Old Friends and New Fancies by Sybil G. Brinton
In an attempt to improve my writing skills, I have decided to write reviews of books and such and post them here. In order to build discipline (which I can always use more of =P), I will endeavor to force myself to write at least one a month. This is August's review. Let's see if I can keep this up for more than a month or two.
Published in 1913, Old Friends and New Fancies by Sybil G. Brinton is the first Jane Austen sequel--and perhaps the first fan fiction--ever written. I expected a novel only slightly less better than those written by Jane herself, but that was unrealistic. The fact that an author is born some hundred years ago does not guarantee that said author will be a better writer than modern ones.
The novel is exactly what its subtitle proclaims: "An Imaginary Sequel to the Novels of Jane Austen." Immediately after the three paragraph introduction is a list of characters from Jane's novels which appear in this book. The nearly forty names delighted me at first, but I soon found it difficult to keep track of the characters. Several of the main characters in this novel have comparatively minor roles in the originals. Because I am not as knowledgeable about Jane Austen as I ought to be, I found Wikipedia to be a useful refresher course.
The story can be separated into three main plots: the romances of Colonel Fitzwilliam, Georgiana Darcy, and Kitty Bennet, respectively. Fitzwilliam's romance is fairly simple, without any major twists. Both Georgiana and Kitty have more complicated romances, but I was able to predict the outcome of each before I was half way through the book. I didn't feel, however, that this predictability made the novel any less enjoyable.
I have read roughly six other novels based on the works of Jane Austen (not including the Jane Austen mysteries, which ought to be in a class of themselves), and I believe this one is the best stylistically. In every other novel I read numerous sentences and thought, "That just doesn't sound like it belongs in an Austen novel." The only time I felt that in reading Old Friends and New Fancies was when Jane Bingley described a family heirloom as "really old". But that's just me being nit-picky.
Overall, I found it to be a very enjoyable read. True, the characters lacked the zest that they had from Jane Austen's pen, but who can expect anyone to be able to achieve Jane's genius? My biggest problem with it was the typos sprinkled throughout the book, but I hope that will be fixed in later editions. I would recommend this to anyone who is tolerable familiar with Jane's six novels. If names like Mary Crawford and Captain Wentworth leave you puzzled, though, you should skip this one.
So, there it is. I don't want anyone to feel they must comment, but I wouldn't mind some friendly criticism of the review. =)
Published in 1913, Old Friends and New Fancies by Sybil G. Brinton is the first Jane Austen sequel--and perhaps the first fan fiction--ever written. I expected a novel only slightly less better than those written by Jane herself, but that was unrealistic. The fact that an author is born some hundred years ago does not guarantee that said author will be a better writer than modern ones.
The novel is exactly what its subtitle proclaims: "An Imaginary Sequel to the Novels of Jane Austen." Immediately after the three paragraph introduction is a list of characters from Jane's novels which appear in this book. The nearly forty names delighted me at first, but I soon found it difficult to keep track of the characters. Several of the main characters in this novel have comparatively minor roles in the originals. Because I am not as knowledgeable about Jane Austen as I ought to be, I found Wikipedia to be a useful refresher course.
The story can be separated into three main plots: the romances of Colonel Fitzwilliam, Georgiana Darcy, and Kitty Bennet, respectively. Fitzwilliam's romance is fairly simple, without any major twists. Both Georgiana and Kitty have more complicated romances, but I was able to predict the outcome of each before I was half way through the book. I didn't feel, however, that this predictability made the novel any less enjoyable.
I have read roughly six other novels based on the works of Jane Austen (not including the Jane Austen mysteries, which ought to be in a class of themselves), and I believe this one is the best stylistically. In every other novel I read numerous sentences and thought, "That just doesn't sound like it belongs in an Austen novel." The only time I felt that in reading Old Friends and New Fancies was when Jane Bingley described a family heirloom as "really old". But that's just me being nit-picky.
Overall, I found it to be a very enjoyable read. True, the characters lacked the zest that they had from Jane Austen's pen, but who can expect anyone to be able to achieve Jane's genius? My biggest problem with it was the typos sprinkled throughout the book, but I hope that will be fixed in later editions. I would recommend this to anyone who is tolerable familiar with Jane's six novels. If names like Mary Crawford and Captain Wentworth leave you puzzled, though, you should skip this one.
So, there it is. I don't want anyone to feel they must comment, but I wouldn't mind some friendly criticism of the review. =)