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A review by tracey_stewart
Jane Austen Made Me Do It: Original Stories Inspired by Literature's Most Astute Observer of the Human Heart by Laurel Ann Nattress
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".