Review: Georgiana Darcy's Diary: Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice Continued

Georgiana Darcy's Diary: Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice Continued by Anna Elliott
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

There are probably literally carriage-loads of books based off Jane Austen's writings, this book happens to be one of them.

It was nice that the author chose to write from the perspective of one of the lesser known characters, one that in Austen's own writing boils down to a sweet girl who had the bad luck of drawing Wickham's attention. Elliott tries to show Georgiana as having grown up and come into her own. She wants to be someone more than her almost elopement which is admirably and would be an interesting book. However, the book is written in the style of a diary, starting off with Georgiana saying that she doesn't usually keep a diary but she has to write down her current feelings somewhere. The first third of the book is a bit difficult to get into, Georgiana borders on being boringly good (A touch Fanny Price) and we all know what's coming when Col. FitzWillaim shows up and just sort of want to get on with it.

Later on when Georgiana starts to stand up for herself and drag her cousin Anne with her the story starts to get good. I would rather that the two cousins had ridden off on a Grand Tour together in search of adventure and practice at saying 'no thanks' than the true ending.

That being said, it was a fluffy read, no real surprises in the narrative, and if you don't mind the diary format of an 18 year old a fun-ish read. Elizabeth and Darcy pop-in enough so you know that they are there, but have little to do within the overall narrative beyond introducing plot points.

You could do worse when reading a book based of Austen's work.

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Review: Austenland

Austenland by Shannon Hale
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

So I read this after having seen the movie, yes I know, I'm a horrible person.
That confession out of the way, there was actually enough difference between the book and the movie to keep me engaged throughout the reading.

I actually wish that they had done the start of the movie more like that start of the book, Jane not being a Colin Firth obsessed modern-day spinster. Also having her rediscovering her joy in painting while on vacation and deciding to change for herself and not for any of the guys was much more interesting.

Long story short, even if you've seen the movie the book is worth a read, and the humor still shine through.

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