By Various Authors
Publisher: Random House/Ballantine
Books
Release Date: October 11, 2011
Four Stars
Jane Austen Made Me Do It, subtitled Original Stories Inspired by Literature’s Most Astute Observer of the Human Heart, is a collection of original short stories edited by Laurel Ann Nattress of Austenprose. Nattress asked the authors to “stay within the theme of exploring Austen’s philosophies of life and love by reacquainting readers with characters from her novels or introducing original stories inspired by her ideals.” Contributors include Pamela Aidan, Elizabeth Aston, Stephanie Barron, Carrie Bebris, Jo Beverley, Diana Birchall, Frank Delaney & Diane Meier, Monica Fairview, Amanda Grange, Syrie James, Janet Mullany, Jane Odiwe, Beth Pattillo, Alexandra Potter, Myretta Robens, Jane Rubino & Caitlen Rubino Bradway, Maya Slater, Margaret Sullivan, Adriana Trigiani, Laurie Viera Rigler, Lauren Willig, and debut author Brenna Aubrey, Grand Prize winner of a short story contest sponsored by Ballantine Books, Austenprose, and The Republic of Pemberley. The overall quality of the collection is high, and rare will be the reader who fails to find a few favorites to delight an Austen-loving heart.
I was excited to see that several of my
favorite authors had stories in the collection. Jo Beverley’s “Jane and the
Mistletoe Kiss” features Miss Austen as a character, a true romantic who encourages
the widowed heroine to believe in another chance at love. “Love and Best
Wishes, Aunt Jane” by Adriana Trigiani is an epistolary story with a
contemporary “Aunt Jane” giving advice and expressing her hopes for a beloved
niece. A ghostly Jane Austen surprises a young skeptic who is part of a
ghosthunting TV crew in Lauren Willig’s “A Night at Northanger.” Syrie James
has Austen finding inspiration for Persuasion
after unhappy characters from her other novels invade her dreams with
accusations and pleas in “Jane Austen’s Nightmare.” In Janet Mullany’s “Jane
Austen, Yeah, Yeah, Yeah,” set in the 1960s, a teacher uses the Beatles to help
her students connect to Sense and Sensibility and learns something about
herself in the process.
Some of the stories I liked best were by
authors new to me. “What Would Austen Do?” by Jane Rubino and Caitlen
Rubino-Bradway is the sweet and funny story of fifteen-year-old James Austen
who enrolls in an English Country Dance course expecting to line dance and ends
up having fun with Regency dances, reading Jane Austen, and making friends with a pretty girl. In
Elizabeth Ashton’s “The Ghostwriter,” Austen is an acerbic, mind-reading spirit
of “ferocious intelligence” who tells a young writer whose boyfriend has left her
because he can’t measure up to Darcy, “There’s nothing wrong with your mind,
except sentimentality and stupidity.” Ghostly Jane also reveals that “reserved, proud, and
clever” Darcy is her character most like Austen herself. “Intolerable Stupidity”
by Laurie Viera Rigler has Lady Catherine de Bourgh as the presiding judge in
Mr. Darcy’s case against authors of Pride and Prejudice spinoffs. Brenna Aubrey’s
prize-winning story “The Love Letter” is a lovely account of how Wentworth’s written
declaration of his love for Anne Elliot in Persuasion
leads a young doctor back to the great love from his past.
The collection contains historicals and
contemporaries, romances, gothic tales, mysteries, and fantasies, each one affirming
Jane Austen as influence and inspiration. It’s no surprise that Pride and
Prejudice is the most frequently used novel, but most of the others are
represented. I received an ARC from the publisher via NetGalley, but I’ll be
buying a print copy of this one so I can reread some of the stories. If you are
a Jane Austen fan, I recommend Jane
Austen Made Me Do It without reservation. If you’ve never read Austen,
reading these stories may be just the push you need to direct you to the
originals. You can check out excerpts here.
What's your favorite Jane Austen novel? How do you feel about Austen spinoffs?
