I’m not sure just how many different re-tellings I’ve read of Pride and Prejudice. At least six — Bridget Jones’ Diary, Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, Death Comes to Pemberly, a manga version of P & P, Longbourn, and Eligible — but really, I might have read a few more. I probably have. But this one stands out a bit for me, because I really felt like I knew the characters from watching the youtube videos. For those who are unaware, there was a delightful web series […]
It is a truth, universally ignored, that servants have lives too.
Longbourn joins the very long tradition of auxiliary Jane Austen novels and deftly moves to the head of the class. It is one of the better ones out there and MILES ahead of the hated “Austen novel tittle and monster X” books. The book succeeds largely because Jo Baker doesn’t try to ape Austen’s style or plot, she simply tells a story around the narrative structure of Pride and Prejudice. It’s a fairly compelling book that details the lives of the servants to the Bennet family. […]
There’s nothing like summer in the city, someone under stress meets someone looking pretty
It is a truth universally acknowledged that I will devour any Pride & Prejudice adaptation as quickly as possible. And Eligible proved to be no different. This is the second modernized version of Pride & Prejudice that I’ve read (the first being Bridget Jones’s Diary, of course), and the third that I’ve, I don’t know, CONSUMED if you include the very excellent Lizzie Bennet Diaries. (And why wouldn’t you?) This version has updated our favorite characters for modern times, and provided them with new challenges, […]
A good book, but I still prefer the Lizzie Bennet Diaries
3.5 stars I have mentioned more than once my immense fondness and love for the YouTube series The Lizzie Bennet Diaries. I read the companion book about Lizzie, and the sequel of sorts, about Lydia. I was of the opinion that Pride and Prejudice had been modernised pretty successfully already. But as we have seen in the last few years with the many different iterations of Sherlock Holmes, in films, books and TV, a really good thing can inspire a lot of different interpretations. Eligible […]