| Created 2007..09.03; Updated 2007.09.07 |
This article originally appeared in the British Weekly. Image copyright Riverhead Trade.
by Gabrielle Pantera [More
articles ]
2007.8.25
Rating: 4 stars ****
Emma Campbell Webster's novel Lost in Austen makes an entertaining game of the works of Jane Austen.
Your mission, as a proper gentleman’s daughter of limited means but of considerable intelligence and wit, is to circumvent the many pitfalls society throws in your way to becoming happily married to a gentleman of consequence. You are, of course, Elizabeth Bennett of the great English novel Pride and Prejudice. As much a game as a book, Lost in Austen takes the reader on a wild and fascinating journey though all of Jane Austen’s books and also her surviving letters to her sister Cassandra.
Every few pages you must decide how to proceed by answering a question. Based on your answer, the book instructs you which page to turn to next, which path you will take. Lost in Austen author Emma Campbell Webster weaves the Austen plots together so deftly that we move seamlessly from Pride and Prejudice to Sense and Sensibility to Emma and even to Northanger Abby. The book makes the reader chose how the story moves forward, complete with twists and turns to lead you astray. If you know anything about Regency England, and Jane Austen’s books in particular, you’ll fall into this book with relish.
If you choose to walk home from Netherfield Hall you’re thrown into Sense and Sensibility and have the ever so charming Mr. Willoughby at your beck and call. Another option has Mr. Churchill of Emma coming to Longbourn. Who’s heart will he play with now? And, what of Mr. Darcy? Will Mr. Knightley become your knight in shining armor? So many choices…
Emma Campbell Webster is a graduate of Oxford where she specialized in studying Austen. Lost in Austen is Webster’s first book. There is a section in the back of the book with Webster’s research notes, all the details that she used. Reading the book is almost like playing a computer game. Choose the right path to marry the right man. If you take a misstep it’s game-over, and you start all over again. It’s a bit addictive.
For anyone who loves Jane Austen, you must get this book because it’s so much fun!
Lost in Austen: Create Your Own Jane Austen Adventure
