When she and her sister Cassidy are given the chance to travel to Seattle with family friends for a summer holiday she is ecstatic to be near the epicenter of the Twi-world, Forks, Washington. She is confident that she is now an expert on vampires and werewolves and can spot them on sight. She is Twi-hard to the extreme having read the Twilight series by Stephenie Meyer numerous times, seen the movies and obsessed over its heroes Edward Cullen and Jacob Black beyond the point of redemption. Like any teenager she’d like it to be otherwise. I could not decide, so I continued reading.Ĭlaire Hart is a sixteen year old country girl from New Mexico whose never been kissed. Am I a Formidable, or an Iconoclastic Austen sequel reader? Honestly, if you can answer these questions immediately, you will know if you want to read this novel or not.
At what point does an Austen retelling diverge so far that it is not a retelling at all? And, more importantly, does it really matter?
I asked myself these questions several times while reading Jenni James’ new novel Northanger Alibi, the first book in her Austen Diaries series of contemporary counterparts to Austen’s six classic novels. What qualifies a story as a retelling of a Jane Austen novel? Reverent adherence to Austen’s plot line? Faithful interpretation of characterization? Emulation of her prose style?
0 kommentar(er)
