Good Fortune

 

Good Fortune by C. K. Chau

416 pp

Elizabeth Chen and her sisters Jane, Lydia, Mary, and Kitty live in New York City's Chinatown.  Their mother is a real estate agent and their father runs a restaurant.  Elizabeth's mother sells their beloved community center to a company who plans to change a lot about it.  The two investors are Brendan Lee (the equivalent of Mr. Bingley) and Darcy Wong (the Darcy character).  What ensues is very similar to the novel "Pride and Prejudice" by Jane Austen but with modern twists.  Jane falls in love with Brendan Lee.  His sister and Darcy Wong try to keep him away from her.  Elizabeth and Darcy have sparks, but Darcy's prejudice and Elizabeth's pride get in the way.  In the background is the fear that the buyers will change the community center so much it will no longer work for the people in the neighborhood.  Mr. Collins is part of the book and is not someone there to inherit their father's wealth, but instead works for Catherine  de Bourgh and offers Elizabeth (who is unemployed) a job.  She does not want to take it, but her friend Charlotte does.  Eventually, Elizabeth goes to visit Charlotte.  There she meets Catherine De Bourgh, her daughter, Darcy's sister, etc.  The pride and prejudice eventually get overthrown and Elizabeth and Darcy fall in love.  There are several modernizations, but the basic story line is still there and sometimes gets in the way.

I love Jane Austen, but didn't feel like this kept the spirit while becoming something new.  As a former English major, I may be too picky.  I give the book 3 of 5 stars,

The Jane Austen Society

The Jane Austen Society by Natalie Jenner 320 pages

I’m not sure there has ever been a time since Jane Austen published her novels that she didn’t have rabid fans.  Most teenage girls read them.  I did. I liked them. But they aren’t something that I would re-read again and again.

When this novel opens in 1932 in the village Jane last lived, Chawton, a visitor arrives looking to pay her respects to the places Jane called home and visited. Unfortunately, there isn’t much left and the visitor, Mary Anne, like so many others is disappointed. 

The novel fast forwards to 1943. Chawton is still a small village. Visitors, although not many with WWII raging, still come.  Many of the villagers as well as the visitors can quote Austen. I felt left out, not being able to quote her works, but author Jenner did a great job in letting the rest of us know which book was being quoted.

There are rumors that what is left of Jane’s past will be sold to developers. Some in the village are eager for the sale, others are dismayed at the very thought of it. At first, three villagers come together to figure out what they can do to save the area. Then the group grows to five, then eight. I was confused, at first, because there are only five people on the cover, especially since I had an Advanced Reader’s Copy (Thank you St. Martin’s Press.).

For the rest of the novel, readers learn about the about lives of Evie, Dr. Gray, Adam, Mimi, Yardley, Frances, and Andrew. I like that each of these characters came from differing socio/economic backgrounds. To me, that illustrated how Austen touched all members of society. I also like the not-so-predicable ending. 

Readers beware: There is a graphic rape scene that to me did not fit with the style of the book.

“The Jane Austen Society” receives 3 out of 5 stars in Julie’s world.

Pride and Prejudice

Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen, 269 pages

The most popular novel by one of the most popular novelists in history, Pride and Prejudice has been imitated, adapted, mashed-up, reimagined, and "continued" seemingly innumerable times.  Yet the original remains untarnished in its indisputable greatness.  Partially, this is due to the high quality of Austen's prose and the keenness of her observations, partially due to the indispensable historical social setting, and partially due to the timeless themes of the difference between reality and appearance and the foundation of true happiness in the cultivation of virtue.

Love & Friendship

Love & Friendship, in which Jane Austen's Lady Susan Vernon is Entirely Vindicated, Concerning the Beautiful Lady Susan Vernon, Her Cunning Daughter & the Strange Antagonism of the DeCourcy Family by Whit Stillman, 276 pages

At long last, the true story behind one of Jane Austen's least celebrated novels has been told.  The truth-teller is none other than Rufus Martin-Colonna de Cesari-Rocca, the nephew (by marriage) of the same Lady Susanna Grey Vernon so scandalously slandered in Austen's early attempt at an epistolary novel, Lady Susan.  Only a man with his remarkable memory and thorough understanding of the personalities involved (not to mention extraordinary good sense and undoubted personal integrity) could hope to thwart the gawfers - including Ms Austen herself - who sought (vainly, in the end) to despisefy the honest Lady.  Truly, after reading his refreshing corrective, any objective reader must conclude that, had it not been for Lady Susan's particular virtues, the story could not possibly have reached the happy ending it did.

Whit Stillman's Love & Friendship is only 153 pages long - the remainder of the book is taken up with Austen's original Lady Susan, with appropriate footnotes by Mr Martin-Colonna highlighting the deficiencies in the text.  One feature that distinguishes Stillman above virtually every other filmmaker of his generation is a use of irony which never descends into cynicism.  This is itself the product of a fundamentally optimistic perspective on human society - no matter how venal, manipulative, and deceitful his characters, their destructiveness always seems to serve some purpose, however obscure.  Such is the case in Love & Friendship, a romance and a comedy.

Pride and Prejudice

Pride and Prejudice, Manga adaptation by Stacy E. King, 377 pages

Pride and Prejudice is one of those classics that commonly appear on top books to read or books to read before you die. It is also one of those books that whenever someone starts talking about it I tried to fake that I might have read it. Well I still have not read the original but now at least I know enough of the characters and plot that I can discuss it without looking foolish.

Pride and Prejudice was originally written by Jane Austen and is definitely considered a classical work. It follows the life of Elizabeth Bennet and to a lesser degree her sister Jane as they explore and experience manners, morality and marriage. The book is rife with misunderstandings and misconceptions that while in that time period helped explore morality, today would be of little consequence. It is odd to see the things that back then would prevent a marriage such as family stature and wealth. While that still likely exists among the higher societies in todays time, it does nothing to associate it with the common reader.

I was hoping that by reading this manga adaptation I would then feel motivated to read the original. Sadly it had the opposite reaction. I now feel that I have read enough to be able to talk about the book and the morals that go with it and no longer need to read the original. Maybe someone will be able to convince me otherwise in the comments

First Impressions

First Impressions, A novel of Old Books, Unexpected Love, and Jane Austen by Charlie Lovett
308 Pages

Sophie Collingwood is a recent graduate of Oxford whose love of books came from her Uncle Bertram.  When Uncle Bertram suddenly dies, Sophie inherits his flat and soon has a job in  a nearby bookstore.  When two different customers ask to find the same obscure book, Sophie finds herself entwined in a mystery that may present evidence that Jane Austen plagerized the beloved book Pride and Prejudice. 

 A literary mystery that jumps back to Austen's life  and then returns to the present presents an enjoyable reading experience.