Books : Flirting with Pride & Prejudice: Fresh Perspectives on the Original Chick-Lit Masterpiece (Smart Pop series)

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: Flirting with Pride & Prejudice: Fresh Perspectives on the Original Chick-Lit Masterpiece (Smart Pop series)
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Type of bind: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 823.7
EAN num: 9781932100723
ISBN number: 1932100725
Label: Benbella Books
Manufacturer: Benbella Books
Quantity: 1
Page Count: 240
Printing Date: September 28, 2005
Publishing house: Benbella Books
Sale Popularity Level: 185054
Studio: Benbella Books



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** COMPLETELY UNAUTHORIZED **
 
One of fiction's most well-loved novels, this 19th-century classic continues to capture the hearts of contemporary readers with its notions of marriage, dating, and romance. Leading authors in the area of women's literature and romance contribute to this fresh collection of essays on everything from Lydia's scandalous marriage to George Wickham to the female-dominated Bennett household and the emphasis placed on courtship and marriage. Contributors include Jo Beverly, Alesia Holliday, Mercedes Lackey, Joyce Millman, and Jill Winters. This compilation is an excellent companion for both those new to Jane Austen and well-versed Austen-philes.




Customer Reviews
User popularity level: out of 5 stars

Rated by buyers 2 out of 5 stars - Unworthy of Austen--or Crusie
It is a truth universally acknowledged that magazines should be judged by their best contents and collections and journals by their worst, as they are not under the same pressure to meet deadlines and fill pages. The worst here is Mercedes Lackey who in the absence of anything useful or interesting to say has inserted an advertisement for her own writings, but the competition was pretty severe, including Adam Roberts who has used his pages to defend simply indefensible conduct on the part of certain (other) academic critics. Crusie, an excellent writer herself, should not have signed off as editor to a collection containing these articles. Jane Austen wrote out P&P at least three times longhand, and sweated off at least a quarter of her text before it went to a publisher. I'm not sure some of these authors did more than type once and hit the spellcheck.
All of which said, Jo Beverley's "Gold Diggers of 1813" is first-rate work--a neat summary for beginners of the dilemma of an Austen heroine. It deserves to be reprinted in better company. Until it is, this one will stay on the shelves.


Rated by buyers 4 out of 5 stars - Smart Pop (so true!)
This collection of dates with Jane Austen has something for everyone, and the diversity of the essays points to the continuing popularity of "Pride and Prejudice". Several writers examine Austen as The Mother of All Chick-lit, leading the reader to wonder at the esteem in which Austen is held, while the thousands of books she spawned languish in their pink ghettos. Several writers examine details of Austen's world, while others freely enter in to it, and still others drag her into the 21st century.

I don't know when I've enjoyed a collection of essays so much. A few of the writers I've read elsewhere, but many are new to me. Not all of the twenty-five perspectives offered will appeal equally, but all are well-written, informative, and amusing. And they'll all send you back to the original, thinking.


Rated by buyers 4 out of 5 stars - Fun, but light
Misled by the marketing, I was hoping to find this a volume of accessible critical analysis of Jane Austen's influence on modern fiction. Boy, was I wrong.

Only two of the essays were really thought-provoking: Lauren Baratz-Logsted's essay on Austen's heirs in chick-lit and Karen Joy Fowler's discusion of Austen's modern audience. However, I also enjoyed Jo Beverly's interesting exploration of women's economic prospects in Austen's period, which brought Elizabeth Bennet's budget into modern terms.

Lawrence Watt-Evans' essay on war in Austen (or the absence of war in Austen) was very thorough if somewhat out-of-place.

Aside from these stand-outs, the other essays are, for the most part, musings on Austen's relevance to the authors' personal lives -- light, amusing fare. Some of them are rewritings or sequels of part of Austen's own work, and I can't evaluate these: I found them tiresome, but perhaps that's just because they weren't what I wanted from the book.


Rated by buyers 4 out of 5 stars - Patchy, but a nice introduction to a kind of critical interpretation
It is a truth, universally acknowledged that Jane Austen's popularity will continue for a long time to come. With another version of Pride and Prejudice on the screens and the Bollywood version, Bride and Prejudice recently released she will continue in the foreground for a while yet. The writing of a new type of critical literature to allow new readers to take new perspectives on her work is therefore timely, and this collection is not too bad either.

I have some reservations on it from the start. I found Jennifer Cruise to be mostly quite good in her (short) introductions to each chapter, but was occassionally annoyed by her blithe ignorance. At one point, for instance, she insisted that Jane Austen 'scholars' all thought of Jane as 'never having a thought that wasn't pure"......Excuse me?! Austen scholars who have studied her letters know indeed, despite Cassandra's heavy editing and likely huge destruction of her sisters Letters, that Jane Austen had many thoughts that were not indulgent and pure.

There were 25 Essays in here, of which 5 were fan fiction or continuations, and at least 2 others might as well have been. There was one quite fun script for a Bennet/bacherlorette reality show. But for the most part these ones just didn't interest me greatly and I skimmed through them.

Beth Kendricks very first item sets the tone of the book, relating the choosing of a husband (Elizabeth's burden as a single woman) to modern day choices. For the most part I enjoyed this, but one thing I felt she could have mentioned was that under property laws of the time not only was Elizabeth without money, but any she had became the property of her husband. Choosing a husband was more than a simple process of hit and miss as it is now - it really was for life.

Jennifer O'connells subsequent essay struck me with the same issues - of course her friends wouldn't give Charlotte the advice not to marry Mr Collins - Charlotte was competing for husbands with the 5 Bennet Girls, she also had her younger sister following behind. Mr Collins had money or at least the living at Lady de bourghs, and would be rich once Mr Bennet died, and he was not cruel, just a fool. So for Elizabeth to persist in advising her otherwise was against Charlottes best interests. Still it was salient advice for modern readers

The two best essays, I thought were Jane Austen and History and these are highly recommnended. Jo Beverly gives a very interesting and readable outline of just why there were Gold Diggers in 1813 (the year this book was published) and what the income meant for the Bennet family. Also pointing out that Men were gold diggers too. Beverly pointed out Mr Wickham was a gold digger but interestingly she didn't point out that Darcy's cousin whom Elizabeth met at Rosings was also a gold digger - he had to be as he had no money himself - the difference between himself and Wickham is that he had ethical standards.

Lawrence Watt-Evans also wrote an excellent essay on 'a world at war' pointing out the conflict in dates. The book was very first written around 1797 and revised in 1802, but revised again somewhere between 1809 and 1812 and published in 1813. The action takes part over a year from June through to the following june, however the three dates in the book do not correspond to two consecutive years. Watt-Evans outlines the two major arguments from R W Chapman (1811-1812) and PBS Andrews who settles for a period 1797-1802 (saying that it was started in 1797 but the latter half revised substantially in 1802 thus the descrepancy in dates and the small section at the end which talks about Peace (referring to Peace in Amiens). This is a great small outline of the research of these dates, but I think he would have done well - given that his article is about war with the French to have read John Brehan and Clive Caplan;s Article in Persuasions #14 which convincingly argues that the date this was set is in actuality more likely 1794/5 because after that date no Militia were billeted out of season in inland towns of Britain as barracks were built for them. The key element of Pride and Prejudice, the billeting of the Militia could not happened after 1795. There is a great deal more convincing edidence in this article and I strongly recommend it

Elisabeth Fairchild wrote a reasonable review of Pride and Prejudice in Chick lit but I found it unnecessarily confusing as she referred to onions, broccoli to try to clarify them....yeah, confusing isn't it? I just couldn't read Adam Roberts article about the Masturbating Critic, it just was too self indulgent. I also found Elizabeth Baratz-Logsted's article about who has Pride and who has prejudice unncessarily naive. Surely the themes of Pride and of Prejudice relate to all characters at one time or another?

I loved Jennifer Reillys analogy of Pride and Prejudice with Fiddler on the Roof - Masterful! I also really enjoyed ... Read More


Rated by buyers 3 out of 5 stars - Flirting, a Light Read

Flirting with Pride and Prejudice is a delightful collection of essays about Jane Austen's classic novel Pride and Prejudice. Flirting with Pride and Prejudice is divided into sections, each fitting together perfectly. Jane and History deals with the more important topic of war. The other essay is about gold diggers around the time of Pride and Prejudice. Jane's Hero deals with Mr. Darcy and how women will always be attracted to the bad boys, especially Colin Firth. Jane's Untold Stories adds to the novel by giving other characters a life, including the hardly mentioned sister Mary. Charlotte even has an entire essay written for her. The collection ends with some twenty very first century drama, including reality TV and cell phones during proposals. While serious in parts, Flirting with Pride and Prejudice mostly is a light read about the original writer of "chic lit."

Flirting with Pride and Prejudice is a wonderful collection of stories, mostly about how Jane Austen inspired today's writers but also about the movies and Colin Firth. I enjoyed the collection though I am not entirely sure that I read the whole Austen novel. I know. I will go out and buy it soon. Flirting with Pride and Prejudice will inspire readers to pick up the classic and read into it.






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