Monday 21 March 2011

Why another Austen sequel?

With so many Austen sequels to choose from nowadays, one might wonder why I would write one myself?  It happened after watching the final episode of the 1995 Pride and Prejudice (yes, the one with Colin Firth) on PBS in February of 2008.  I was by no means a major fan of Jane Austen at the time.  I had only read Pride and Prejudice and some of Sense and Sensibility.  I was more familiar with the movies made of her work than her books.  But my sister was a huge fan of Pride and Prejudice and her birthday was coming up in April.  I thought, I'll just write a little 20 page short story continuing Pride and Prejudice.  I jotted a few notes which went something like this:

Continuation of P&P
-Pemberley was fine indeed, however married life was far from bliss.
-misses sisters and knowledge of place in world
-ostrasized by Darcy's Aunt Lady Catherine de Bourgh
-romours of her sister's folly
-how to run servants?
-hard to find friends
-sick and pregnant
-loves Darcy, but he is a man of few words
wonders where the excitement of life is.  Finding a mate had been such a huge part of life

From such beginnings, my novel was born.  I was shocked when I eventually did an internet search of Pride and Prejudice to realize there were already over 100 sequels.  I thought "Why didn't I do this before I started my book?  I could have just bought my sister a present!"  However, I am so glad I continued with my sequel.  I also wanted to get to know Austen's work more deeply and to improve my writing ability.  I know painters improve their work by imitating other painters and I thought I would do something similar.  I've never had so much fun writing a novel.

2 comments:

  1. One of my favourite writing projects I've ever done was a sequel to The Great Gatsby - one of my favourite books! I understand both the desire to write a sequel and I agree that it can be an amazing way to work on your writing :)

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  2. I've never read The Great Gatsby, but I saw a movie version that completely confused me! Sure wish your sequel was still around:( Thanks for posting!

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