Mr. Darcy, Vampyre

Hmmmm...

I'm not sure what to think about this novel by Amanda Grange. In general, continuation of Jane Austen's novels leaves me cold - no one can write like Jane. The best of the lot is a pallid imitation of Jane's work. This is no exception. Lots of folks are mad for this book and I fail to see why. Maybe because I didn't finish it. I don't know. The novel begins on the wedding day of Elizabeth Bennett and Mr. Darcy, plus Lizzie's sister Jane and Mr. Bingley. Something is amiss. On the night of their wedding Darcy decides they should go to Europe for their honeymoon rather than go to the Lake District. There they meet Darcy's "other" family, who live in Germany - and what a family it is. They even meet up with Lady Catherine who has been pursuing them since the wedding. The "mystery" is why Darcy hasn't consummated his marriage to Lizzie. She's confused and frustrated, and rightly so. And then the novel gets mysteriouser and mysteriouser.

I get what Grange wants to do. She's placed this story in line with the Gothic romance novels of the period (Ann Radcliffe mainly) and that Jane made fun of in Northanger Abbey. It's a bodice-ripper - literally (got to get to those throats somehow!).

My problem is that these characterizations are nothing like Jane's characterizations. Elizabeth, so lively with fine eyes, is depressed, unhappy, and about as fascinating as a turnip. At one point Grange has Lizzie faint! Lizzie?! Darcy seems closer to the original in that he is aloof, morose, and mysterious. But other characterizations are pretty much over the top - especially Lady Catherine who was someone Jane satirized and made fun of. Here she is frightening and evil - she's out to get Elizabeth and no mistake.

Grange is doing - or trying to do - to P&P what Jane did to thrillers and those who read them in Northanger Abbey. In my view, she didn't succeed. Perhaps if the writing was better or tighter - it seemed to drag on and on - I would have "got" it. But I didn't.

However, I'm in favor of anything that gets people to read Jane - even if vampires are involved (don't get me wrong - I LOVE vampire novels). And if this and other new pastiches on the best seller lists - Pride and Prejudice and Zombies and Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters - can create more fans, then okay. I wish it were a better read.

Hmmm...

The Bedside, Bathtub, & Armchair Companion to Shakespeare

I picked this up at the library after a fruitless attempt to find the Bedside, Bathtub, and Armchair Companion to Jane Austen. The Bedside... books are in a series of companion books on such authors/literary figures as Agatha Christie, Lewis Carroll, and Sherlock Holmes. Since I've attended several performances of Shakespeare's plays at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival I thought this book would be fun. It is. Talk about informative. Dick Riley and Pam McAllister give a sort of Cliff Notes version of the Cliff Notes on several plays and poems. But what's the most fun are (is?) the sidebar tidbits at the end of the description of each play. These include likely sources of the plots, notable features (where it was first performed, etc.), notable productions and performances, and other uses of the basic plots (operas, musical pieces, movies, and so on). Plus there are essays peppered throughout the book on various aspects of Shakespeare's life, Elizabethan culture and current political events, etc., such as "What if Shakespeare had been Born a Girl? Women in the Queen's England." A really fun chapter is "Thou Knave! Thou Plague-sore! Shakespearean Insults." All of these stories, sidebars, etc., are quite entertaining. The book is written much like the Dummies... series, but it doesn't insult the reader. I recommend it.