Eligible A Novel

I'm often sceptical of Pride & Prejudice retellings because I love the original so much. This version is fantastic. Entertaining and unique but reminiscent enough for Austen fans. And has the potential to bring new readers to Austen.

Partly enjoyable because of its reference — Pride and Prejudice — and partly to see how it diverges. For a book dealing with social issues, its characters are strangely shallow. Many an eye roll was had, but again, I read to the end.

3 stars Contains some spoilers Likes: - Sittenfeld stayed true to Austen's work. Particularly the finer details, like Pemberly and Lydia eloping. - A modicum of diversity that I needed to cling to whilst reading this story. Ex. Ham, Shane and Anne. - Although my feelings during this reading experience were a rollercoaster, it was on a good note that I finished on. Dislikes: - Simple minded characters who can not grasp the concept of prejudice. I did not understand the need for the borderline offensive comments. They made me uncomfortable and it made me dislike many of the characters. - Said people never being reprimanded in any capacity. I do understand Sittenfeld was attempting to reinvent Austen's work, but I would have preferred if she had recreated the essence of Austen's work rather than replicating the ignorance of the 19th century. Overall an enjoyable read, but you may find yourself uncomfortable and somewhat frustrated at times.

DNF Page 84 of 512. About once every year or two I find myself reading some sort of Jane Austen rewrite. I really don't know why I do this to myself. Because most of these rewrites fall somewhere between mediocre and terrible. Yet for some reason, when Eligible popped up on my library's site (they were promoting it because it is set in Cincinnati), I requested it anyway. Unfortunately, Eligible is by far the worst rewrite I have read. Usually I feel obligated to finish every book I start; so for me to fling this book back into the library shoot with zero compulsion to look back, it had to be truly atrocious. And page 84 was more than enough. This has got to be the worst rewrite I have had the misfortune to read. Jane Austen's famous characters were bastardized and reduced to wretched, hollow shells. Even from the first page, it was clear that these characters were feeble shades of their namesakes. It was off-putting to see once great characters reduced to sallow ghosts cursed to inhabit the husks of insipid modern people. Austen was a master at sketching many different character types, at fleshing them out. This is one of the reasons that her books remain relevant two centuries later. But the characters in Eligible have been reduced to obnoxious, shallow twits. Sittenfeld tried to mimic Austen's wording and sentence structure, but the result was painful. She managed to simulate some of the wording but with the modern setting, the old fashioned phrasing felt stilted, unnatural, and awkward. Trust me, no one in Cincinnati talks like that. No One. Not even the super rich people in Indian Hill. Sittenfeld might have imitated some of Austen's sentence structure but she completely missed the tone and content. And all of the playfulness and humor was completely lost, replaced only by the petulant narcissism of the ghastly characters. It was like watching someone trying to play soccer with a bowling ball. She also made the characters quite a bit older. And flaws that might be overlooked in a teenager are certainly not appealing in someone pushing forty. Add on top of that any character flaw in the original text was amplified times ten and many new flaws and inadequacies thrown in, and even the nice characters were turned to pathetic jerks. (view spoiler)[For example, sweet Jane was turned into an unemployed thirty-nine-year-old who does not really care about anything other than her ticking biological clock. But far worse than that is Elizabeth turned into the clichéd, delusional twit who is having an affair with a man she knows is married. She furthers that cliché by blathering on about how the married jackoff really is going to leave his wife to be with her. Any day now. Even though it has already been years. (hide spoiler)] I did not care for the Cincinnati setting. (Of course, I don't know why that should be surprising. I am not totally enamored of my designated purgatory.) But I think the way the setting was described would have been off-putting regardless of what city was chosen. Rather than truly describe the city or build the world, the author just drops in names ad nauseam. Paragraph after paragraph dumps not just neighborhoods but street names, restaurants, buildings, schools, businesses, etc. often without actually explaining them or with any real context. Honestly, I would have been much more frustrated if I was not familiar with this city because then I would have had no idea what she was talking about. "They went to Teller's" means diddlysquat if you don't know that Teller's is a local restaurant. I didn't get far enough to really tell about the plot, but what I did read was not impressive. There was some horrible tie in to a reality dating show. (SHUDDERS IN HORROR) Again, this misses the point. On the surface, it may seem that the original women's obsession with marriage might be compared to modern obsession with reality tv, but the two are completely different beast. Women throughout history had to rely on making a decent marriage just to survive. Most of them had no opportunity to live independently. They couldn't work, rarely had control over their own lives, and usually had no money or property of their own at least that was not controlled by the men in their lives. Making a good marriage was quite often their one and only chance at improving their lives. So no, comparing that with drama-loving dating shows where love is a farce and half the contestants care more about getting famous than about finding love is just insulting. Maybe I am being a bit harsh. But this book just had nothing going for it. As far as I read, I disliked the writing, the characters, and the plot. Even my usual obsessiveness about finishing any book I start was not enough to make me even consider trying to keep reading. From the other reviews here, I apparently did not miss anything. I do not understand why so many people feel they can improve upon the greats or why they think there is any need to try. Someone please smack my hand the next time I try to read someone's bad attempt at rewriting Jane Austen! RATING FACTORS: Ease of Reading: 1 Star Writing Style: 1 Star Characters: 1 Star Plot Structure and Development: 1 Star Level of Captivation: 1 Star Originality: 1 Star

3,5 stars Vermählung ist eines der Bücher aus dem Jane Austen Project. Diese Reihe ist in Deutschland unter dem Namen Jane Austen neu erzählt bekannt und verschiedene zeitgenössische Autoren erzählen hier die Klassiker von Jane Austen neu. Vermählung ist nach Nothanger Abbey das zweite übersetzte Buch der aktuell vierbändigen Reihe und adaptiert Jane Austens Stolz und Vorurteil neu. Nothanger Abbey habe ich bereits gelesen und für gut befunden, doch bei Vermählung plagten mich vor dem Lesen ernsthafte Zweife. Denn kannte ich bei Northanger Abbey Austens Original nicht, so war es mit bei Vermählung mehr als präsent. Neben den Harry Potter Büchern gehört Stolz & Vorurteil zu meinen liebsten Büchern überhaupt und somit stand von vorne herein fest, dass es Vermählung bei mir nicht leicht haben würde. Anfangs suchte ich auch noch sehr nach Parallelen und Unterschieden und entdeckte davon einige. Manche Unterschiede lassen sich natürlich damit erklären, dass die Handlung in eine andere Epoche hineingeschrieben wurde. Andere Unterschiede hätte man allerdings nicht gebraucht und an Parallelen mangelte es anfangs zwar nicht, dafür aber im späteren Verlauf. Ich persönlich bin der Meinung, dass dies der große Kritikpunkt der Geschichte ist. Das Problem bei Retellings ist sicher, dass man die schmale Grandwanderung zwischen zu viel und zu wenig Adaption durchmacht und das leider oft schief geht, aber dennoch hatte ich bei Vermählung zu oft das Gefühl, eher eine lose Anlehnung an den Klassiker vor mir zu haben und kein Jane Austen neu erzählt. Ich hätte mir gewünscht, dass Schlüsselszenen aus dem Ursprungswerk übernommen und modernisiert werden doch das hat leider gefehlt. Dabei ist das Buch ein toller Roman, wenn man die Tatsache weglässt, dass es ein Retelling ist. Die Charaktere sind sehr schön gestaltet und Curtis Sittenfeld zeigte ein gutes Gespür für die Eigenschaften von Jane Austens Schützlingen. Auch die Geschichte an sich ist sehr spannend und gleicht nicht unbedingt anderen Liebesgeschichten auf dem Markt. So konnte ich mich, jedes Mal, wenn ich die Tatsache ausgeklammert habe, dass es sich hier um ein Retelling handelte, sehr gut in die Geschichte eintauchen und besonders am Ende nahm die Geschichte ordentlich an Fahrt auf. Fazit: Als eigenständiger Liebesroman ist Vermählung super doch als Adaption des Klassikers Stolz & Vorurteil von Jane Austen gelang Curtis Sittenfeld nicht alles. Zwar konnte sie vieles super in die heutige Zeit transferieren, viele Unterschiede wurden jedoch unnötig eingebaut und Schlüsselszenen fehlten komplett. Wahre Jane Austen Fans sollten mit Vorsicht genießen.

** spoiler alert ** Look, I wanted to like this book. Really, I did. Pride and Prejudice is one of my favorite narratives, and I have devoured most the adaptations floating around (even--shudder--that Hallmark movie of unknown disaster, Unleashing Mr. Darcy). This one just fell... flat. I appreciate that adapting such a seminal classic must be quite difficult, especially since many of the plot twists that provided scandal and outrage in Austen's era do not translate easily to the modern age. That being said, the only characters I cared about in this novel were Darcy and, belatedly, Liz. I found few of the characters developed to the point that I actually was interested in them at all (for example: I wanted to be excited about Caroline's confrontation of Liz at the end of the novel because that's such a turning point for Liz's self-realization. Instead, I found Caroline's behavior catty: not the actions of an invested socialite but the actions of a spoiled child we've barely seen on the page). The other scandals--Wick and Ham and Mrs. Bennet being her usual delightful self--seemed somewhat flimsy to me. The character of Catherine de Bourgh (here Kathy de Bourgh, renowned feminist) was delightful, more what I'd expect of a Mrs. Gardiner than a de Bourgh, but seemed out of place in the context of the main plot line. But perhaps what annoyed me most (other than Jasper Wick and his relationship with Liz) was the alacrity with which characters jumped into Big Relationships: Charlotte moving in with Collins after a few weeks of talking on the phone; Jane and Bingley getting engaged when they see each other for the first time in five months after having parted on difficult terms; Liz proposing to Darcy after Jane's wedding when they've never once been on a proper date. While I might be convinced to buy it on one account (likely Jane and Bingley, as we see the most of their relationship; it may be a quick turn around, but they're clearly in love), I found it difficult to swallow these rapid changes without resting heavily on my knowledge of the original plot line for Pride and Prejudice. Structurally, I really disliked this book. There's too much going on (see previous note about the superfluous inclusion of a Kathy de Bourgh that's not recognizable as Catherine de Bourgh). It's more a series of vignettes than a novel: really, really short vignettes (181 chapters span its 492 pages, and some of those are only a few lines long). Each new scene is a new chapter. In theory this should work fine, but in practice I found it bordered on excessive and cut out any natural transitions between scenes. Still, I did enjoy the banter between Liz and Darcy (even if I didn't buy their immediate descent into what Liz calls "hate sex") and the friendship (strange as it was at times) between Charlotte and Liz, both of which were handled with a humorous edge and enough sincere conversation to make the prose meaningful and charming rather than trite and obsequious.

Eligible features intriguing characters and funny dialogue, as well as the enjoyment of comparing favorite original sequences to new ones. Sittenfeld draws the action lightly but confidently, exhibiting great storytelling with minimal evidence of the stiffness that may be found in some retellings. The author of Eligible is well aware that when it comes to Elizabeth and Darcy, sparks will fly and all will appear lost for a moment. But, in the end, our lovers' character flaws will be rectified or softened, and love will triumph.

This book was only okay, maybe even less than okay. I'm not sure what I was expecting from a modernised retelling. I knew it wouldn't be better than the actual thing (it's near-on impossible to beat pride and prejudice the god of all romance novels) but I didn't think it would be quite so - forced. (view spoiler)[My main problem with it was that the sexual tension between Darcey and Elizabeth was only there because the writer told us (and even made them have "hate-sex"). I didn't mind them having a physical relationship prior to their attachments, but it's obvious the writer didn't know how else to portray the tension that Austen achieved so naturally. This book just didn't hit the mark for me, I didn't feel Darcey's and Liz's love for each other which is very important for me when reading romance novels. I also didn't like how the author modernised other plot points such as Liz dating Jasper Wick (Mr Wickham). I also felt that it wasn't funny, although it was supposed to be. The comedy in the original is still better although more subtle. (hide spoiler)] I mean this hasn't put me off reading the rest of the series, since they're written by different authors and will hopefully do a much better job at paying homage to the originals, and keeping that intensity of feeling that this one lacked.

Super fast and enjoyable read, and way brainier than I expected! It was just as fun to read and compare with the characters and plot twists and turns with Pride and Prejudice as it was to read for itself. Obviously doesn't exactly stack up to the original, but it's obvious that this isn't the intent. The drawings of the Bennet family were clever and really well-done, as was that of Darcy. Jane kind of annoyed me the whole time but to be fair Jane annoyed me in the original, too. I also loved the consistent explorations of feminism as well as the inclusion of commentary on modern biases and realities dealing with class, gender, and race. A really smart, thoughtful, and well-wrought update for our time!

Clever and well done.

Whenever I re-read an Austen classic, no matter how many times I've read it before, I find myself so absorbed that I generally keep going until I've suddenly finished the whole book, never mind that I know exactly what's going to happen in each chapter. While Eligible is not exactly at the same level as P&P, it might be worth noting that I did read the entire 500 pages in one day. The storyline is familiar, yet with enough twists that you're not entirely sure what's coming next. The modern interpretation of the familiar characters and their little dramas were realistic, and for the most part, enjoyable. I found myself connecting with this new Liz even more closely than the original, and Darcy was fantastic. The addition of a VERY thinly veiled version of "The Bachelor" was slightly brilliant, and hilarious (especially as I find myself watching the "20th season special" of that show, complete with a contestant wedding, as I write this.) Only a few cavils - 1) I know that Sittenfeld is originally from Cincinnati, so the setting does make sense (I grew up a few hours away), but part of me thinks Louisville would've been even better - Mrs. Bennett as an aging Southern Belle would've been another level. 2) The antipathy between Darcy and Wicks/Wickham is no longer personal, and I think that killed some of the dynamic between their characters and took out almost an entire story arc. 3) Katherine DeBurgh is barely visible in this version, and she's sympathetic rather than an antagonist, which rather took the fun out of it. Overall, though, a well-written "re-telling" that I think does justice to the spirit of the original. (I received an ARC of this book and am happy to contribute my review.)

Eligible is a modern retelling of Pride and Prejudice, sort of. Although set in modern day and outfitted with cellphones, CrossFit, and reality TV, our characters are closely (too closely, imho) cut from their 1800s counterparts. Stilted language and archaic views are sliced directly from the source, which felt a lil’ off to me, although I’m sure Jane Austen fans will enjoy the generous nods to the original text. When placed in modern day, Darcy’s character was probably even less likable and I wish he had a more contemporary vibe. I wanted more emotionally intimate moments with Darcy and Liz for more tension. Also, the authors approach to race and LGBTQ+ topics came off a bit tin-eared, and at times made me cringe. I was never a huge fan of Pride and Prejudice and it’s been a long time since I read/skimmed it for a 10th grade book report. But I DID actually have a good time reading this novel. The bite sized chapters made it easy to read and I found the various dramas propelling me through. Overall, a fun, semi-guilty pleasure read for sure!

While this is going to be on no one 's list of best written books, and no one is going to say how beautiful the language is, this was an entertaining, light, fluffy, fun read. Perfect for a day at the beach or an afternoon sick in bed, even though you know generally how the plot is going to proceed, it is an enjoyable time spent with the Bennet sisters. I read the first half of the book in one sitting, then finished it the next day, reading whenever I could.

P&P turned into a shallow romance novel. Way too long for what it delivers.

I wanted to really enjoy this book - really I did. Pride and Prejudice is one of my favorite novels, and Elizabeth Bennet is one of my favorite female characters in all of literature. There were moments where I did enjoy the book, I will say that I thought the premise was interesting (because really how many different ways can we tell this story without it becoming predictable and boring?) and it did keep my interest, but not exactly because I enjoyed what I was reading. I have to state it now, if Transphobia is a trigger for you in any way at all, please don't read this book. While in P&P I like pretty much all of the characters, or can even understand the actions of those that I don't particularly like, in this book that was not the case. The only characters I really liked were Jane and Darcy. I had moments where I liked Liz, but for the most part I didn't, which made me pretty upset, seeing as how much the character means to me. The worst of all was Mrs. Bennet. Sure, she's a lot to handle and I don't particularly agree with the way she goes about things in P&P, but I don't hate her. In this version however, I absolutely hated her. She didn't get any better or tolerable towards the end, she was self-centered, entitled, bigoted and racist throughout the entire thing and frankly reading scenes where she was heavily involved was painful. The writing was good, but at times I thought the author was trying to hard to be funny or clever and it just came off as strange and pulled me out of the story. And some things just seemed completely unnecessary and didn't further the plot at all. The ending was also so incredibly strange to me that once I finished I sat there for a second thinking, "What did I just read?" I'm glad that I received this as part of my Book of the Month Club subscription, because if I had just picked it up in a store one day, I would've been incredibly disappointed that this was what I got. If you're looking for a good retelling of P&P, check out The Lizzie Bennet Diaries on Youtube.

I'm a sucker for two things - wartime romances and Austen retellings. This Austen retelling is pretty interesting as it is fun to see how Sittenfeld updated certain aspects of the story for a modern audience. She also chose to keep the same names for all of the characters so if you aren't super familiar with P&P, it's easier to see how this all lines up. I think the choice to end talking about Mary was an interesting one. In both the original and this retelling, the other characters don't understand Mary and are really mean to her. I hate that in both cases but Sittenfeld gives us a little more about her after the story and I think that might be a way of giving her a little kindness as the author. I appreciate that. I do get that Sittenfeld was probably trying to use Ham and Shane's characters to 1) show why Darcy wouldn't be super keen on Liz's family and also show that her parents are conservative and set in their ways of thinking and 2) to be able to tackle more modern issues but I can't help but get the feeling that her attempt at representation might have reduced the characters to plot devices. Ham was certainly a bit more developed than Shane, though. Some of the writing felt very late 90s - early 2000s and it was weird to read some of these sections.

** spoiler alert ** “I love you. I ardently love you” THIS IS BASICALLY THE WHOLE BOOK I’m mostly disgusted. I’ll start with the very very few things I liked. I mostly liked Jane. I kind of liked the style. I liked the reader of the audiobook. Oh and the last section having to do with Eligible was interesting although I wish there was more to it. That’s it. That’s literally it. Characters: all of the characters (besides JANE and Catherine De Bourgh KIND OF) were awful! Elizabeth was the most just terrible character. She made horrible, stupid decisions, had very little personality, and made absolutely no sense. Kitty and Lydia were annoying but in a disgusting, unnecessary kind of way and the whole them teasing Mary about being a lesbian made absolutely no sense! The mother being a racist homophobic was kind of an insane translation and it did not work, not even a little. It just didn’t make much sense for the character and the whole insistence of racism surrounding Wick’s case was unnecessary. Same with the African maid who we keep hearing about in passing but never get any development. The only traits of the African characters in this story are their racial features described nearly every-time they’re brought up. Darcy was also totally wrong not even just in terms of being a retold character, but just not being like able. I did like him more than Liz but not by much. Their whole weird “transaction” was Disgusting again and UNNECESSARY!! it was unexpected and kind of a joke and made no sense again between either of the characters. Plot: The plot had potential but ended up being a joke. None of it was developed fully, we got half written storylines and so much repetition in style and even down to certain sentences where it felt too ridiculous for me to actually take seriously. The style of having like 200 page long chapters was annoying and the style which in some areas are good and some bad, overall just annoyed me. Retelling: In short. This was the bare bones of a retelling. Sprinkling in some racism and trans characters and more s*x does not update or retell the story. It just annoys the readers. The story had potential, albeit a small amount, and it just didn’t send the same messages as the original story. it was obliviously annoying, not witty, and just far too long for what little actual lessons we get. Especially the whole convincing the mother to chill out at the end. The scene was just way too long and unnecessary as well. Overall, I didn’t like the story even a little bit and I don’t want to ever really read this book again. I came close several times to turning off the audiobook and forgetting I ever even listened to it.

I liked this book for reasons I didn't think I would and disliked it for the reasons I thought I would. The romance/relationship/interaction between Liz and Darcy is horrendous. They barely say a few words to one another sure they have (view spoiler)[ hate sex (hide spoiler)] but the declaration of love comes out of nowhere. However, I loved the interaction between Liz and her sisters, hell, I even loved the interaction between Liz and Wickham. It was nuanced and felt more fleshed out than the romance. Also, I really enjoyed the short chapters, it kept the pace of the story moving. As far as being an adaption of Pride and Prejudice, I like how Sittenfeld maintains the structure of the original but twists it so that you're left wondering just how an action is going to relate to the Austen's work.

Another Pride and prejudice retelling. I actually did enjoy this one. i was super amused by the fact that Bingley was on some type of bachelor show. I didn't really care for the way that the parents were portrayed in this book. I don't know what it was it just rubbed me the wrong way. overall though i did really like it.

Like most high school kids, I had to read the original Pride and Prejudice for my English class. I loved the original classic story back then so anytime an author writes a modern day story I'm all for it. This book made me laugh out loud more times than I can count and Curtis Sittenfeld is one of the best authors I've read that can make a reborn classic this good. I loved Darcy and Liz's relationship and this book definitely had me hooked from the beginning.

What a fun book. Clearly, it's a story you know if you've read or seen Pride and Prejudice. What I loved is how the author had to make this same, very dated storyline applicable in modern day, when marriage isn't the crowning jewel it once was, and finding the perfect mate isn't held on a pedestal of affirmation. It was fun to see the changes she had to make, and an interesting look at how problems of "then" have to be morphed and magnified to be problems of "now." Characters were what you would expect from the original story in terms of personality. May sound weird, but from an anthropological sense, this was a great read.

I do love a good P&P retelling, and I neither loved nor truly loathed this latest attempt. I found various parts of the story refreshing (view spoiler)[hello hate sex (hide spoiler)] and enjoyed the moments when Liz and Darcy were on page together, but other parts I found myself skimming or skipping entirely. More Liz and Darcy PLEASE. Most of the characters are portrayed as fairly awful people with not much to redeem them (see Mrs. Bennett), which I found to not be in the true spirit of P&P, and the last chapter in Mary's voice was wholly out of place. I listened to this as part of my work's 2016 Staff Book Bingo contest for "book with a red cover!"

I consider myself a connoisseur of pride and prejudice retellings and this one just didn’t do it for me. I really like the premise of this book, I just didn’t love the way it was executed. Pride and Prejudice is my all time favorite story and I love reading other authors versions of it but I felt like this one didn’t really do it justice. It had all the makings of P&P with the same characters and conflicts, but I didn’t feel like the characters accurately represented their namesakes. This version of Lizzie just kind of bugged me and I never felt like Darcy was a real person. There was none of that warmth from him that you start to slowly see in the second part of the story. I also didn’t feel like there was much, if any, chemistry between them. It was a fine book, it just wasn’t a good Pride and Prejudice book.

A cute, updated retelling of Pride and Prejudice. I loved that Sittenfeld updated the book for the current times; Crossfit, reality TV, Skyline chili! It was a quick read, perfect for sitting out in the park during the summer.