I confess, I do love the reworking of classic stories. One of my favorites was a production of Shakespeare’s The Two Gentlemen from Verona set in Vernon, Texas, in the 1800s. So when few friends of mine teamed up to rewrite Jane Austen’s classics in novella form set in 1800s Austin, Texas, I was so in!
Austen in Austin, Volume 1 contains four stories–those that mirror Emma, Sense and Sensibility, Pride and Prejudice, and Northanger Abbey. And such delightful stories they were! I loved the way each story interacted in some way with a girls’ school in town, so some characters from one story would make an appearance in another from time to time. And I loved the use of some of the names of Austen’s characters, though not necessarily in their Jane Austen novel context. And I loved the way the authors didn’t try to stick so closely to the original plots that the stories felt forced. Instead, each one contained all its own unique elements with the general plot following the classics that dripped from Jane Austen’s pen.
If you’re looking for some quick historical reads, this would be a great book for you. And at $3.99 for the ebook, it’s a steal! Thanks, Susanne Dietze, Anita Mae Draper, Debra E. Marvin and Gina Welborn! I’d like to think Jane Austen would be pleased.