Rosie Rushton

I think Rosie Rushton is very clever at adapting Jane Austen's novels for young readers, but even to my thirty-something awareness, her dialogue still sounds dated! I loved her take on Emma (Secret Schemes and Daring Dreams), but was a little less enamoured of The Secrets of Love (her treatment of Sense and Sensibility), and I think her most recent reworking of Mansfield Park falls into that same three-star rating. Perhaps because Emma is my favourite novel, whereas MP falls to the bottom of the pile, but I found her updated characters almost cartoonish, and the heavy handed moralism of Austen's tale is back in spades.

Frankie Price is the poor little rich girl, daughter of a bipolar mother and an absentee father, who is sent to live with her middle-class cousins. Much is made of the fact that Frankie's mother is adopted, and I wondered why, until twigging that falling in love with your first cousin is no longer the acceptable romantic failsafe that it was in Austen's day! I did like some of the modern twists - Mr Bertram is head of a fashion chain which employs Mexican sweatshops, instead of being a plantation owner, and the shocking play becomes a music festival, but I'm not sure that the rest of the story would appeal to any reader not looking for parallels with Austen's novel. Frankie is still a priggish killjoy, Ned is now a social worker, Alice is an out-and-out cow with no complexity of character, unlike Mary Crawford, and Aunt 'Nerys' is a fairy godmother compared to Mrs Norris.

A lot of the subtlety of the original story, though far from popular with me, is lost in translation here, I'm afraid, though kudos to Rosie Rushton for even attempting to update nineteenth century social etiquette into a modern day equivalent.… (plus d'informations)

Like the book, this review is going to be a quick, easy read. The plot is almost exactly that of Sense and Sensibility, just a modernized version. My first reaction was disappointment that the author didn’t even try to copy Austen’s beautiful prose or understated humor. Once I got past that, I was better able to enjoy the book for what it was. Elinor and Marianne were both updated very nicely. Like the actions of Austen’s characters, the update wasn’t predictable but just felt right. Of course Elinor would be good at academics! Of course Marianne would act! I was also impressed by the way the update translated events with no modern equivalent. For instance, some of the social constraints on the original characters’ actions have no longer exist, but the author managed to come up with suitable substitutes.

Objectively, I think this probably deserves two starts. The characters were two-dimensional stereotypes and I occasionally found their actions unbelievable. The writing wasn’t anything special. But when I finished it, I would have said I liked it. I had fun reading it and enjoyed seeing the author’s creativity in making the update, so three stars it is.

This review first published on Doing Dewey.… (plus d'informations)

I didn't enjoy Rosie Rushton's 21st century update of Sense and Sensibility quite like her adaptation of Emma (Secret Schemes and Daring Dreams), but then I feel the same about Austen's original novels too. Still, The Secrets of Love is a clever reworking of the Dashwood sisters' lives and loves, about three sisters who lose their estranged father and have to downsize and move from Brighton to Norfolk. Ellie is the eldest and most responsible, who falls for somebody else's guy, Abby is the middle sister torn between two boys, and Georgie is the youngest, a daredevil tomboy.

Some scenes were very effective, like the death of Mr Dashwood and Abby's dramatic exit, but the writing overall seemed stilted and the dialogue rather dated ('Ace!') and Americanised ('I guess'). I did appreciate how Rushton worked with Austen's characters - Pandora the wicked stepmother was a worthy stand-in for Fanny - but chick-lit for teens could never quite match Austen's genius, I'm afraid.… (plus d'informations)