Ascent Aspirations REVIEW: CONFESSIONS OF A JANE AUSTEN ADDICT
by Joanne Ross
These are bountiful times for Jane Austen fans - and their numbers are legion! The films Becoming Jane and The Jane Austen Book Club were released to generally favourable reviews. Dramatic adaptations of all six of her novels will be televised on Masterpiece Theatre in 2008. The truly dedicated can even join the Jane Austen Society Of North America (JASNA), which recently held their annual sold-out conference in Vancouver. And, of course, there are all the Austen-inspired novels of recent times.
One of the newest is Confessions of a Jane Austen Addict by Laurie Viera Rigler. Rather than rewrite one of the classic plots, Rigler - herself a writing teacher and free-lance editor - uses time travel as the premise of her novel. Nursing a broken engagement, Courtney Stone, a modern 30-ish woman in Los Angeles, drowns her sorrows with a bottle of vodka and her familiar copy of Pride and Prejudice. She awakens in surprise and confusion in a place that is clearly not her own room or even her own century. Everyone believes her to be Jane Mansfield, a 30 year old single woman in Regency England. Jane is willowy, intelligent, mildly rebellious, and reasonably wealthy. Courtney must now navigate her way through the myriad challenges of 19th century hygiene, medical procedures, servants, and chaperones. Jane's domineering mother pressures her to marry but Courtney, like the character she now inhabits, rebels and has a few adventures of her own before the novel concludes Austen-style.
If you want to have a pleasant break from our hectic and uncertain times you may want to immerse yourself in this novel. It will be, I'm sure, well-received by Jane Austen devotees looking for a literary "fix".
And, should you find yourself wondering what happened to the real Jane Mansfield while Courtney was living her life, rest assured! Rigler is working on her next novel which will focus on this character as she discovers life in present-day Los Angeles!
Joanne Ross is a local reviewer who lives in Nanaimo, Vancouver Island, BC. This review is Joanne Ross' first assignment with Ascent Aspirations Magazine << Back
|
