The Jane Austen book sleuth is happy to inform Janeites that many Austen inspired books are heading our way in August, so keep your eyes open for these new titles. 

Fiction (prequels, sequels, retellings, variations, or Regency inspired) 

Mr. Darcy, Vampyre, by Amanda Grange 

Amanda Grange, the best selling author of Mr. Darcy’s Diary continues the story of Pride and Prejudice after the wedding revealing a truly dark secret. Yes, gentle readers, that noble mien and brooding demeanor was all a front to disguise the truth during their courtship, and now on their honeymoon through Europe his new bride Elizabeth will shortly discover that her husband is much more than the proud man she married. Yep, you guessed it! Mr. Darcy is indeed a vampyre. Shocking you say? Quite. (Publisher’s description) Mr. Darcy, Vampyre starts where Pride and Prejudice ends and introduces a dark family curse so perfectly that the result is a delightfully thrilling, spine-chilling, breathtaking read. After reading this dark tale, readers will re-imagine the original Pride and Prejudice and Darcy’s brooding nature and prideful demeanor with new reason – he’s not shy or reserved: he’s a vampire! A dark, poignant and visionary continuation of Austen’s beloved story, this tale is full of danger, darkness and immortal love. Sourcebooks, ISBN: 978-1402236976 

The Plight of the Darcy Brothers: A tale of the Darcys & the Bingleys, by Marsha Altman 

For those who enjoyed the gentle rancor and lively pleasantry of Marsha Altman’s humorous first novel The Darcys & the Bingleys, you will be glad to know the story continues with the second installment in the series. Elizabeth and Darcy travel to the Continent in pursuit of family honor and the seducer who deflowered Elizabeth’s sister Mary leaving her in a family way. In addition to Altman’s imaginative and swashbuckling style, readers will be introduced to new foreign Darcy relations, and treated to her signature a duel at dawn. (Publisher’s description) In this lively second installment, the Darcys and Bingleys are plunged into married life and its many accompanying challenges presented by family and friends. With Jane and Elizabeth away, Darcy and Bingley take on the daunting task of managing their two-year- old children. Mary Bennet returns from the Continent pregnant by an Italian student promised to the church; Darcy and Elizabeth travel to find the father, and discover previously unknown—and shocking—Darcy relations. By the time Darcy discovers that there’s more than one sibling of questionable birth in the family, the ever-dastardly Wickham arrives on the scene to try to seize the Darcy fortune once and for all. Sourcebooks Landmark, ISBN: 978-1402224294 

James Fairfax, by Jane Austen and Adam Campan 

If Pride and Prejudice and Zombies did not quell your curiosity of other writers lifting Jane Austen’s text and inserting their own kibbles and bits, then get ready for another literary mash-up. First, remove your tar headed Janeite purist bonnet. Second, imagine a gender bending alternate universe. Third, turn off your gaydar cuz Jane Austen’s characters from Emma are in same sex relationships. This will either be extremely clever, or the Post carriage ride from Highbury to hell. Enuff said. (Publisher’s description) It’s same-sex marriage in Jane Austen’s Regency England! In this stunning, gender-bending, stylish dance-of-manners version of Jane Austen’s beloved classic novel Emma — an alternate Regency where gay marriage is commonplace and love is gender-blind — matchmaking Emma Woodhouse tries to find a suitable spouse for her lover Harriet Smith, and is embroiled in the secrets of the relationship between the mysterious and accomplished James Fairfax and the handsome Frank Churchill. Norilana Books, ISBN: 978-1607620389. Read a review on AustenBlog 

Arabella, by Georgette Heyer 

Every month for over a year, Sourcebooks has presented us with a new re-issue of a Georgette Heyer Regency romance classic. After my introduction to Sophy Stanton-Lacy last month in Heyer’s novel The Grand Sophy, it’s hard to imagine that she could produce yet another engaging and unforgettable heroine like her, but Arabella Tallant will both surprise and charm away any doubt that Georgette Heyer is not the most incredibly gifted Regency romance writer ever be placed upon that august pedestal. (Publisher’s description) Daughter of a modest country clergyman, Arabella Tallant is on her way to London when her carriage breaks down outside the hunting lodge of the wealthy Mr. Robert Beaumaris. Her pride stung when she overhears a remark of her host’s, Arabella pretends to be an heiress, a pretense that deeply amuses the jaded Beau. To counter her white lie, Beaumaris launches her into high society and thereby subjects her to all kinds of fortune hunters and other embarrassments. When compassionate Arabella rescues such unfortunate creatures as a mistreated chimney sweep and a mixed-breed mongrel, she foists them upon Beaumaris, who finds he rather enjoys the role of rescuer and is soon given the opportunity to prove his worth in the person of Arabella’s impetuous young brother. Sourcebooks Casablanca, ISBN: 978-1402219467 

Biography 

Jane Austen, by Helen Lefroy 

A reprint of the 1997 biography of Jane Austen by Helen Lefroy, a cousin four times removed from Jane’s youthful flirtation Tom Lefroy, and vice-chairman of The Jane Austen Society of the United Kingdom. This short biography is a basic introduction and a quick read at 128 pages. The cover image is from the 1997 edition. (Publisher’s description) The perfect introduction to one of the most-loved novelists of all time. Jane Austen’s reputation rests on the six novels she wrote in her short life – enduringly popular novels which have become part of the fabric of English life, and which have reached new audiences through recent dramatisations on screen and stage. This book, which draws on her letters, describes Jane’s life in the vicarage at Steventon and later at Bath and Chawton, and her relationships with family and friends – especially her beloved sister, Cassandra, and the engaging Tom Lefroy (who it was rumoured was the love of her life). It also describes the parties and balls in country houses and assembly rooms which she attended and the detail of nineteenth-century life which she so sharply observed and which provided the background to her novels. This book is a pleasure for anyone wanting to understand the life of one of our great novelists. The History Press Ltd, ISBN: 978-0752453187 

Austen’s Oeuvre  

Pride and Prejudice: (Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition), by Jane Austen 

Do you judge a book by its cover? Penguin Books is hoping you do, doling out the big bucks and commissioning acclaimed fashion illustrator and sculptor Rueben Toledo to transform Lizzie, Darcy &C into “Couture Classics.” These striking silhouettes might look like stick insect runway models strutting to the black and white ball at Netherfield, but they are actually our favorite literary duo appropriately walking away from each other (Darcy stepping on her dress!). I just imagine that Darcy has just given Lizzy the “be not alarmed madame letter” and it all works for me. Get hip Janeites. We can now all be Austen fashionistas and exhibit our superior designer taste on our bedside tables. Now, (pray forgive) if our husbands, boyfriends, significant others or friends were ever in doubt of our obsession, this will certainly seal the deal. In defense, you can remind them that this new edition with the haute couture cover contains Penguin Classics definitive text and an excellent introduction by Tony Tanner that Paris Hilton won’t read, but she might deem useful as a door stop. Penguin Classics, ISBN: 978-0143105428 

Austen’s Contemporaries & Regency era 

Old Mortality (Oxford World’s Classics), by Sir Walter Scott 

“Also read again, and for the third time at least, Miss Austen’s very finely written novel of Pride and Prejudice. That young lady had a talent for describing the involvements and feelings and characters of ordinary life, which is to me the most wonderful I ever met with. The Big Bow-wow strain I can do myself like any now going; but the exquisite touch, which renders ordinary commonplace things and characters interesting, from the truth of the description and the sentiment, is denied to me. What a pity such a gifted creature died so early!” 14 March 1826 

Sir Walter Scott (1771 – 1832) liked Jane Austen, more than a little. He was one of the first critics to praise her novel Emma when it was published in 1815. A prolific talent, he excelled at writing historical novels in on a grand scale. Old Morality is one of his earlier works in the Waverly series. Written in 1816, Jane Austen could actually have read it before she died the next year. This edition contains an introduction and notes by scholars Jane Stevenson and Peter Davidson. (Publisher’s description) Old Mortality, which many consider the finest of Scott’s Waverley novels, is a swift-moving historical romance that places an anachronistically liberal hero against the forces of fanaticism in seventeenth-century Scotland, in the period infamous as the ‘killing time’. Its central character, Henry Morton, joins the rebels in order to fight Scotland’s royalist oppressors, little as he shares the Covenanters’ extreme religious beliefs. He is torn between his love for a royalist’s granddaughter and his loyalty to his downtrodden countrymen. As well as being a tale of divided loyalties, the novel is a crucial document in the cultural history of modern Scotland. Scott, himself a supporter of the union between Scotland and England, was trying to exorcise the violent past of a country uncomfortably coming to terms with its status as part of a modern United Kingdom. This novel is in itself a significant political document, in which Scott can be seen to be attempting to create a new centralist Scottish historiography, which is not the political consensus of his own time, the seventeenth century, or today. Oxford University Press, USA, ISBN: 978-0199555307  

Until next month, happy reading!

Laurel Ann