Litwit Lounge discussion

Any of our Austen fans read the continuations of her books? Some I have enjoyed quite a bit, and others not so much. It is going to take a little bit of research to figure out which was which since my list is now gone.

Anyway, I just discovered that a sequel has been written about the somewhat staid Mary from Pride & Prejudice. Much to my surprise, it was authored by Colleen McCullough: The Independence of Miss Mary Bennet: A Novel

The Independence of Miss Mary Bennet: A Novel

As much as I'd hate to admit it - I did read a lot of Pride and Prejudice online fanfiction (well and a few ones about Emma and Persuasion) when I was in college. Most of my favorites that are online for free were so good that I haven't been willing to pay money for published fanfic!

(In one case (that I can't remember the author's name now) one of the first to get published was a work that used to be on the internet - or at least some other of the author's fanfiction was) and I knew at the time that I didn't think it was the best of what was out there)

But anyway - if you're ever needing this kind of fix for free - the Austen fanfic communities generally have pretty good writers writing for them - I think its a matter of having good material to be based on, as opposed to all the really bad fanfic writers in other fandoms. I remember one very good one about Mary, and my personal favorites include several by one author about Miss Bingley (she actually has a believeable change of view and ends up with Colonel Fitzwilliam! So unlikely but yet so fun!)

I haven't read it, but I gave a friend who's an Austen fan this book--Old Friends and New Fancies: An Imaginary Sequel to the Novels of Jane Austen by Sybil Brynton--and she thought it was fun.

Sanditon, the novel Austen left unfinished when she died, has been "completed" by more than one writer. The version I read is the 1975 one by Jane Austen and "Another Lady" (who was actually Marie Dobbs), and which I stumbled on at the public library soon after it came out. As I recall, I liked it very well. Dobbs imitates Austen's style so well I couldn't tell where her contribution began (she divulges that secret in an afterword), and the plot is typical of Austen's work.

Death Comes to Pemberley Just started this one... slightly put off by beginning as it made Lizzie out to have plotted to get Darcy. Nevertheless, that won't stop me from more of my favorite classic tale!

Well, it wasn't the best story I've ever read but it was good enough for my enjoyment. I always enjoy revisiting my favorite cast of characters from Pride and Prejudice.

I have read quite a few either remakes or continuations of Austen's books. It's been a while though - and I can't remember too many good ones. I would just look it up but I lost my entire database of books a few months ago.

I know what you mean about a book not being very good but still enjoying it because it has those characters you love. My problem is that a lot of the books change who they are so much you can't recognize them anymore. Sometimes they only focus on . . . the cheaper aspects of romantic relationships or they try so hard to capitalize on everyone's fascination with the paranormal that you get Darcy and Lizzie involved with strange sorcery and paranormal stuff that I just can't see them doing at all.

Well, I can't disagree, there have been a couple I enjoyed less than this... Except my mention above, it wasn't too off-putting with regards to changing the characters' natures. I will say this, it did have me second-guessing one of the characters that we never knew a whole lot about from P & P. :p

You lost your database?! Oh my goodness, I know you've been building that for years. :( I'm so sorry to hear that... guess there is no possibility of it being restored after this much time?

Reggia wrote: "Well, I can't disagree, there have been a couple I enjoyed less than this... Except my mention above, it wasn't too off-putting with regards to changing the characters' natures. I will say this, ..."

I tried several times before I gave up. The problem was that I had missed a couple program updates -- then did one that changed it quite a bit. I was excited about some of the changes. I deleted some books that I sent out with my hubby and son to the library to donate, added some new ones and even added a bunch of my e-books (which I hadn't even included up until that time). In the middle we had a power outage due to construction nearby and I lost everything. My old backups wouldn't talk to the new version of the database. So I didn't even have a start point. I tried many methods, talked to customer service, pouted a little . . . then I left it alone for a couple weeks. Now I just started trying to rebuild. I think I have a couple hundred books at this point. I know it should be closer to three thousand. {sigh}

It's just a tool though.

Margaret, so sorry for that mishap! Wish I could do something to help recover or rebuild your database; I know how badly I'd feel if I lost mine. :-(

Thanks. It's just a matter of time. With that many books, even with my cue cat, it takes a lot of it to get them added back in. Plus I had to come up with some sort of system to identify which books were in the database already so I didn't waste time on them. I used to put a label on once I added a book, but all of them already have it. So now I have added colored dots that coordinate with the type of book. It stops it from being random and helps my son to know where to book the book back when he's done. lol

It's been a couple years now, but I thoroughly enjoyed Alexander McCall Smith's contemporary version of https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/23395733-emma

So much in fact that I wish he'd do all of Austen's titles, but this was part of a collaboration with other authors each doing a contemporary version.