A couple of questions this week. My answers, yes I do, and I'd love to see Antonia Hodgson tackle one, probably Persuasion.
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C S Lewis's essay is my favourite so far.
Pip2 So I have not read Mansfield Park but plan to eventually. That being said, I have read Emma, and Jane Eyre and based off those two novels, I would say that Bronte is the superior writer and is actually (to answer the second question), the writer I would choose to do any adaptation to any work of literature. If Charlotte lived a normal lifespan, nobody in the literary world could touch her, I love Dickens but didn‘t much care for his first novel. 3y
Pip2 Pickwick Papers, and I believe she would even improve upon that, Charlottes first novel was Jane Eyre and quite honestly may be one of the best books in the 19th, 20th, and 21st century. In her time, female authors were not treated with the respect they deserved, it‘s sad to think of how many female authors we were robbed of due to masculine conceit. (edited) 3y
Pip2 I would like to add that Thomas Hardy would render a great version as well. (I will now get off the soapbox 😁) 3y
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sprainedbrain Love Charlotte Brontë, but I must be lacking in imagination… I don‘t think about whether a different author could have done a book better than the person who wrote it. Mansfield Park would have been an entirely different book were it written by Charlotte, I‘m sure, but I will allow that I might like Fannie more in it. ? (edited) 3y
mollyrotondo @sprainedbrain I‘m with you! I can‘t really allow myself to think about another author doing a better job with a story or a character. That character is the original author‘s character and they had a reason for writing the character the way they wrote it. 3y
mollyrotondo So I actually love Mansfield Park and stand by Fanny 100%. I feel like she is a very realistic young woman of lesser fortune. I have not read Jane Eyre yet (I voted for it for our next Pemberlittens Other Female Author pick lol) but I do not want to pit two women against each other 😆 I agree @jenniferw88 that C.S. Lewis‘s essay is my favorite so far and I agree completely with his thoughts on Fanny. 3y
MeganAnn I never would have thought about whether a different author could have done a book better either @sprainedbrain . However, now that it‘s been brought up, I do rather think I‘d like Fanny much more had Charlotte Bronte written her… I love Jane Eyre. But, I also agree with Lewis that Bronte would have written a better Fanny while simultaneously ruining the rest of the characters. And it wouldn‘t have been the same novel at all. 3y
MeganAnn As for the second question, I‘m not sure I have a specific author I‘d like to see write an Austen adaptation. But I am a fan of well written modern adaptations that take Austen‘s novels into the modern world. Sonali Dev‘s Raje family series is my current favorite. I know she‘s working on an Emma adaptation, but I really hope she continues the series with Mansfield Park and Northanger Abbey adaptations as well.![[tagged book]](https://image.librarything.com/pics/litsy_webpics/icon_taggedBook@3x.png)
The Emma Project (edited) 3y
The Emma Projectravenlee I have to admit to not liking Jane Eyre very much, so the idea of Bronte taking an Austen character doesn‘t sit right with me (besides, if Bronte wrote Fanny how would that be different from Jane Eyre?). I liked how Lewis said the character might be saved but the rest of the characters/story would be destroyed. 3y
ravenlee I‘ve actually never read an adaptation (that I can recall, anyway), so one of the things I‘m looking forward to with #PemberLittens is trying some. I love Clueless, though, and would love to see some equally well done versions of the other novels. 3y
Andrea313 @mollyrotondo I'm with you on loving Mansfield and Fanny, too! I wouldn't have wanted that story to be written by anyone else; I think it's one of Austen's deepest meditations and shows us a different side of her writing and thinking. I have gotten woefully behind in reading the tagged book, but I look forward to reading what Lewis has to say about one of my controversial faves. #JusticeForFanny 😉 3y
mollyrotondo @Andrea313 #JusticeForFanny all the way!!! I‘d be interested in reading your thoughts on Lewis‘s essay!! 3y
Crinoline_Laphroaig I'm with @Andrea313 @mollyrotondo on Mansfield Park. While it's not my favorite, it moved up my List of Austen, upon reading through older eyes. Right before PemberLittens read I stumbled upon Anthology with a story called 'What Would Austen Do?' about a teenager boy reading Austen to impress a girl and falling in love with it. He had a great perspective about Fanny. ⬇️ 3y
Crinoline_Laphroaig "Fanny was actually a lot tougher than she seems at first. She actually had more backbone than anyone in the book. She didn‘t let herself get talked into that stupid play; she stuck to her guns, and she wasn‘t a phony."Jane Austen Made Me Do It: Original Stories Inspired by Literature's Most Astute Observer of the Human Heart 3y
Jane Austen Made Me Do It: Original Stories Inspired by Literature's Most Astute Observer of the Human HeartCrinoline_Laphroaig To answer the Questions, I can imagine others writing Retellings or twists on but not writing the Original. For instance I love Stephanie Barron's Jane Austen Mysteries, in which Jane solves murders. They're well researched and fit in to Timeline of Jane's life. I would love to see what she could do with Sanditon.Jane and the Year Without a Summer 3y
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