Scan barcode
cris136's review
4.0
Short stories based on Jane Austen's life and/or novels. Some stories were funny/cute, some were boring, some really made me want to read more by those authors.
tracey_stewart's review
2.0
I won this from LibraryThing's Member Giveaway – Many thanks.
Partly in celebration, I take it, of the bicentenary of Sense and Sensibility comes this collection of Austenabilia. There are twenty-two stories commissioned for this book which center on Jane Austen or her characters in some way – a wide variety of ways, from what has to be admitted to be fan fiction to insertion of Jane or her ghost as a player in the cast to largely unrelated stories that barely brush the subject at hand. The general premise makes me a little uneasy; would Miss Austen have approved of impertinent strangers jumping her characters through new hoops, much less using her as a character? Perhaps she would. But given that a big part of the little I know about her involves her desire for privacy, I seriously tend to doubt it. It's a matter of respect for the author, for the person. (I seem to be one of the only people bothered by this… which is nothing new.)
One note to writers who may one day be included in future Jane Austen-themed anthologies: please, for the love of God or whatever else you love best, do not - ***do not*** - make your first line any form of play on "It is a truth universally acknowledged that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife." I'm begging you. It's for your own good as well as the reader's – please. There are half a dozen stories in this collection that use it - all right, two, but it seemed like half a dozen - and … really. Refrain.
The cover, I feel, is not a great design. What is close-to obviously meant to be a French memo board (French!?) with cartes de visites tucked into the ribbons just reads from a distance as two deep pink X's crossing out the female face and the cover itself, cluttered with off-white rectangles. Even though only nine of the contributing writers (23, including the editor) were given a place on the cover, it makes for a crowded image.
I admit to being a little perturbed that the book's official website mentions an enhanced eBook edition; I feel a bit slighted. I can't find detail about what the enhancements might be, though.
Putting all of that aside, taking the stories individually as stories … well, as is usual for an anthology, there's a little bit of everything, good and bad and indifferent.
Reviews of the stories are on my blog - https://agoldoffish.wordpress.com/2011/10/15/jane-austen-made-me-do-it-story-collection-lter/
On the whole, the lesson I take away from this collection is multi-leveled. Be very judicious (and respectful) in using a real historical personage as a character, and the same goes for another person's fictional creations. If you do so you must take off from very solid ground: apart from the obvious, don't make random crap up, because it will only make you look foolish. And don't under any circumstances begin with any "truth universally acknowledged".
Partly in celebration, I take it, of the bicentenary of Sense and Sensibility comes this collection of Austenabilia. There are twenty-two stories commissioned for this book which center on Jane Austen or her characters in some way – a wide variety of ways, from what has to be admitted to be fan fiction to insertion of Jane or her ghost as a player in the cast to largely unrelated stories that barely brush the subject at hand. The general premise makes me a little uneasy; would Miss Austen have approved of impertinent strangers jumping her characters through new hoops, much less using her as a character? Perhaps she would. But given that a big part of the little I know about her involves her desire for privacy, I seriously tend to doubt it. It's a matter of respect for the author, for the person. (I seem to be one of the only people bothered by this… which is nothing new.)
One note to writers who may one day be included in future Jane Austen-themed anthologies: please, for the love of God or whatever else you love best, do not - ***do not*** - make your first line any form of play on "It is a truth universally acknowledged that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife." I'm begging you. It's for your own good as well as the reader's – please. There are half a dozen stories in this collection that use it - all right, two, but it seemed like half a dozen - and … really. Refrain.
The cover, I feel, is not a great design. What is close-to obviously meant to be a French memo board (French!?) with cartes de visites tucked into the ribbons just reads from a distance as two deep pink X's crossing out the female face and the cover itself, cluttered with off-white rectangles. Even though only nine of the contributing writers (23, including the editor) were given a place on the cover, it makes for a crowded image.
I admit to being a little perturbed that the book's official website mentions an enhanced eBook edition; I feel a bit slighted. I can't find detail about what the enhancements might be, though.
Putting all of that aside, taking the stories individually as stories … well, as is usual for an anthology, there's a little bit of everything, good and bad and indifferent.
Reviews of the stories are on my blog - https://agoldoffish.wordpress.com/2011/10/15/jane-austen-made-me-do-it-story-collection-lter/
On the whole, the lesson I take away from this collection is multi-leveled. Be very judicious (and respectful) in using a real historical personage as a character, and the same goes for another person's fictional creations. If you do so you must take off from very solid ground: apart from the obvious, don't make random crap up, because it will only make you look foolish. And don't under any circumstances begin with any "truth universally acknowledged".
nicole_reads_romance's review against another edition
I read about a third of the stories in this anthology, mainly the ones from authors I've previously read and enjoyed. And I did enjoy the stories I read!
jackiesam's review
4.0
Nine times out of ten I'd rather read Jane Austen than Jane Austen tributes but I really enjoyed this collection. I especially loved the way the editor/author chose to end it.
pageb's review
5.0
Loved it! Great stories and spin-offs inspired by the greatest- Jane Austen. What more can you say?
alanacreech's review
emotional
funny
inspiring
lighthearted
relaxing
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? N/A
- Loveable characters? N/A
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
drcopeland's review
5.0
I really enjoyed this book. There were so many cute stories. I had never heard of a few so getting a chance to read their story allowed me to see how they wrote and I found I now have other writers to read.
katescholastica's review
3.0
I’m the first to admit that I’m not a big short story person, so I never expected this to get 5 stars — it’s tough to read something where you love one story then are unimpressed by the next. But there wasn’t any story in here that grabbed my attention and the anthology is cute for a day but isn’t particularly memorable.
sherming's review
3.0
A mix of a lot of good, short writing either inspired by or continuations of themes on Jane Austen works. The problem for me was there are a lot of clever references to the works of Austen, but not being that well-versed with Austen I missed a lot of those references or didn't quite know where the stories might have started.
cinta's review
3.0
I had been quite looking forward to reading this anthology of stories inspired by Jane Austen and, after reading not even half of the stories, I got really disappointed. Some stories are good. But some others are really bad. So the reason why I am giving a 3-stars rating is because most of the stories don't deserve more than one or two stars. A few of them were really good, but overall the level of quality of the stories wasn't too high. I couldn't finish a couple of stories because they were quite boring. Some others were so ridiculous that I could only roll my eyes all the time. I wouldn't recommend this anthology to my Janeite friends.