Jane Austen and Time Travel??

My taste for Pride and Prejudice was once again piqued (will it ever go away? LOL) by a couple of books I came across while cruising Amazon.com. Both of them involved Jane Austen's book Pride and Prejudice and the concept of time travel. Time travel, eh? Gotta take a look at those. So, I ordered both of them and read them both this past week. The only thing I can say is, "Wow! What a contrast!"

I first read By A Lady by Amanda Elyot. The basic premise of this book is that C.J., a New York actress, is up for the part of Jane Austen in a play. During a dress rehersal, she steps through a door on the stage and finds herself in Jane Austen's Bath, England. So far so good. That is when the whole story takes a horrid dive. C.J. is taken in by a wealthy woman and introduced into polite society as her niece. My problem with this whole premise it that C.J., instead of being scorned by the upper classes for her lack of money and proper manners is considered 'quirky'. Has the author READ any of Jane Austen's books?

In her adventures, C.J. meets the 'real' Jane Austen. Austen is protrayed as a flat cardboard cutout of herself who is constantly spouting quotes from her writings. I honestly could not figure out if the author was placing Austen on a very high pedestal or making fun of her. It was, in a word, ridiculous!

And then we come to the reason that most Pride and Prejudice spin off writings are offensive to me. The 'Mr. Darcy' character is almost always portrayed as a very talented and skillful sex god who's sole purpose in the story is to fulfill the raging fantasies of the herione. This story is no different. Lord Darlington is the 'Darcy' in this story. He is handsome, and dashing and all that. And, of course falls for C.J. and they, of course, end up having sex. The sex scene - I hesitate to call it a love scene because the basis for 'love' between C.J. and Darlington is shaky in my opinion - is way over the top. I basically stopped reading this book about half way through that scene and skimmed the rest of the book. I was disappointed, yet again!

Then, since I had already paid for it, I picked up The Man Who Loved Jane Austen by Sally Smith O'Rourk and started to read it. The basic idea is the same. Eliza is an artist who buys an antique dressing table and in the process of cleaning it up, finds two letters hidden inside - one from F. Darcy and another sealed letter. I was instantly hooked and read the book almost straight through.

Bascially, in the course of the story, we find out that Fitzwilliam Darcy was a real man who had been in love with Jane Austen. If I say much more, I will ruin the details of the story for you, but the concept is billiant. Jane Austen herself gets to play the part of romantic heroine in this book and she is portrayed as a spunky and intelligent person - not unlike the character she created in Elizabeth Bennet. Mr. Darcy, in this book, is romantic and dashing - not at all seedy. And, there are no graphic sexual scenes in this book - for once! The rest of the cast of characters from Pride and Prejudice are all there as well - including the Gardiners! All in all it was a wonderful book and I will definately read it again.

This not a totally perfect book. One of the final scenes - the one at the Rose Ball - was sort of over the top, but other than that, it was excellent and I recommend it!