Flirting with Pride and Prejudice: Fresh Perspectives on the Original Chick Lit Masterpiece

Misled by the marketing, I was hoping to find this a volume of accessible critical analysis of Jane Austen's influence on modern fiction. Boy, was I wrong. Only two of the essays were really thought-provoking: Lauren Baratz-Logsted's essay on Austen's heirs in chick-lit and Karen Joy Fowler's discussion of Austen's modern audience. However, I also enjoyed Jo Beverly's interesting exploration of women's economic prospects in Austen's period, which brought Elizabeth Bennet's budget into modern terms. Lawrence Watt-Evans' essay on war in Austen (or the absence of war in Austen) was very thorough if somewhat out-of-place. Aside from these stand-outs, the other essays are, for the most part, musings on Austen's relevance to the authors' personal lives -- light, amusing fare. Some of them are rewritings or sequels of part of Austen's own work, and I can't evaluate these: I found them tiresome, but perhaps that's just because they weren't what I wanted from the book.

It is a truth, universally acknowledged that Jane Austen's popularity will continue for a long time to come. With another version of Pride and Prejudice on the screens and the Bollywood version, Bride and Prejudice recently released she will continue in the foreground for a while yet. The writing of a new type of critical literature to allow new readers to take new perspectives on her work is therefore timely, and this collection is not too bad either. I have some reservations on it from the start. I found Jennifer Cruise to be mostly quite good in her (short) introductions to each chapter, but was occassionally annoyed by her blithe ignorance. At one point, for instance, she insisted that Jane Austen 'scholars' all thought of Jane as 'never having a thought that wasn't pure"......Excuse me?! Austen scholars who have studied her letters know indeed, despite Cassandra's heavy editing and likely huge destruction of her sisters Letters, that Jane Austen had many thoughts that were not indulgent and pure. There were 25 Essays in here, of which 5 were fan fiction or continuations, and at least 2 others might as well have been. There was one quite fun script for a Bennet/bacherlorette reality show. But for the most part these ones just didn't interest me greatly and I skimmed through them. Beth Kendricks first item sets the tone of the book, relating the choosing of a husband (Elizabeth's burden as a single woman) to modern day choices. For the most part I enjoyed this, but one thing I felt she could have mentioned was that under property laws of the time not only was Elizabeth without money, but any she had became the property of her husband. Choosing a husband was more than a simple process of hit and miss as it is now - it really was for life. Jennifer O'connells next essay struck me with the same issues - of course her friends wouldn't give Charlotte the advice not to marry Mr Collins - Charlotte was competing for husbands with the 5 Bennet Girls, she also had her younger sister following behind. Mr Collins had money or at least the living at Lady de bourghs, and would be rich once Mr Bennet died, and he was not cruel, just a fool. So for Elizabeth to persist in advising her otherwise was against Charlottes best interests. Still it was salient advice for modern readers The two best essays, I thought were Jane Austen and History and these are highly recommnended. Jo Beverly gives a very interesting and readable outline of just why there were Gold Diggers in 1813 (the year this book was published) and what the income meant for the Bennet family. Also pointing out that Men were gold diggers too. Beverly pointed out Mr Wickham was a gold digger but interestingly she didn't point out that Darcy's cousin whom Elizabeth met at Rosings was also a gold digger - he had to be as he had no money himself - the difference between himself and Wickham is that he had ethical standards. Lawrence Watt-Evans also wrote an excellent essay on 'a world at war' po

Flirting with Pride & Prejudice is both pleasing and disappointing. Some of the essays are quite entertaining and some offer unusual insight that make interesting reading. I found myself laughing out loud while reading a couple of them. A few of them are a dead bore and as I read them I kept wondering why they were included in the collection. What is missing is Jennifer Crusie's input. I was looking forward to reading what this intelligent and quirky writer has to say about one of my favorite novels--and all she contributed was a brief introduction describing how busy she is and how honored she is to have been selected for the project.

a mixed bag but enjoyable overall. i am always fascinated to read new takes on Jane Austen's books which are among my favorites and Pride and Prejudice is one of her very best. The articles by Adam Roberts, Joyce Millman, Shanna Swendson, Jill Winters, Erin Dailey, and Jane Espenson are the stand outs in this book.

The more subtly packaged Flirting With Pride and Prejudice (Benbella, $14.95) is a far better choice for serious readers in need of a diversion. Editor Jennifer Crusie neatly sums up this witty collection by describing it as a series of dates with Jane Austen. "Some writers were serious about her, some were looking for a good time and some, frankly, took advantage of her," she writes. All the writers offer original takes on Austen's work, from "Does This Petticoat Make Me Look Fat?" in which Beth Kendrick explores the pressure on women to live up to societal standards of perfection, to Lawrence Watt-Evans' study, "A World at War," which looks at the looming Napoleonic wars just outside the main action of Pride and Prejudice. Shanna Swendson's critical essay "The Original Chick-Lit Masterpiece" identifies the key difference between romance novels and chick lit. In chick lit, the handsome man who appears in the first chapter might or might not end up being The One. And Swendson makes a compelling case for Austen's Elizabeth Bennet as a chick-lit heroine, a woman who, even as she hunts for a wealthy husband, displays a wry cynicism about the role of money in romance. The contributions are uneven, especially the "fan fiction" pieces that imagine new lives and chapters for Austen characters. Jill Winters' "The Secret Life of Mary," in which one of the Bennet girls has a passionate affair with an Irish footman, is brilliant, but others fall flat. Michelle Cunah offers a rich comic premise -- how the many misunderstandings in Pride and Prejudice might have been avoided with cell phones, if only they'd been invented then -- but fails to deliver a truly Austen-worthy satire. Even the worst selections in Crusie's compilation, though, are far better than the few almost-bright moments in Santini's novel. And, since each piece is short, you can easily read them during the breaks in your busy schedule of calls to the G-8 finance ministers.