Austenblog Review by MJ Ryan
The following might be the most rhetorical questions ever posted on a blog dedicated to Jane Austen:
Raise your hand if you’ve fantasized about living in Regency England. Dreamt about meandering down the streets of Bath? Imagined meeting Herself in the flesh? Of course you have! It would be difficult to read any of Austen’s novels and not want to be there, such a great job she does of painting an appealing picture of her world. So imagine the surprise and pleasure of Courtney Stone, the heroine in Confessions of a Jane Austen Addict by Laurie Viera Rigler, when her fantasy comes true and she wakes up in Regency England in the body of a young woman named Jane Mansfield. Her first vision is of a servant coming to wait on her. Nice! Her second is not so pleasurable as Jane’s domineering mother enters the room. The third is downright terrifying as a doctor arrives to bleed her.
Such begins Courtney’s strange journey into the past. The last thing she remembers before waking up in this new/old world is nursing her broken heart with a bottle of vodka. She has no idea how she got there, whom she is or how to get back to her marginally satisfying life in 21st century Los Angeles. Lucky for her that her love of Austen has primed her for fitting in, as best as she can, in a world so wholly different from hers. But, you know that her 21st century sensibilities and manners will cause her problems, which is all part of the fun.
Confessions of a Jane Austen Addict takes your typical “I want to live in that world” fantasy and injects it with the reality that no matter how horrible your real life might get, fictional fantasy worlds, even if they are based on real time periods, have their drawbacks, too. Of course, as intelligent people we know that, but it is very difficult not to be enchanted by Jane Austen’s vision of England. Even with the negative characteristics of Regency England that Courtney encounters – horrible hygiene, back-breaking work for the servants, stifling manners and rules for woman, a complete lack of birth control – Courtney finds herself settling into Jane’s life, sharing her memories and possibly falling in love with Jane’s would be beau. How can she get back to her life? Does she really want to?
The biggest weakness of the book is that there’s no explanation as to how Courtney landed in Jane’s body. Is Jane living Courtney’s life in 21st century L.A.? What does the gypsy fortune-teller have to do with it all? You never find out, I’m sorry to say. Just give that a hand wave and enjoy the engaging story and characters. When you’re done, you can fantasize, again, about a chance meeting on the streets of Bath with your favorite author and how witty and intelligent you would come across; and be thankful that your fantasy will never become reality because, as Jane says and Courtney awkwardly discovers, “A scheme which every part promises delight can never be successful.” << Back
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