Lit format.
Balogh, Mary.
Gleason, Colleen.
Krinard, Susan.
Mullany, Janet.
Mary Balogh chose to reimagine Austen’s novel Persuasion. In Almost Persuaded, Jane Everett finally learns, after several lifetimes of trying and failing, that when it comes to love, all the advice and persuasion in the world from trusted friends and relatives are no substitute for what the heart knows.
In Janet Mullany’s contemporary Little to Hex Her, based on Austen’s Emma, vampires populate the Hill, elves run the Pentagon and there’s a witch on retainer at the White House. Witch without a cause Emma Woodhouse runs her family’s dating agency and finds trouble and love among the paranormal population of Washington, D.C.
Colleen Gleason revisits Northanger Abbey in Northanger Castle, where it’s vampires instead of madmen who lock their wives away. Caroline is so highly influenced by popular Gothic novels that she sees danger and intrigue everywhere. But it’s not until she comes face-to-face with a vampire that she realizes how inaccurate her instincts really are!
Whether modern or historical, the tales in Bespelling Jane Austen will, we hope, intrigue traditional Austen readers as well as those who love the paranormal. If Miss Austen knew how far our love for her works would take us, how much we would want to make her world our own, I don’t think she would be displeased.