Lost in Austen

During this movie, I actually clapped with delight at several parts. Lost in Austen is a British production, originally a short TV series, about a modern-day woman in her twenties who finds herself in Pride and Prejudice. That's right; in a novel's events. For fans of the novel and of the A&E film version of P and P, Lost in Austen provides many inside jokes and twists that will nevertheless entertain newcomers to the story.

Having been a fan of the novel and the A&E adaptation since 9th grade, when we read it in school, I was ready for the licenses that Lost in Austen takes with the plot. Amanda Price, the main character, switches places with Elizabeth Bennett, the protagonist from P and P, and then must deal with the ramifications of her presence in the story. Her comments and actions change events, and it all becomes a fun soup. It was exciting to wonder what would happen and how matters would work out from the jumble, having gotten the original's plot pretty well down by now. Definitely an uplifter.

As a side note, this reminds me of some of the spin-offs that Jane Eyre prompted. First, the novel Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys was written in 1966. In it, we learn a possible back-story of Mr. Rochester's wife in the attic, Bertha. Going back to their meeting in the Caribbean, where she originally lived, the novel paints a much more comprehensive picture of Bertha's state of mind. This is definitely not a happy-go-lucky novel; it is bracing in its honesty, but definitely of interest. The other related novel is completely different. Jasper Fforde's The Eyre Affair is about a literary detective in an alternate universe. I don't remember much more than that, other than that her literary detective skills somehow get involved with Jane Eyre, but it is definitely entertaining--I remember that much.