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Title: Jane Austen's Charlotte by Julia Barrett, Jane Austen ISBN: 087131908X Publisher: M Evans & Co Pub. Date: 15 April, 2000 Format: Hardcover Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $21.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 2.82
Rating: 5
Summary: Lovely
Comment: Those of us who adore Jane Austen are rightly fearful of attempts to pick up where she left off. But Julia Barrett is on to Austen's devastating wit--the critical and amused eye that she casts over the social landscape--and the result is a lovely read.
Rating: 1
Summary: Worst book I've ever read cover to cover
Comment: I received this as a gift because I am a huge JA fan. I read it through to the end because I read all books related to JA. I cannot believe this book has a rating of 3/5 stars. The plot, as continued by Barrett is absurd in the extreme, and, as others have pointed out, inconsistent and capricious. There is almost no dialogue, a distinct departure from Austen's usual style. A smarmy, confused, verbose narrator conveys most of the "story line." Adding insult to injury is the unnatural and awkward writing style. Barring a few grammatical constructions and vocabulary changes, Austen's language is not so different from our own. Barrett would have us believe that people, in truth, fly everywhere and use the conditional every other word. Would that eager JA readers could but be warned away from this unhappy collection of words!
Rating: 5
Summary: Kudos to Ms. Julia Barrett for Jane Austen's Charlotte
Comment: I truly enjoyed this novel, as much as I did its predecessors "Presumption" and "The Third Sister", I think, though each of the three had its own individual, special delights. Though by no means an expert myself in Jane Austen or late 18th Century England, it seemed to me that "Jane Austen's Charlotte" like the two others, did indeed "engage and entice" back into that world, and I believe they kept to the "great lady's" own standards of wit, warmth, and intelligence.
I think the aspect of these novels, and most recently "Charlotte", that impresses me the most is the prodigious imagination required of a writer in today's world to imagine and bring to life these very real-seeming characters in an age not like ours at all in so many ways, especially in language. Julia Barrett definitely has a "felicity" with language much like the "great lady". I loved the turns of phrases, the chapter beginnings, the extremely insightful observations on human nature, both its strengths and foibles, and above all, the way she, like her wonderful predecessor, makes the characters individualistic and memorable without a lot of physical description or observation.
And, the satirical asides and situations in "Charlotte" seem to have more contemporary resonances than in the previous novels or even in Jane's. I was constantly smiling and even laughing out loud at Lady Denham and Mr. Parker and how they got caught up in the seashore health fads and get-rich-quick enthusiasms of the "new day" dawning in England in the early 1800s. If they could only see the modern world mania for "development" and dubious investments as well as today's corruption and avarice gone wild almost everywhere.
Like Jane Austen, Ms. Barrett brought the story to a close most satisfactorily with the heroine getting her fairly predictable education in life and a fine, upstanding husband to boot, and with little collateral damage to those relatives and loved ones least guilty of the shenanigans that brought Sanditon to near ruin. Barrett really did open up "Charlotte" to the rest of the world, hinted at in her two previous works as well by the "great lady" herself in her later novels, but she also somehow maintained the high level of wit and charm and intelligence that are so enjoyable in her mentor. So, kudos and many thank yous for another very enjoyable visit to Jane Austen land. As with a few other books I've really enjoyed, I'm sure I'll take them down in a couple of years to re-read. And, I'll definitely recommend them to whomever I run into who seems capable of enjoyment of such a high order. To those who think no one should "sully" Jane Austen's memory or tread on her legacy, I say nonsense and challenge them to give Julia Barrett a try. Jane Austen has indeed a worthy successor these days. I eagerly await an addition to the canon.
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Title: Excessively Diverted: The Sequel to Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice by Juliette Shapiro ISBN: 1589392647 Publisher: VirtualBookworm.com Publishing Inc. Pub. Date: September, 2002 List Price(USD): $14.95 |
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Title: The Third Sister: A Continuation of Jane Austen's Sense and Sensibility by Julia Barrett, Jane Sense and Sensibility Austen ISBN: 1551664461 Publisher: Mira Books Pub. Date: May, 1998 List Price(USD): $5.99 |
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Title: Lady Catherine's Necklace by Joan Aiken ISBN: 0312244061 Publisher: St. Martin's Press Pub. Date: April, 2000 List Price(USD): $21.95 |
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Title: The Bar Sinister, Pride and Prejudice Continues by Linda Berdoll ISBN: 0967481708 Publisher: Well, There It Is Publishing Pub. Date: 15 October, 1999 List Price(USD): $22.95 |
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Title: Jane Fairfax: Jane Austen's Emma, Through Another's Eyes by Joan Aiken ISBN: 031215707X Publisher: St. Martin's Press Pub. Date: May, 1997 List Price(USD): $12.95 |
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