Pride, Prejudice and Jasmin Field: A Novel - Softcover

Nathan, Melissa

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0060184957 ISBN 13: 9780060184957

Publisher: William Morrow Paperbacks, 2001

Synopsis

It starts as a lark for Jasmin Field, the charming, acerbically witty columnist for a national women's magazine.  She joins a host of celebraties gathering in London to audition for the season's most dazzling charity event:  a one-night only stage production of Jane Austen's immortal Pride and Prejudice, directed by and starring the Academy Award - winning Hollywood heartthrob Harry Noble.  And nobody is more surprised than Jasmin herself when she lands the lead of handsome Harry's love interest, Elizabeth Bennet.  But things start to go very wrong very quickly.  Ms. Field's delicious contempt for the arrogant, overbearing Harry Noble goes from being wicked fun to infuriating.  Her brief moment of theatrical glory looks as if it's going to be overshadowed by the betrayal of her best friend, the disintegration of her family and the implosion of her career. And suddenly she can't remember a single one of her lines.  But, worst of all, Harry Noble - who, incidentally, looks amazing in tight breeches - has started to stare hard at Jazz with that sort of a glimmer in his eyes. . .

Fresh, wild, wonderfully romantic and absolutely hilarious, Pride, Prejudice and Jasmin Field is Jane Austen as the great lady herself never imagined it.

About this title

About the Author:

Melissa Nathan was born and raised in Hertfordshire and now lives in North London with her husband. A journalist for ten years, she writes novels full time and is the acclaimed author of The Nanny and Pride, Prejudice and Jasmin Field.

From Publishers Weekly:

A plucky hybrid of Bridget Jones and Elizabeth Bennett, heroine Jasmin Field will attract devotees of Fielding and Austen to this flimsy but likable update of Pride and Prejudice. Londoner Jasmin, or Jazz to her friends, writes a confessional column for Hoorah, a "trashy women's magazine" that runs features like "I married my poodle." She gets wind of a charity adaptation of Pride and Prejudice being directed by mega-star Harry Nobel, and auditions for it along with her actress sister, George, and her best friend, Mo. Unexpectedly cast as Lizzy, Jazz strikes up a flirtation with dishy actor William Whitby (playing Wickham) and develops a serious antipathy to Harry Nobel (a Hollywood-style Darcy), whose insufferable arrogance she can't wait to skewer in her column. In the meantime, George finds love with a rakish fellow actor and Mo begins a dalliance with Jazz's nemesis, the oily Gilbert. Like Austen's beloved protagonist, Jazz is strong-minded and stubborn and, also like Lizzy, she must confront the painful realization that her firmly held opinions are not always correct. Nathan's breezy plot follows Austen's story line almost exactly, even going so far as to have many of her characters portray their Austen equivalents in the TV production. Her attempts to remain true to the original novel make for some implausible moments, as when Jazz's younger sister gets implicated in a tabloid scandal with Whitby. A few more creative departures from Austen, along the lines of Helen Fielding's tweaking of the same novel in Bridget Jones's Diary, would have saved Nathan's effort from its awkward contrivances. This Pride and Prejudice is a charming but clumsy update that will have readers rushing back to the original. (May)Forecast: Readers browsing the paperback table are more likely to pick up higher profile titles on the same theme, but this will be a pleasant extra for those who truly can't get enough of British single-girl hijinks.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: William Morrow Paperbacks
• Publication date: 2001
• ISBN 10: 0060184957
• ISBN 13: 9780060184957
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 280