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Today, in our post for “Jane in January” we are looking at modern retellings of Pride and Prejudice.  Y’all, there are SO. SO. MANY.  We have three to bring you today that we recommend, and would love to hear about your favorites in the comments!  We know there are more, and my TBR loves to grow, so which titles are worthy? Here are three for you, in case you haven’t read them yet and if you have, share how you liked them below!

This post is a bit lengthy, so in case you want just the list or to jump around:

Ayesha at Last by Uzma Jalaluddin

Eligible (The Austen Project, #4) by Curtis Sittenfeld

A Higher Education by Rosalie Stanton

Happy Reading!

First up, Ayesha at Last by Uzma Jalaluddin

Nikki: There are some titles that fall decidedly into the #blameAnne category, and Ayesha at Last by Uzma Jalaluddin is one of them.  This title was featured in Modern Mrs. Darcy’s 2019 Summer Reading Guide, and was even among the minimalist list (y’all, we’ve read and recommend four of the five).  I’ll add, when this list came out, titles leaped from it straight to my TBR.  But this is about Ayesha, not how Modern Mrs. Darcy and What Should I Read Next Podcast keep my TBR nice and long.

Anyway, Ayesha at Last is a Pride & Prejudice retelling set in modern day Toronto, Canada, in a Muslim community.  If you’re a purist, skip this. Period. If you like a good retelling, keep reading.  This has all the pieces I want in a good, reinvented telling of the P&P story. It’s an enemies to lovers romance, complete with the supporting cast I simply adored.  Original characters, including the sweet Mr. Bennett, frustrating Mr. Collins, and Kitty are different in a fun way, but present, which is important to me because the mess of a romance is sometimes almost always my favorite part.  I love that this version talks about minorities and immigrants, and gave me a glimpse into an example of a religion I haven’t had a lot of exposure to in real life.  

I’ve heard this compared to A Place for Us, which was actually the 2018 favorite of the MMD Summer Reading Guide (and is amazing).  Both books are about Muslin families, loss, growth, and life, however the tone of the books are very different.  P&P is a romance, with some comedy.  Ayesha at Last is definitely a romance and has some comical pieces to it.  A Place for Us does not have comedy, at least not in a meaningful way, and it isn’t a romance.  It’s a family saga about the children of immigrants, expectations, and the consequences of choices and responsibility.  It’s gorgeous and just almost broody, but not quite. I would not compare the two had I not read about comparisons on some “if you liked this read that” list, and I think the authors of that list are short sighted and very basic, if they even read both books (which I highly doubt).  Now, if you like Eligible (more on that below), take a look at Ayesha at Last.  I’d actually suggest reading Ayesha first though, because it’s quiet in a way very reminiscent of P&P while Eligible is more outrageous, in the most fun way.  

I give this a solid four stars.  It was well done, enlightening, and nostalgic while also being different and endearing.  I’d be very comfortable handing this title to readers of any age who adore the themes. It didn’t wow me in a dramatic way, but I’m definitely going to be looking out for more from Jalaluddin.  

Ashley: There’s a lot of talk in Ayesha At Last about Shakespeare. Even though this book is heralded as a modern re-telling of Austen’s Pride and Prejudice, I really see a lot of similarities to a Shakespearean comedy. For me, it’s a great mixture of the two, and if you go into reading this book realizing that there’s going to be a little from Austen and a little from Shakespeare, you get a great mash-up set in modern day Toronto. I felt that, like in Shakespeare’s comedies, Jalaluddin’s female characters have a lot more agency and are more developed as people than in Austen. I’m not just talking about Ayesha, but especially Nani and Clara and Hafsa, all the secondary female characters that surround our heroine. And perhaps I even feel a little compassion for Farzana, the counterpart to Austen’s Lady Catherine de Bourgh, more so than I ever did for Lady Catherine in any other iteration. 

Picking up Ayesha after finishing the emotionally heavy The Last Romantics was the best choice I could have made for my reading life. It pulls from a familiar story and has plenty of comedic scenes that made it easy to read. Plus, you know from the beginning what happens in the end! In addition to the familiar story, I really appreciated all of the Canadianisms. Yes, I’m talking about Tim Horton’s hot chocolate (my personal favourite Timmy’s beverage), getting something double double, maple dip donuts, and donuts with sprinkles (vanilla dip with sprinkles is always the accompaniment to my hot chocolate). I’m also talking about quotes like “I am a Canadian. I feel no cold.” How many times in the Tennessee winter do I hear the Canadian Adam say those words… too many to count. (You should ask Nikki about when she saw Canadian Adam out in the Tennessee snow in a tee shirt and basketball shorts…) Or when Ayesha tells Kahlid that he apologizes too much and he should get that checked out? Canadians, eh?

Next, Eligible (The Austen Project, #4) by Curtis Sittenfeld

Nikki: Dear readers, it is no secret we love a good romance novel here at Heart.Wants.Books.  Curtis Sittenfeld delivers in Eligible, and once again, Anne Bogel delivers in her recommendation!  This is #4 in a series of modern retellings of Jane Austen’s works and after finishing it, I quickly added the others to my TBR.  So far there are only four, as we are still waiting on Mansfield Park and Persuasion, but I am hopeful they’ll join the others in due course.  

As this book opens, Jane and Liz are in their 30s and live in New York where Jane is a yoga instructor trying to have a baby on her own and Liz is a writer, naturally.  They have returned home to Cincinnati to take care of Mr. Bennet following a heart attack, despite the fact that their three younger sisters all live at home. Kitty and Lydia are too busy with CrossFit workouts and healthy eating to get jobs or help around the house, and Mary is almost entirely held up in her room working on yet another degree.  All the Bennett personalities are everything I wanted them to be and, if it’s even possible, more.

Bingley and Darcy are amazing as well.  Bingley, an emergency medicine physician, was on the reality dating show “Eligible”, and Darcy, his close friend from medical school, is a neurosurgeon.  Georgiana and Caroline also make appearances and their updated characters are just perfect as well!  All of the relationships proceed in the most amazing, yet ever so slightly unpredictable ways. Both Wickham and Mr. Collins make appearances.  Kitty isn’t left out romantically this time, and meets a delightful man as well. The love interests of the younger girls don’t concern Jane and Liz (as in the original) but Mr. and Mrs. Bennett do have some work to do in broadening their horizons and joining their daughters in the twenty-first century.  

Most of the antics of the original make their way to this retelling in such fabulous ways!  There are financial issues, spider infestations that make Ashley’s inner Realtor shudder to think about and make Nikki roll her eyes, shopping addictions, and even an episode of reality TV!  There is drama with Lydia (or Lydia is drama, your choice), Mary is a bit of a mystery, and Liz makes everything come together after a blow up fight with Darcy (#notaspoiler). Purists may not like this spicy, almost but not quite open door retelling, but I loved it.  It’s definitely going to be a reread for me! When you read it, or if you have, let us know what you think in the comments below.  

Ashley: When we read Eligible last July, I finished the 2016 publication in less than 48 hours. It is in my opinion the best retelling we have read (Nikki: Seconded). Eligible proves without a doubt why Austen’s enemies to lovers romance has stood the test of time. The resemblance of family life and the relationship dance people do while falling in love are the same in 2013 as in 1813!

Instead of trying to smoosh together meaningful paragraphs about the things I loved, here are the highlights of my Kindle highlights culled from the original 58:

While discussing Jane’s attempt at having a baby on her own: 

11% – “Don’t apologize.” Liz pulled a glass from Jane’s shelf. “And any fetus would be lucky to inhabit your womb. I bet you have the Ritz of uteruses. Uteri?” Liz held her filled glass aloft. “To Latinate nouns and to reproduction.”

The Sass-level between Liz and Mr. Bennet is still so strong…

17% -“Wow, Dad,” Liz said. “Have you become a Democrat?”

17% -“If Mary has a friend she doesn’t think she can bring to dinner, that’d be rather a shame,” Mr. Bennet said. “Her significant other deserves to suffer as much as the rest of us.” He was looking at Liz directly, and she tried not to squirm. Was he talking about Mary, or was he actually alluding to her and Jasper?

Mrs. Bennet is still the gossipy besom we have always known her to be:

18% – “He’s a lawyer in Atlanta, and he’s very active in his church,” Mrs. Bennet said. “If that’s not the description of a man looking for a wife, I don’t know what is.”

When someone else refers to printed reading materials as dead tree:

23% – “Lizzy,” Willie said, “I saw in the airport that they’re still printing dead-tree issues of your magazine.” “That’s how some people prefer to read,” Liz said. “I realize you’re not one of them.”

Liz’s narrative introspections about her life:

36% – But if Liz wasn’t close to her mother, neither was she consumed with the maternal resentment she had observed in some friends. Her mother had been adequate—often annoying, far from abusive.

41% – One of the virtues of the Tudor was the privacy offered by its capacious dimensions, and though Liz suspected that this fact reflected poorly on her, she was at times most able to enjoy her family members when she could sense their presence nearby without actually interacting with them.

55% – Liz shrugged. “Travel. Write a book. Run a marathon. Be a super-doting aunt, without having to deal with things like potty training.”

64% – Indeed, the proximity to her family, were she to establish her own life rather than simply facilitate theirs, might be a boon. She could help her parents settle into a new dwelling, keep a closer eye on their finances, and perhaps develop adult relationships with Mary, Kitty, and Lydia (or maybe that was delusional no matter the circumstances).

When Liz and Charlotte are the best friends you always knew them to be. Their sassy conversation during their stalking of the Darcy homestead in California when Liz is visiting Charlotte and Willie in Silicon Valley :

65% – Liz held out the price tag, which read $200. “There’s no better investment than your cleavage.” Charlotte smirked. “I believe they teach that in business school.”

67% – She recited the digits, and seconds later, her phone buzzed in her pocket. (After all this time, she had Darcy’s cell phone number! She had Darcy’s number and he had hers, and she felt as giddy as if the cutest boy in seventh grade had slipped a note into her locker.) “I’m glad this will work,” Darcy said. In a purring tone that made Liz want to slap her friend, Charlotte said, “Darcy, the pleasure is ours.”

68% – “Lizzy, nothing could bring me greater happiness than to have you staying at my house, freaking out about a boy.”

I have decided that anymore of my highlights will be spoilery and wrong of me to post – but if you have read Eligible and decide you want to know what my absolute favorites are, hit me up, I’m happy to share all the things I truly loved about this book!

Nikki: Oh and one more thing – there was one part that disappointed me and Ashley, but we realized it after reading the acknowledgements – Curtis, the author, is female.  In looking at my Goodreads, I read a lot of white women by default, so I purposefully select books written by men and people of color. I was excited that 1) a Jane Austen retelling was written by a man (#3 Emma is written by Alexander McCall Smith who is male) and 2) I was adding a book by a man to my list.  Oh well. While I was disappointed in that revelation during my reading of the acknowledgements for Eligible, the explanation about how the book came to be and the author’s interest in Jane Austen was such a delight to read.  I won’t spoil it, but please read it. And #blameAnne for her lovely essay in I’d Rather Be Reading about the importance of reading the acknowledgements, because this is a prime example!  

Last, but not least, A Higher Education by Rosalie Stanton

Nikki: We have one more modern retelling to share with you today, A Higher Education by Rosalie Stanton.  In this version, Elizabeth and Darcy are non-traditional students [read mid-20s] at Meryton College in this open door romance.  They both feel awkward and out of place, having been out in the world because of family drama and now back in the classroom. Wickham makes an appearance, which is everything I wanted it to be.  Bingley, Caroline, and Kitty are also on campus and fully in character. Jane is the sweetest roommate Elizabeth could ask for, and Elizabeth even has a get away over winter break and ends up at…Darcy’s house on a tour, while staying with Mr. Collins and Charlotte in this fun, light-hearted retelling.  Set in the south, with the action happening in the fall and winter, this was a delightful novel that doesn’t take itself seriously. Just as in the original, there are serious situations, there is drama, and oh sweet Jane is there snark! This plot doesn’t follow the original exactly, but the arc is there and very similar just as a retelling set 200 years later should be.  I thoroughly enjoyed reading this and may pick it back up for a bit of fun, but I’m not committing to do more than bug Ashley to read it! (Ashley makes no promises.)

As we said before, if you’re a purist, don’t pick up these titles.  If you think a fun look at an old story might be for you, then take your pick!  We recommend all three, but perhaps not all at once to spread the joy of the Bennets throughout your reading year!

What are your favorite modern retellings of Pride and Prejudice?  Whether it’s one of these or if it’s a different title, please share with us in the comments.  Well, especially if it’s a different title!

For my part of Pride and Prejudice adjacent reading, I selected four titles to focus on and share with you, two sequels and two retellings but from different points of view.  I did read (at least parts of) a couple more, but they didn’t rise to the level of any of these. All four of these titles are set in or close to the time of the original and were very enjoyable reads. Let’s look at them in order of publication.

Death Comes to Pemberley by P.D. James – Fast forward to six years after the end of Pride and Prejudice.  Elizabeth and Darcy are settled at Pemberley, where she has found her footing, become close with Georgiana, and had two sons.  Jane and Bingley live close by and Mr. Bennett visits often. Lydia and Wickham have gotten on, well, predictably. Elizabeth and all of Pemberley are preparing for the annual autumn ball, which Lydia decides she must attend, invitation or not.  Wickham decides to bring her on his way through (as he is not welcome at Pemerley), and drama ensues in the form of a murder.  Wickham appears the likely suspect, but Darcy doesn’t believe it. The rest of the tale is spent exploring what actually happened, the court proceedings, and how this cast of characters handles this chaos that rode in with the Wickhams in their carriage.  

What this book is and is not – it is a well-crafted crime story that captures the characters from Austen’s original work.  It might seem to be a sequel, which I guess it is, but only sort of because the style of the book is very different. It might still be a statement on society and a chronicle of character development, but it’s also a crime drama and what little romance is a complete aside.  

I liked this book, but I didn’t love it, certainly not enough to be likely to reread it.  The PBS adaptation is also really enjoyable (I did see it first, and a year or two prior to reading the book).  I didn’t love the casting (Matthew Rhys doesn’t do it for me as Darcy, but I love Anna Maxwell Martin as Elizabeth), but the acting was great.  If you are a purist, skip this book. It’s a fun look at these lovely characters through a very different lense, and while I enjoyed it, it is not for everyone.  

Mr. Darcy’s Diary (Jane Austen Heroes #1) by Amanda Grange – This is literally the timeline of Pride and Prejudice as read in Mr. Darcy’s Diary.  He recounts events in the book and events during that time that happen (or could have happened) during his time away from Elizabeth.  Much of the dialogue seems to be lifted straight from the original (I read it about a week after the original, but I did not do a side-by-side comparison), so it feels very much the same story, just from Darcy’s perspective.  It’s fun, revealing, and even creative at times with the pieces we don’t see in the original simply because Elizabeth doesn’t see them. If you’re interested in deep diving Pride and Prejudice, I highly suggest this as a title to include.  I adore the way Mr. Darcy’s character is slowly revealed in the original and this book adds more layers to that in a lovely way.  

I’m not a purist, but I think it’d be worth getting several pages into the text for a purist to see if this title works for them.  I really enjoyed it and may reread this in the future, perhaps while watching one of my favorite movie adaptations (because yes, I am that person and I may or may not be catching up on The Crown while writing this).  

I would be remiss without mentioning, if you read and enjoy Mr. Darcy’s Diary, it is one in a series of six.  Yes, that does mean Grange has written a diary for each of Austen’s major novel heroes.  I haven’t read any of the others, but I have recommended them to my library. Grange also has other titles that are retellings or sequels to Pride and Prejudice.  If you have read any of her works, please share your thoughts with us in the comments. I wouldn’t mind diving deeper, especially if you have titles to share!

Longbourn by Jo Baker – This is another take on the story but from a different perspective.  I read this about a month later and didn’t look back, so I cannot comment on the accuracy of events and conversations that also occur in the original.  That said, this is the downstairs version of Pride and Prejudice – both in that it is the story from the view of one of the housemaids and in that she has her own instance of misjudging someone in the pages of this book.  As the book opens, Sarah overhears conversations about a new resident at Netherfield and learns of all the work to come, and this on laundry day. (I don’t hate laundry day nearly as much as I did before reading this. I much prefer my methods with electricity and machines to help.  And no, I have no idea if the methods are historically accurate, but if you do, please enlighten us in the comments.) Soon the staff learn that Mr. Bennett has hired a footman to work in the house to lighten the work and, much to Mrs. Bennett’s delight, make the house seem more respectable by having men wait on the residents and guests rather than just women (yes, that sound was me rolling my eyes at Mrs. Bennett, again).  

The book is organized in three volumes.  One and two are continuations of the story, then three abruptly takes you back in time to learn about one character’s backstory.  Once we’re caught up, we even see some earlier events of this book from a different perspective. While the ending is delightful and I adore the way Sarah’s character develops throughout the book, I wanted an epilogue because I want to know what happens after the end.  I like the endings of books to be tied up in nice, neat bows, even if that means I need a novella after the official “ending.” Unfortunately, this is normal for me, and is my chief complaint about Austen’s Pride and Prejudice as well.  

While I really enjoyed this book, and will likely reread it eventually. Austen purists may not enjoy this, especially given how some facts turnout in the book.  We learn more about some of our beloved characters, and not all of it is nice, but the folks downstairs best know those they take care of, so take that under advisement, dear reader.  I thoroughly enjoyed the new perspective in the first two volumes, and was excited by the mysteries being revealed during the third (after I figured out what was going on – that transition could have been smoother).  I didn’t agree with everything our dear characters did and said, but I don’t have plans to write a book, so I must satisfy myself with how others write them for me to enjoy. The style of this is a blend of the original and a bit of a mystery as to the backstory of one character, how it affects the rest, and then how we’ll get resolution for our heroine and her hero.  While some may claim this is a romance, and there is definitely that aspect to it, it feels more like a coming of age tale to me. Sarah realizes the impact of the ladies of the house growing up through doing the laundry, then preparations for callers, and finally the ladies getting married and going to homes of their own. She also grows up enough to realize she has choices and can direct her own life rather than just doing as she is told, even by those who employ her.  

The Pursuit of Mary Bennett by Pamela Mingle –  This novel shows us how Mary Bennett’s life is changed after the marriages of her three sisters, and covers a similar timeline to Death Comes to Pemberely.  Jane and Lizzie work hard to shield Mary (and Mr. Bennett for that matter) from Lydia and Mrs. Bennett and to help Mary come into her own.  She was always the wallflower to Kitty and Lydia’s questionable behavior which placed a shadow on the proper Jane and Lizzie. We, and Mary, stay predominantly with Lizzie and Darcy, learning about their family, household, and what has happened with them in the years since the end of Pride and Prejudice.  Through the purposeful influence of her elder sisters, Mary has the instruction and also the freedom to become her own person and step into the light as the eldest unmarried Miss Bennett.  We still get the drama that is Lydia and Wickham, but we are insulated from it a bit because Lizzie wants to keep Mary separated from the scandals that follow Lydia. And we also get to see how Mary benefits from the superb matches of her elder sisters, despite the less advantageous marriage of her youngest sister.  As someone who always wants to know more at the end of the story, I adored this book. It was written with a more modern pace, yet kept a voice similar to the original. It continues the story in the pseudo-lighthearted way of the original and is a delightful addition to my deep dive.  

Have you read any of these novels?  Or any other Pride and Prejudice adjacent books set in the 19th century?  

Next week, we’ll bring you a post about modern retellings and one about film adaptations, so check back, and keep reading (and watching)!

~Nikki