Perfect, if You Hate Jane Austen

Eliza's Daughter by Joan Aiken
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Have you ever watched an athlete and appreciated their game, maybe even liked them, because they are objectively good, while also disliking them for being, in real life, an asshole?

That is this book.

I kind of liked it. Parts, anyway. It's well written. I was rooting for Eliza (the daughter of Eliza). Some interesting things happened. Some surprising things.

And I kind of hated it. As a big Austen fan, coming to this book because I want to see what happens after Sense and Sensibility, imagine my disappointment to see that every single person from the original novel is terrible. Bad. In fact, skip the rest of this review if you don't want minute spoilers.

Colonel Brandon is a huge disappointment. After rescuing Eliza (who is the granddaughter of a woman he loved) he just sticks her in a terrible school where she has a miserable number of years. He never checks up on her and never helps improve her situation. Her mother, it turns out, isn't dead--she just deserted her without a care. Elinor is a dried up old prune who doesn't want anything to do with Eliza. Her husband, Edmund Farrars, is foolish, controlling, unlikeable clergyman who also doesn't want anything to do with Eliza. Mrs. Dashwood is senile and a bit crazy. Margaret is a disillusioned spinster. Sir John Middleton talks in an ugly way about his previous wife (from the Austen novel) without any of the kindness he was supposed to show. Marianne is a bitter, unkind woman who kept Brandon from doing anything good for Eliza as long as he was alive. And Willoughby is worse even than he started in the original story, having absolutely no interest in even knowing his daughter, almost literally pushing her away when she looks him up. All of them, and most of the invented characters (with only a few exceptions), are cruel, shallow, narrow-minded, selfish, horrible people.

Joan Aiken makes Dickens look like an optimist who only wrote about sunshine and puppies.

It's not all horrible. A couple good things happen. A couple characters are kind to Eliza. There's some lovely prose, too. And there's a decently happy ending (though I hate the pointless mystery thrown in at the end).

If you're reading this to enjoy some more hours and pages with some beloved characters, I warn you off. It isn't what you hope. It looks like the author sat down with a spreadsheet to chart out how to subvert every good thing about every single Austen character you recall. Elinor and Edmund looked happy? Now they don't! Marianne was carefree and sweet? Now she's more wicked stepmother than romantic pixie sonnet girl. Col. Brandon was mature and responsible? Now he's a deadbeat. On and on.

HOWEVER: if you were to read this book without any knowledge of Jane Austen, I think you might like it. No one is betrayed that way. Eliza is like Tom Jones, wandering through a strange landscape until things come right at the end. It is that book, that imaginary novel, which overcame my disgust enough to settle on a respectable 3.

I could be wrong about all that.

View all my reviews

Where We See the World Through Jane's Eyes

Jane Fairfax by Joan Aiken
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This is a well-crafted story about Jane Fairfax, a secondary (1-1/2?) character from Austen's Emma, and I enjoyed it quite a bit. Enough, that is, to recommend it.

Joan Aiken does particularly well (IMO) in blending "known" details with new plot points and characters. I am far from having made a serious study of the original, but I didn't find any details that contradicted it. The outings from the book, like the party at the Eltons or the picnic at Box Hill , (made familiar in the various movie adaptations) are accurate, as far as I can see, and it was interesting to view those moments from another perspective.

Her language works well, though I wouldn't say it's particularly Austenesque. Close enough to be consonant with the original, for sure.

The characters are well portrayed. Jane is more sympathetic here, not unsurprisingly, but I liked how Emma's behavior is less justifiable when viewed from a distance--and yet, she is still sympathetic, especially by the end. Emma comes off rounder and more real after seeing the story from Jane's perspective, which I approve of. I feel sorta the same about Mr. Knightley; he doesn't come off worse than in the original, necessarily, but definitely feels more complex. Frank Churchill is dealt with fairly, too, and seems both better and worse than how I saw him before. He really cares about Jane Fairfax, but the strange secrecy of their arrangement and his inability to confront his aunt or do anything to displease her looks more stark here, where Jane is the center of the story. (Jane admits to herself that Mr. Knightley is a better man than Frank, but she still loves him, which I thought was wise and poignant.) The one character who always seems to come out on top is Miss Bates, who is still silly and chatty and cheerful and desperately dull, but so kind and considerate and unselfish that she always reminds me of some thoughtful older woman at church or at the grocery store or across the street who talks too loud about nothing but always thinks about everyone else first...

It's a pretty fun book, too, but if it falls down at all it's in keeping things rolling in the final third, where the story bogs down a bit. (Heyer would have introduced a highwayman or a duel or something.) I enjoyed it enough to keep rolling, but I wish we could have had a few changes of scenery or bigger drama. Still, I liked it and thought it worked well.

I feel confident in recommending this to Austen readers (the ones who didn't read it long ago).

I already bought the author's other Austen books. Looking forward to those.

View all my reviews