What can I say about this book? I approached it with fear and trepidation, expecting it to be every bit as awful as Pride & Prejudice & Zombies (which was an interesting conceit, but has a terrible execution! The prequel Dawn of the Dreadfuls was considerably better.]
How wrong was I? Very, that's how. I never expected to find another human being with similar interests in both the works of Jane Austen and popular culture, but Pinnock obviously is such a person. I laughed out loud at lines like "the truth is out there, but it is not yet universally acknowledged" and at references to HP Lovecraft, The Fast Show, the X-Files, and any number of others.
This novel is not just a line of gags one after the other, though; it's well plotted and thought out, pacy and full of twists. I read it quickly, enjoyed it to the end and will probably have to re-read it soon, to make sure I didn't miss any of the references... The nerd in me would never live that down!
Highly recommended for nerds and neo-Georgians alike.
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Dear Jane,
ReplyDeleteThank you for your wonderful blog on Jane's and her follower's books. I love to read your postings whenever I've got the time to.
I'm writing to you now because I wanted to let you know that I wrote a modern and very German variation of "Pride and Prejudice" to be released on October, 7t by Plöttner Verlag Leipzig.
There are so few German P&P variations , even when you count the translations from English books. I just had to do something about it
My book's title is "Ein Engel für Mr. Darcy", which is a pun because it can be translated either as "An Angel for Mr. Darcy", but on the other hand it refers to the main character of Lisa Engel, a modern Elizabeth Bennet, and a huge Janeite who loves her 'Pride and Prejudice' dearly. In fact, there are actually two Mr. Darcys within the pages of the book, and Lisa loves one of them and hates the other one!
All in all, you could say that in my novel Jane Austen's "Pride and Prejudice" goes GDR.
Lisa loses her job as a librarian, and has to survive in the difficult but exciting times before and after the German Reunification. She embarks on a journey to the South of England tracing Jane Austen's life and work. In Bath she is kidnapped by two women and saved by Simon Hadley-Ash, the half German, half English heir of a baroncy. He is also just the very same man who Lisa believed responsible for her sacking.
Before the both of them could get to a possible happy ending there are an indignant Aunt Adelheid to fight, a disappeared tomcat to find and a furious baron to soothe... And first and foremost, they have to get over their prejudices and beat their pride.
There's just the German original at the moment but my publisher intends to have the book translated into English after due time. So I thought I just let you know there's something in the pipeline to look forward to. And as you at Jane Obsessed With Jane have also German followers, perhaps you would be so kind as to recommend my book to them in some way or other? I'd be very grateful. Not that I'll become a rich woman - I get merely 10 % of the sales prize minus VAT off any copy that's sold. It's rather I'd love to know that my book gets in the hands of the very knowledgeable people I've written it for.
On my Facebook page I started a giveaway, perhaps you or your readers will want to participate?
And I promise to do a giveaway at your blog as soon as there is an English version.
I hope I didn't bother you too much with my request.
Thank you and take care,
Ulrike Böhm from Germany
The author of "Ein Engel für Mr. Darcy", pre-order it here: http://www.amazon.de/Ein-Engel-f%C3%BCr-Mr-Darcy/dp/3955371093/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1376843495&sr=8-1&keywords=Ein+Engel+f%C3%BCr+Mr.+Darcy
All information on my Homepage: ,http://rieke8.wix.com/scriptoriumsanctum#!index/mainPage on my Blog: http://ein-engel-fuer-mr-darcy.blogspot.de/ and at Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/engelfuermrdarcy