In the mood to be wooed? This anthology of twenty eclectic short stories inspired by Jane Austen's heroes and villains offers something to tempt everyone--from a Brahmin CEO named Firdous Darshan to a Lydia that has fallen in with the Ladies of Llangollen. (If you don't know who the Ladies of Llangollen are, I encourage you to Google them.)
For us Jane Austen Society of North America-Chicago members, we can take in a compelling and thought-provoking story, "Jane Austen: 1945," written by our very own Elisabeth Lenckos and inspired by her German mother and grandmother's wartime tales. Yes, this is Lenckos' fiction debut!
It is a true honor and indication of talent to be included in this anthology as the stories were chosen from a plethora of contest entries. Chawton House Library in England sponsored the contest, their second annual, to encourage contemporary creative writing. Entries poured in from fifteen different countries, from Australia to Siberia.
As a result, the stories have a fresh, international flavor, peppered with settings and timeframes other than the Regency. They run the range from humorous to profound.
A panel of author and editor judges, Michele Roberts, Lindsay Ashford, and Janet Thomas, selected twenty for publication and awarded one of the stories, "The Pleasures of the Other" by Paul Brownsey, for the 2011 Jane Austen Short Story Award. He's the one that melded Lydia, Wickham, and the aforementioned Ladies of Llangollen to magnificent effect. It's a must-read!
The collection includes nods to many of Austen's characters and recurring themes of second chances in love, imaginations run wild, and prejudices overcome.
Many of the stories are stand-outs, including "Empty Hands" by Rebecca Rouillard. It's about an Alzheimer's patient that believes she's Elizabeth Bennet. Get your Kleenex out for this one! Her homage to everyday heroes, and not just the alpha male hero, is touching, as is her metaphor for Alzheimer's:
"But her memory sustains it like a fistful of sand--in this moment of clarity it is gritty and substantial but it is so hard to hold on to. It will slip away again soon enough and she will be adrift once again, with empty hands."
Just as poignant and powerful is Lenckos' Jane Austen: 1945, and, without revealing too much of the story, a thirteen-year old girl is saved, in a sense, by "Pride and Prejudice" as she suffers the indignities of war, including having to hide in a burrow for protection:
"After she placed me in this hole, she had covered me with earth, leaving small openings only for my nose and mouth... My bones grew colder and damper; I breathed uneasily through the clumps of mud heaped upon me."
In "Katie" by Susan Piper we get a glimpse of Lady Catherine on her deathbed. The thought-provoking backstory Piper weaves for Lady Catherine encourages us to think that something must have happened in Lady Catherine's past to make her the way she is, and I like Piper's take on it.
On the humorous end of the spectrum, I enjoyed much of Les Wood's "The Darcy Syndrome," although I admit I may not be young nor hip enough to have understood all of it! I found "Henry Tilney Attempts to Cure His Wife" by Sarah Taylor charming, although, I am a big Henry Tilney fan, and I missed his sense of humor in this story.
"Little Elegant Compliments" by Jacqueline Jean Barrios, a modern take on Charlotte and Mr. Collin's marriage, proved to be a very curious and engaging story, and well worth the read.
"Wooing Mr. Wickham" is available here on www.amazon.co.uk, In the mood to be wooed? This anthology of twenty eclectic short stories inspired by Jane Austen's heroes and villains offers something to tempt everyone--from a Brahmin CEO named Firdous Darshan to a Lydia that has fallen in with the Ladies of Llangollen. (If you don't know who the Ladies of Llangollen are, I encourage you to Google them.)
For us Jane Austen Society of North America-Chicago members, we can take in a compelling and thought-provoking story, "Jane Austen: 1945," written by our very own Elisabeth Lenckos and inspired by her German mother and grandmother's wartime tales. Yes, this is Lenckos' fiction debut!
It is a true honor and indication of talent to be included in this anthology as the stories were chosen from a plethora of contest entries. Chawton House Library in England sponsored the contest, their second annual, to encourage contemporary creative writing. Entries poured in from fifteen different countries, from Australia to Siberia.
As a result, the stories have a fresh, international flavor, peppered with settings and timeframes other than the Regency. They run the range from humorous to profound.
A panel of author and editor judges, Michele Roberts, Lindsay Ashford, and Janet Thomas, selected twenty for publication and awarded one of the stories, "The Pleasures of the Other" by Paul Brownsey, for the 2011 Jane Austen Short Story Award. He's the one that melded Lydia, Wickham, and the aforementioned Ladies of Llangollen to magnificent effect. It's a must-read!
The collection includes nods to many of Austen's characters and recurring themes of second chances in love, imaginations run wild, and prejudices overcome.
Many of the stories are stand-outs, including "Empty Hands" by Rebecca Rouillard. It's about an Alzheimer's patient that believes she's Elizabeth Bennet. Get your Kleenex out for this one! Her homage to everyday heroes, and not just the alpha male hero, is touching, as is her metaphor for Alzheimer's:
"But her memory sustains it like a fistful of sand--in this moment of clarity it is gritty and substantial but it is so hard to hold on to. It will slip away again soon enough and she will be adrift once again, with empty hands."
Just as poignant and powerful is Lenckos' Jane Austen: 1945, and, without revealing too much of the story, a thirteen-year old girl is saved, in a sense, by "Pride and Prejudice" as she suffers the indignities of war, including having to hide in a burrow for protection:
"After she placed me in this hole, she had covered me with earth, leaving small openings only for my nose and mouth... My bones grew colder and damper; I breathed uneasily through the clumps of mud heaped upon me."
In "Katie" by Susan Piper we get a glimpse of Lady Catherine on her deathbed. The thought-provoking backstory Piper weaves for Lady Catherine encourages us to think that something must have happened in Lady Catherine's past to make her the way she is, and I like Piper's take on it.
On the humorous end of the spectrum, I enjoyed much of Les Wood's "The Darcy Syndrome," although I admit I may not be young nor hip enough to have understood all of it! I found "Henry Tilney Attempts to Cure His Wife" by Sarah Taylor charming, although, I am a big Henry Tilney fan, and I missed his sense of humor in this story.
"Little Elegant Compliments" by Jacqueline Jean Barrios, a modern take on Charlotte and Mr. Collin's marriage, proved to be a very curious and engaging story, and well worth the read.
Review by Karen Doornebos, the author of "Definitely Not Mr. Darcy." Also available on amazon!
