zshorn18's review against another edition
4.0
As with all short story collections by a variety of authors, some are much stronger than others. However, I enjoyed the majority of them and was struck by the powerful voices of the authors picking up and extending a world that I found only moderately enjoyable in its original form. Recommend to fans of Austen or short story collections.
boekenhonger's review against another edition
3.0
Some stories were good, others were just not for me. I enjoyed the story about Austen getting judged by her own characters very much.
jennamarie42's review against another edition
3.0
Some of the stories were good, but some of them were so bad.
mishale1's review against another edition
4.0
Great book. I've been on an Austen kick lately and gave really been enjoying stories inspired by Austen herself or her characters.
This book has a number of very well written short stories by Austen fans. It was interesting how many different stories could be inspired by her books and how many different ways those inspections were shown.
This book has a number of very well written short stories by Austen fans. It was interesting how many different stories could be inspired by her books and how many different ways those inspections were shown.
rachelcabbit's review against another edition
3.0
"Dancing with Mr Darcy" is a collection of 20 short stories inspired by Jane Austen and Chawton House. It was a pretty neat little read. I dipped into it between revision and if I got stuck researching for my essays. I really loved the first story (which actually won the competition that brought this book about). I forget the title, but it was something like 'Jane Austen on the Styx' and was about Jane being judged by her older female characters who believed she had misrepresented older women in her novels. It was so well written! In fact, most of them were. Quite inspiring too - made me feel like writing more, but alas, my university work was more important.
Each writer has their own unique style. I don't normally enjoy stories that modernise Austen, but I was pleasantly surprised by the modern-day stories that had some Austen flair.
Each writer has their own unique style. I don't normally enjoy stories that modernise Austen, but I was pleasantly surprised by the modern-day stories that had some Austen flair.
rebeccalm's review against another edition
This book was given to me many years ago as a gift, and I only just picked it up to try and read very recently. I hadn't realized that it was a compilation of short stories submitted for a prize competition and that they were to be written with a general theme of Austen in mind and that the book wasn't an actual full narrative...So I didn't quite realize what I was getting into when I started reading. I got through the first two essays and decided not to continue. I found them to be very short essays that didn't delve into much at all, covering an array of topics and themes - it felt more like trying to grade papers than reading a good book of short stories. Maybe someone else will love it for all the reasons I don't, but either way, I wasn't going to commit any more time to it. Not for me at all.
juliaogden's review against another edition
3.0
A friend gave me this book as a gift because she knows that I love Austen. I enjoyed the stories somewhat, and I did keep reading until the end. Perhaps that is not such a resounding recommendation, but for Austen fans, this book is a pleasant-ish way to spend a few hours.
teresac's review
- Strong character development? N/A
- Loveable characters? N/A
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A
1.5
annemaries_shelves's review
5.0
This was an excellent collection of stories inspired by Jane Austen/Chawton House. Though, I admit, I wasn't expecting just how 'unrelated' some of the stories were to the works of Jane Austen herself. Somehow I thought that the stories would largely take place in the worlds of Pride and Prejudice, Persuasion, etc...
The stories were excellent, and really made me think. I particularly enjoyed "Jayne," "The Jane Austen Hen Weekend," "Tears Fall on Orkney," "The Watershed," and "Marianne and Ellie." Some left me confused (I think the lack of italics to denote changes in thought or the imaginary was what threw me) - for example, "We Need to Talk About Mr. Collins."
The whole collection was enjoyable and gives a fresh look on Jane Austen, her works, and her life. I would highly recommend it to any fan of Jane Austen. And no - there's hardly a mention of Mr. Darcy (except briefly in two stories) so don't go expecting anything there.
The stories were excellent, and really made me think. I particularly enjoyed "Jayne," "The Jane Austen Hen Weekend," "Tears Fall on Orkney," "The Watershed," and "Marianne and Ellie." Some left me confused (I think the lack of italics to denote changes in thought or the imaginary was what threw me) - for example, "We Need to Talk About Mr. Collins."
The whole collection was enjoyable and gives a fresh look on Jane Austen, her works, and her life. I would highly recommend it to any fan of Jane Austen. And no - there's hardly a mention of Mr. Darcy (except briefly in two stories) so don't go expecting anything there.
katiemoten's review
3.0
Actual rating: 2.5/5
This collection of 20 stories are all inspired by Austen's life, her work, or Chawton House Library or the cottage on the Chawton estate where Austen was at her most prolific. While they're decent stories for the most part, you wouldn't always know they were Austen related without being told, and many of them are not that memorable: I had to remind myself of several of the stories as I was looking at the contents, and that really isn't a good sign.
There are some good ideas here, and some interesting connections with Austen, but, as I said, that connection, for many of the stories, wouldn't really be clear without the author's note explaining their inspiration, which appears at the end of each story. I think perhaps it might have been more useful to have that note on inspiration at the start of each story, so that the reader would know where to look for the connections to Austen. Some are very obvious, but there are a few that aren't, having only the most tenuous connection to Austen.
There are a couple of sweet stories: "Eight Years Later"and "Second Fruits", both Persuasion retellings, are nice, and I liked "Snowmelt", which is inspired by Chawton House Library, rather than Austen in particular, as well. "The Delaford Ladies' Detective Agency" was funny and unusual, and "One Character in Search of Her Love Story Role" was a fun piece of intertextuality that reminded me of the Thursday Next books. "Jayne" was an interesting exploration of Austen's focus on financial security for women, and "Jane Austen over the Styx", which won the short story competition that each story in this volume was an entrant in, was well done and captured some of Austen's more unpleasant characters very well.
There are only a handful of memorable stories here, though: the rest sort of fade into the background, really, which is a pity. Perhaps the number of stories should have been reduced to make the book make more of an impact. I think the title is a bit misleading as well: Mr Darcy doesn't have a large presence here. I do like that the stories don't just retell Pride and Prejudice, but I don't think the calibre of stories is particularly high.
This collection of 20 stories are all inspired by Austen's life, her work, or Chawton House Library or the cottage on the Chawton estate where Austen was at her most prolific. While they're decent stories for the most part, you wouldn't always know they were Austen related without being told, and many of them are not that memorable: I had to remind myself of several of the stories as I was looking at the contents, and that really isn't a good sign.
There are some good ideas here, and some interesting connections with Austen, but, as I said, that connection, for many of the stories, wouldn't really be clear without the author's note explaining their inspiration, which appears at the end of each story. I think perhaps it might have been more useful to have that note on inspiration at the start of each story, so that the reader would know where to look for the connections to Austen. Some are very obvious, but there are a few that aren't, having only the most tenuous connection to Austen.
There are a couple of sweet stories: "Eight Years Later"and "Second Fruits", both Persuasion retellings, are nice, and I liked "Snowmelt", which is inspired by Chawton House Library, rather than Austen in particular, as well. "The Delaford Ladies' Detective Agency" was funny and unusual, and "One Character in Search of Her Love Story Role" was a fun piece of intertextuality that reminded me of the Thursday Next books. "Jayne" was an interesting exploration of Austen's focus on financial security for women, and "Jane Austen over the Styx", which won the short story competition that each story in this volume was an entrant in, was well done and captured some of Austen's more unpleasant characters very well.
There are only a handful of memorable stories here, though: the rest sort of fade into the background, really, which is a pity. Perhaps the number of stories should have been reduced to make the book make more of an impact. I think the title is a bit misleading as well: Mr Darcy doesn't have a large presence here. I do like that the stories don't just retell Pride and Prejudice, but I don't think the calibre of stories is particularly high.