I felt the urge to mix it up a bit with Tuesday Three this week. Instead of featuring books we've already reviewed, I thought I'd choose three books we'd like to review. But still connected. I'm not an amateur.
First up ... oh, yes - the subject is Jane Austen (see how pride comes before a fall?!).
First up is Confessions of a Jane Austen Addict by Laurie Viera Rigler in which, after nursing a broken engagement with Jane Austen novels and Absolut, Courtney Stone wakes up and finds herself not in her Los Angeles bedroom or even in her own body, but inside the bedchamber of a woman in Regency England. Who but an Austen addict like herself could concoct such a fantasy?
I've mentioned Lost in Austen: Create Your Own Jane Austen Adventure by Emma Campbell Webster before, but I've just discovered it's called Being Elizabeth Bennet in the UK (and out at the beginning of next month).
The book gives the reader the opportunity to star in Pride and Prejudice. "You will be faced throughout this book with delicate challenges and dangerous choices. Whether you're accepting Mr Darcy the first time he professes his attachment, deciding to elope with Mr Wickham or avoiding a murderous Lady Catherine de Bourgh, this is a chance to rewrite Austen's most famous book. You must complete five stages - and successfully negotiate your way through Austen's five other novels - before can choose to accept Mr Darcy. But if the outcome does not suit, simply return to page 1 and create a new Jane Austen adventure."
Shannon Hale's Austenland features Jane Hayes, a seemingly normal young New Yorker, but with a secret obsession with Mr. Darcy, as played by Colin Firth in the BBC adaptation of Pride and Prejudice. Her obsession is ruining her love life - no real man can compare - but when a wealthy relative bequeaths her a trip to an English resort catering to Austen-crazed women, Jane’s fantasies of meeting the perfect Regency-era gentleman suddenly become realer than she ever could have imagined.
Related: The influence of Austen
