at the Bandwagon, Deirdre Savoy, Patt Mihailoff, and Charlie Horse.

EKM