Imagining Austen’s World

Modern re-imaginings of Pride and Prejudice take a multitude of different tacks, but a common one is to imitate and expand on Austen herself. The books in this section are all re-imaginings of Austen’s story that try to inhabit her world, rather than changing it for a new one. In that effort they all cast themselves, in some ways, as extensions of Austen’s texts. You can tell this from the covers. There’s nothing scandalous here—no cigarette-smoking Darcys. The fonts are traditional serif fonts, and the images are staid. If anything, they look a little more like the academic texts from the last case. Nevertheless, each of these books is doing new and different things with Austen’s text.

Pamela Aidan writes a three-volume retelling of Pride and Prejudice, in the manner of Austen but from Darcy’s point of view. Aidan’s adaptation is particularly fascinating because of her decision to divide the book into a trilogy. This is reminiscent of the three-volume format in which Pride and Prejudice originally appeared.

Jo Baker’s Longbourn tells the story of Pride and Prejudice from the point of view of the servants at the Bennets’ home, and Emma Tennant’s Pemberley is a sequel to Pride and Prejudice, detailing Elizabeth’s life as the new Mrs. Darcy. Both these books choose to take on the names of estates in Pride and Prejudice. By doing so they align themselves even more closely with Austen, who titled two works after estates: Northanger Abbey and Mansfield Park.

All of these books depart from Austen’s text, but in ways that try to complement it. They act as additional forays for those who want more of Austen’s world, so they present themselves in the most “Austen-like” way they can. This gives us a unique opportunity to see what they consider “Austen-like.”