Pride, Prejudice and Jasmin Field: My Favorite Austen Homage

Categories: Rediscoveries , Staff Picks , Fiction

I recently recommended Pride, Prejudice and Jasmin Field to someone who had just watched the new screen version of Pride and Prejudice for the ninth time.  But you don't have to be a fanatic to enjoy Melissa Nathan's 2001 tale of a newspaper columnist and an actor brought together by a stage production of that classic novel. 

Trendy columnist Jazz Field is just enough of a celebrity to be asked, along with her actress sister, George, to audition for a charity fundraising production of P&P being directed by Harry Noble, beloved heir of Britain’s most famous family of actors.  When she overhears him call her “the ugly sister,” she’s furious enough to ace the audition.

Of course, anyone who knows P&P knows what happens next.  

That’s what makes this novel so much fun.  Nathan sticks very close to the original in plotting her modern parallel, and readers will enjoy watching each familiar scene take on contemporary life.   

It's not often that an Austen homage is done right (I can’t tell you how many silly ones I've read), but this one is.  It’s also just a charming, satiric, young-single-Londoners romance, with plenty of appeal for Bridget Jones fans.