Quotations Weblog

This week, we are going to look at the books recommended by Unshelved comic strip. A comic strip about libraries that focuses on a book recommendation once a week is an excellent read for quotation and literature lovers, so I’ve been collecting the Book Club Editions of the comic and I’m bringing them to you this week.

Today, we look at The Foreshadowing by Marcus Sedgwick:

• Unshelved comic strip – The Foreshadowing by Marcus Sedgwick

The plot is a historical supernatural thriller:

Seventeen-year-old Alexandra has foreseen the death of others since she was a child, but no one believes her or wants to talk about her uncanny ability. As World War I breaks out, she is tormented by almost daily visions, nightmares, and premonitions, yet she strives to become a nurse, despite her father’s objections. Alexandra’s brothers both end up on the front lines. Having foreseen the death of Edgar before the telegram arrives, the teen makes plans to escape her confined life in Brighton and make her way to France to try to find and save her other brother, Tom.

Unshelved described it as Sixth Sense meet A Farewell to Arms. Sounds like a great book for Halloween reading!

Jane Fairfax by Joan Aiken is the story of the second heroine of Jane Austen’s Emma. I hate the story of Emma. The main character was someone who I detested and reading the book wasn’t nearly as enjoyable as Jane Austen’s other works. I wished that the story would have followed Jane Fairfax instead. She seemed so much more interesting.

Joan Aiken’s portrayal of Jane Fairfax was almost perfect. To make it perfect, the trip to the West Indies would have been more than a few sentences. Five years of Jane’s life was summarized by the sentence:

The lawsuit proved, as legal matter invariably do, far more difficult and slower to settle than had been apprehended; nearly five years passed before the family were able to return to London.

Such adventurous a girl as Jane would have had much to tell about the West Indies had the author deigned to write about them, but the most exciting time of Jane’s life was ignored by Ms. Aiken as much as the people of Highbury.

The book is well-written, but there were no quotable phrases in the book. Some authors are quotable and some are not. I happily read the book, but I didn’t underline any meaningful passages as I did.

Joan Aiken is the famous and prolific children’s book author of the Wolves of Willoughby Chase series, but Jane Fairfax is an adult level book. She has written several other Jane Austen story continuations. In almost every one, she has taken the story of a relatively minor character and told us more:

• Emma Watson: The Watsons Completed – Jane Austen’s unfinished novel, The Watsons, is finished by Joan Aiken

• Mansfield Revisited – What happened to the other characters in Mansfield Park?

• The Youngest Miss Ward – Yet another visitation to the characters of Mansfield Park.

• Eliza’s Daughter – A sequel to Sense and Sensibility

• Lady Catherine’s Necklace – Pride and Prejudice sequel following Anne de Bourgh and the freedom that she feels when Lady Catherine is kidnapped.

Twenty years after Elizabeth married Mr. Darcy, they have five daughters of their own to raise. The happy couple are forced to leave for Constantinople. The two male heirs, too young to leave Pemberley, are left with Elizabeth’s father, Mr. Bennett, but their five daughters have been left in the care of Colonel Fitzwilliam in London. Five wildly independent and eligible daughters with fortunes in London!

That is the scenario set in Mr. Darcy’s Daughters by Elizabeth Aston. For Jane Austen lovers, this book is probably the best I could recommend. It is the first in a series of books about the Darcy family and promises many lovely evenings of reading.

It was an quick and enjoyable read. There were a few old characters, but most were new. Not once was the name of Mr. Collins mentioned and at no time did Ms. Aston plagiarize from Austen’s original work.

Here are my favorite quotes from the book:

I was grateful for so many little things in this book. We weren’t worried about an heir to the Darcy fortune. We weren’t worried for the safety of the Darcys’ travel to Constantinople. We weren’t worried about the Darcy girls having to make their way in the world. Spoiled and unruly, I truly enjoyed reading the exploits of the Darcy girls. In the end, I didn’t believe that the heroine was truly in love with the hero, but I didn’t care. The marriage promised happy adventures all over the world. What’s a lack of affection to that?

The worst that could be accused is that Elizabeth Aston’s name seems perilously close to the name of Austen, so that it will be easy for her audience to find her books on the shelves at the bookstore. I know this is a common practice, but it irks me every time I notice it.

If you like this book, there are many more to enjoy:

• Book Two: The Exploits & Adventures of Miss Alethea Darcy – The youngest of the Darcy sisters has sadly married. She escapes her married home with her maid, dressed as a man. The two run away to Europe to throw themselves on the mercy of her sister, Camilla. When Althea’s husband is found murdered, it is she that the authorities are looking for.

• Book Three: The True Darcy Spirit – Amazing as it may seem Anne de Bourgh married and bore a child, Cassandra. A gifted artist, Cassandra, is determined to make her living on her own by painting in London, but political intrigue and treasure-seeking lords find her soon enough.

• Book Four: The Second Mrs. Darcy – Octavia Melbury is outspoken, which is a trait that few English gentleman care for. Captain Christopher Darcy, however, is entranced by her and the two are married. When he is carried off, she is left by penniless the evil George Warren. Fortune smiles on her and she comes into an inheritance of her own. Family tries to marry her off, Mr. Warren returns in an effort to steal Octavia’s fortune and she finds true love on her own.

The saying goes, “Never judge a book by its cover.” This one you can. Mr. Darcy Takes a Wife by Linda Berdoll is a tough book for me to review. I consumed all 465 pages of this tome quite quickly, not because it was an easy read, but because I wanted to find out what would happen. Well, that and I wanted to get it out of my head as quickly as possible.

The preface of this book says:

The renowned (if occasionally peevish) lady of letters, Charlotte Bronte, once carped of fellow authoress Jane Austen’s work, “she ruffles her reader by nothing vehement, disturbs him by nothing profound: the Passions are perfectly unknown to her…what throbs fast and full, though hidden, what the blood rushes through what is the unseen seat of life and the sentient target of death – this Miss Austen ignores.”

Well, if Jane Austen can be accused of writing of nothing other than the heart, poor Ms. Berdoll may be accused of writing solely about the nether organs. Mr. Darcy Takes a Wife has less in common with Pride and Prejudice and more in common with The History of Tom Jones.

My only explanation for Mr. Darcy Takes a Wife is that it MUST be a Franken-book. I suspect that the publisher ruined this book by insisting on a rewrite, not by the author, but by someone else. This book is EXTREMELY well written, except during the sex scenes. EVERY sex scene is horribly written, some to the point of laughability. I would quote them here, but they are so very vulgar and not the least bit erotic.

Don’t take me for a prude. I was exposed to the entire catalog of 1970′s pornography before the age of nineteen. I once saw a woman pleasure herself with an electric toothbrush and the only thought that ran through my mind was, “Man, that’s gotta hurt.” If I could stomach that, be warned that some of the absurd scenes in Mr. Darcy Takes a Wife go beyond even my sensibilities.

This said, it was a very well written book. I was interested in all the characters. Linda Bertoll introduced an array of new people and allowed us to cling to the most dear of the original. Would the bastard, John Christie avenge his mother’s death? Would Viscountess Eugenia Clisson escape France as she did the guillotine? Would Tom Reed exact his revenge on Mr. Darcy? These new characters added such life to the story that I couldn’t help but continue reading.

And what about the bore, Mr. Collins, who has been so overly used in other Pride and Prejudice sequels? Yes, he was used as comic relief in this book. I didn’t find the faux pas of Mr. Collins to be funny, but I could tell that I was supposed to think they were funny. Was a third author brought in to add some humor to the book? I don’t think so, but I can’t understand how the death of a husband and father could ever be thought of as a punchline, despite the events surrounding the unhappy demise. With this, yet again, Berdoll has more in common with Fielding than Austen.

Despite all the lurid sex and death scenes, Mr. Darcy Takes a Wife is a very good book and entirely quotable. Here are my favorites:

Not once did Linda Berdoll deign to plagiarize Jane Austen’s original work. She wove one of her own by creating intricate and lovely stories about some of the humblest of characters from Pride and Prejudice. Her book was a sweeping epic spanning over six years of the Darcy marriage. When I compared Mr. Darcy Takes a Wife to Tom Jones, it is with the utmost respect for that raunchy romp.

If you love Jane Austen, you’ll hate Mr. Darcy Takes a Wife. If you love Henry Fielding, then you have just been given a treasure. I can’t wait to get Darcy & Elizabeth: Nights and Days at Pemberley by Linda Berdoll. There are still questions that I want answered!

I picked Mr. Darcy’s Diary by Amanda Grange up at Borders. There was an entire shelf of Jane Austen sequels, prequels and rewrites. The secret thoughts of Mr. Darcy opened to me? Yes, of course, I would choose this book.

Sadly, it wasn’t believable at all as a diary. Honestly, the idea of putting a story in diary form is not a very good one. I have written a diary almost every day for over twenty-five years. Looking back, my journals do not tell a good story of my life. Enmeshed in the details of life, a diary rarely talks about the important things. It turns out that most of life happens off-screen.

In Mr. Darcy’s Diary, he quotes people using quotation marks. I have only read my own diary, but it is very rare that I deign to use quotation marks. I can rarely remember what anyone says exactly, so I usually just write something like, “Then Elizabeth Bennet told me that I was too proud.” Instead of quoting her word for word.

This dialog quoting is merely elegant plagiarism. Instead of writing a clever turn on the events as perceived by Mr. Darcy, Amanda Grange chose to quote the original work directly. Sadly, there were no quotations that I was able to glean from this book because everything that was written that was worth quoting came from Austen’s book in the first place. Bad form, Amanda, bad form.

In the end, Mr. Darcy’s Diary is kind of an upscale romantic novel. If you’re a fan of Harlequin Romances, this one will give you an evening of pleasure, but if you’re looking for unique literary perspectives on a beloved novel, keep looking.

Note: Amanda Grange has written many romantic novels, but one of notice is Mr. Knightley’s Diary. It is the story of Emma from the point of view of Mr. Knightley. If you enjoyed Mr. Darcy’s Diary and didn’t have a problem with suspension of disbelief (what kind of person quotes people in their diary?!), then you will probably find enjoyment in Mr. Knightley’s Diary.