1793-4
Jane Austen
Lady Susan
B
A series of letters to and about the title character, a charming, immoral society woman. This is as humourous as Love & Freindship but not as exaggerated. Eighteen-year-old Austen makes her anti-heroine and the other characters more plausible. Jane Rubino and Caitlen Rubino-Bradway's Lady Vernon and Her Daughter (2009) is a poor attempt to put the novel into straight prose. By trying to make Lady Susan sympathetic, the mother-daughter authors are compelled to throw out much of the earlier material and in fact their lady is very forgettable. Better stick with the vivid original.
We will just agree to disagree on this one - thought that Lady Vernon and Her Daughter was the best - maybe one of two or three - best of the Austen adaptations. The original Lady Susan written around 1794 was very lively but also more like 1700s writing and nothing like Austens six major novels. I liked how they brought it back into Austen-land. And i loved Sir James Martin who was a nonentity in the original
ReplyDeleteI have to go with Luci on this one. I also put Lady Vernon at the top of my 'Jane Austen readalikes'. Also think they did the best job of bringing a smaller 18 century work into the Austen fold. The original Lady Susan Vernon was interesting but unlikable and Austen never really had unlikable people as her main character - ok, maybe Emma gets on your nerves but other than that Lady Susan is more a Mary Crawford side character than a title character
ReplyDeleteBarbara
I appreciate the feedback, even if you both disagree with me. It was Lady Susan being such an anti-heroine that appealed to me. I haven't read much Austen spin-off fiction, but my favorite is the continuation of "Sanditon," which I'll discuss when and if I get up to 1975. :-)
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