Review: Pride and Prejudice: Hidden Lusts by Mitzi Szereto
Author: Mitzi Szereto
Publication Date: July 1, 2011
Publisher: Cleis Press
My take:
Stacy, Shannan and Nancy have teased me about my reading Pride and Prejudice: Hidden Lusts because so far, I have tended to stick with younger YA books or historical fiction. However, I am an English major with a love of all things Jane Austen, so I thought it my duty to find out what all the fuss was about with this newest rendition of Pride and Prejudice -this time without zombies but with more explicit details of the romantic lives of the characters.
What I really liked about Szereto’s rendition is that it made sense and the insertions were much lovelier to read than the inclusion of dead, grizzled walking corpses (as found in in Seth Graham-Smith’s Pride and Prejudice and Zombies). My literary friends and I have always joked that Mr. Bingley seemed a little too attached to Mr. Darcy, that Mr. Bennett was always trying to avoid his wife in his study, and that Lydia had to know what she was doing to have run off with Wickam.
This book answers all these questions in a light, satirical way, embedding descriptions of what’s really going on between Jane Austen’s original prose in the same style as the original. However, I will caution you that the content can get rather explicit, and I would mark the book for those 18 and older.
Only once or twice did I feel Szereto was a bit far-fetched in her writing (I don’t think Charlotte Bingley’s dresses were really cut that low and the first proposal scene was rather ludicrous), but I loved the sly wink that I felt she was giving her readers as to the motivations and actions of the characters that Austen left open for interpretation. I laughed out loud once or twice and have been encouraging my “PhD in English Literature” friends to read it for a good chuckle; so as long as you don’t take your Austen too seriously, I think you will find this version an amusing and titillating treat!
P.S. I was a bit astounded by the controversy the book has caused though-check out Szereto’s response: Pride and Prejudice and Pitchforks
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Thanks so much for the review! So pleased you enjoyed the book!
OMG that is hilarious I would never have thought you would read a book like this or the zombies version. Now would you ever take this book out in public and read it? Thanks for the review! You girls rock!
Actually, *blushes* there are a few P&P … er, detailed retellings out there. I have a couple on my bookshelf. *blushes again*