A Prejudice
I have never been a fan of sequels of any kind and based on my experience, I have never encountered any sequels that ever do justice to the original, be it movie, drama or books. Recent conversations with various people and the nagging curiosity get the better of me. I picked up Lindal Berdoll's Mr. Darcy Takes a Wife which I so often saw in the shelves of Borders and 5 pages later, I was so horrified that it would probably be the first and last time I ever read any sort of sequels and fan fictions to a literature. Not just the idea that a 21st Century American woman trying to imitate Jane Austen's briliance that repulses me, but the fact that the novel completely turns a jewel of English Literature to some cheap Harlequin romances. Mind you, I'm not immune to romances and the occasional fluffs, but it bothers me how a novel written as a commentary of the 18th Century English women's social condition can be so completely misinterpreted. I love Mr.Darcy like any other girls,so imagine how I feel when I read this portrayal of him being some sort of sex mania, if not an overly corny romantic hero. And whatever happened to Lizzy's wit and sensibility? There is more beyond the facade of misunderstood lovers and girl meet boy plot in the original Pride and Prejudice and I wish people can see that. It's one thing for Helen Fielding to base her character in Bridget Jones on Mr. Darcy and completely another thing when someone rewrites him. I find that quite an insult.
Oh and btw, Jane Austen is NOT Victorian! Pride and Prejudice was written in 1798 when George III was king and England was under the regency of the would be George IV. Austen herself died before Queen Victoria was even born and was a contemporary of Maria Edgeworth, Mary Wollstonecraft, Hannah More, etc. She lived during the time when England was rising as an imperial power and France was undergoing a revolution. All these were important context for her novels which often critique the dissipating aristocrat and upper class. Jane Austen once said that Elizabeth Bennet is her most favorite character. I wonder how she would feel if she saw her dear heroine turned upside down by a bunch of Austen wannabe about 2 centuries later.
Oh and btw, Jane Austen is NOT Victorian! Pride and Prejudice was written in 1798 when George III was king and England was under the regency of the would be George IV. Austen herself died before Queen Victoria was even born and was a contemporary of Maria Edgeworth, Mary Wollstonecraft, Hannah More, etc. She lived during the time when England was rising as an imperial power and France was undergoing a revolution. All these were important context for her novels which often critique the dissipating aristocrat and upper class. Jane Austen once said that Elizabeth Bennet is her most favorite character. I wonder how she would feel if she saw her dear heroine turned upside down by a bunch of Austen wannabe about 2 centuries later.