Stardust by Ulrike and Cindy C. (PG)
Title: Stardust.
Fandom: Jane Austen's Persuasion.
Pairing: Anne Elliot/Frederick Wentworth.
Categories: AU, Romance.
Length: Epic (~59,000 words).
Warnings: Sexual harassment in the work place (coarse language and attempted groping), alcoholism, minor OC deaths and frequent mentions of events during WWII, including life in concentration camps.
Authors on LJ: ladysusan (Ulrike)
Author Website: Ulrike's Baronetage Profile
Stories by Cindy
Authors' Summary: "Anna von Eltow and Friedrich Wingendorff meet again after eight years and a world war apart in 1948 Germany."
Review:
After the devastation of the war, Anna von Eltow does her best to support her family, as no one else seems inclined to face the reality of their situation and obtain gainful employment. Her quiet life is turned upside down when Friedrich Wingendorff, the man she gave up eight years before, comes to Heidelberg.
For a long time I maintained that the only Jane Austen fics I read were the Regency-era ones that kept the main canon pairings intact. Yet like the beautiful Everingham (one of my all time favorite fics in any fandom) opened my mind to non-canon pairings, "Stardust" has made me admit that JA fics set in eras different from canon can also be very, very good.
The first thing that caught my interest was the fact that it was a long, well-written non P&P fic (still rarities in the JA fandom, I'm afraid). What really intrigued me, however, was the setting of the story: post-WWII Germany. It is very clear by the way the story is written and by the occasional explanatory historical footnote (there are a number of them, which might displease some people, but which I personally found very interesting) that the authors have done their research. The story feels very authentic for the period and the setting is never used in an exploitative way.
In short, the good writing and the meticulous care with historical details Ulrike and Cindy C. managed to weave into the story proved to me, without a shadow of a doubt, that you can transpose a well known and beloved tale to a different setting and make it fresh and interesting while still retaining all the things that made you fall in love with the story in the first place.
Stardust (pt. 1) (pt. 2) (pt. 3)
Fandom: Jane Austen's Persuasion.
Pairing: Anne Elliot/Frederick Wentworth.
Categories: AU, Romance.
Length: Epic (~59,000 words).
Warnings: Sexual harassment in the work place (coarse language and attempted groping), alcoholism, minor OC deaths and frequent mentions of events during WWII, including life in concentration camps.
Authors on LJ: ladysusan (Ulrike)
Author Website: Ulrike's Baronetage Profile
Stories by Cindy
Authors' Summary: "Anna von Eltow and Friedrich Wingendorff meet again after eight years and a world war apart in 1948 Germany."
Review:
After the devastation of the war, Anna von Eltow does her best to support her family, as no one else seems inclined to face the reality of their situation and obtain gainful employment. Her quiet life is turned upside down when Friedrich Wingendorff, the man she gave up eight years before, comes to Heidelberg.
For a long time I maintained that the only Jane Austen fics I read were the Regency-era ones that kept the main canon pairings intact. Yet like the beautiful Everingham (one of my all time favorite fics in any fandom) opened my mind to non-canon pairings, "Stardust" has made me admit that JA fics set in eras different from canon can also be very, very good.
The first thing that caught my interest was the fact that it was a long, well-written non P&P fic (still rarities in the JA fandom, I'm afraid). What really intrigued me, however, was the setting of the story: post-WWII Germany. It is very clear by the way the story is written and by the occasional explanatory historical footnote (there are a number of them, which might displease some people, but which I personally found very interesting) that the authors have done their research. The story feels very authentic for the period and the setting is never used in an exploitative way.
In short, the good writing and the meticulous care with historical details Ulrike and Cindy C. managed to weave into the story proved to me, without a shadow of a doubt, that you can transpose a well known and beloved tale to a different setting and make it fresh and interesting while still retaining all the things that made you fall in love with the story in the first place.
Stardust (pt. 1) (pt. 2) (pt. 3)