The Jane Austen Book Club (2007)

I read this book a few years ago and liked it pretty well, but the movie was just okay. It was fun to listen to passionate discussion about Jane Austen's novels and see how the characters' opinions had so much to do with their own lives, but ultimately, it just seemed like an excessively “chicky” chick flick.

Comments

  1. I have not seen it but the book has been on my library request list for a while (still waiting) I beg for the P&P discussion. I finished (for the X'ed time) the Darcy trilogy again. You have to read it (or I will be forever offended). It's by Pamela Aiden. Read book 1&3. Book 2 has nothing to do with the story. You'll fall in love with the whole thing over again. Did you see Becoming Jane? Send my greetings to your family. Mimi

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  2. Mirjam, After reading your comment, I found the Aidan books at the library and read all three. Well, actually only part of the second. I should have re-read that you said to read 1&3-the second one was dumb. I think she took way too many liberties in that one. Darcy was not the Darcy we know and love in that one. I really liked the other two. You could really tell she was writing the Collin Firth interpretation of Darcy (which she did admit to in an interview I read at the end of one of the books). But that's not bad since Collin Firth is the best Darcy yet. After reading those, I found and read "Darcy's Story" by Janet Aylmer and thought it was a good read also. It's the same thing -- P&P from Darcy's point of view, but is only one book so it goes faster. It doesn't introduce new characters like the Aidan ones. These authors seem to think they've thought of something new, writing from a new point of view, but that's okay. I don't think we'll ever tire of new versions of Jane Austen books. :)

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  3. ivy, I have actually "Darcy's Story" on hold right now. I am waiting. I read "These three remain" again when I was really sick with an ear infection. Mr. Darcy made my heart melt and my ear ache. Erin, I did read "The Jane Austen Book club" and did not like it at all. I can't tell you why but the characters had little to do with the Austen heroins. I did read "Austenland" by Shannon Hale just recently. It was cute, almost too cute. Nothing meaty like Aiden's trilogy but a quick afternoon indulgence. Another book recommendation is (by same author): "The Goose Girl", an adaptation of the German tale "Die Gänsemagd" I think you would like it ;)

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  4. Hi, Mirjam! Oh, I loved Austenland! Definitely cute, but also funny and lighthearted and perfect for indulging in, I thought. I still haven't read any of Shannon Hale's other books, but I will. She's LDS, you know. I think she's a much better writer than many LDS authors out there right now. Since you and Ivy really liked the Aidan books (1 and 3, at least), I'll read them someday. Yeah, The Jane Austen Book Club doesn't have a whole lot to do with Austen's books. It's really a modern, kind of hip novel, about women supporting each other through various crises, which Jane Austen really isn't about. Jane Austen's heroine's have maybe one good woman friend, if that, and the stories center on the romance, not on friendship, as in The Jane Austen Book Club.

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