An Austen Summer

I will enjoy August, as I will be working the dayshift and can resume taking the Metrolink to work. That means it is time to re-read a Jane Austen book, haven’t decided which yet. I just finished a version of The Watsons an unfinished fragment, titled: The Watsons and Emma Watson: Jane Austen's Unfinished Novel Completed by Joan Aiken. I thought it, not very good. Once you completed Austen’s words, the rest is more like a melodrama, and not very satisfying. I have tossed it in the goodwill box. Some of the sequels, can be a fun read, if you have a good author, but, most end up a puffed up romance novel, not at all like Jane Austen. I picked up The Private Diary of Mr. Darcy, by Maya Stater, and it is a dark, sometimes amusing view of Mr. Darcy’s side of the story. It reads well because it is not trying to be an Austen novel. It is written as diary entries and looks at Regency Era hypocrisy, from an upper class point of view. It also looks at the evolution of Fitzwilliam Darcy from prideful aristocrat to a painfully introspective suitor. It parallels the Pride and Prejudice story line with only little interaction with the Bennett sisters of Meryton, and many connections with the Bingleys, Lady Catherine de Bourgh, and even Lord Byron. This is much more satisfying than some of the continuations of the P & P story.