Sittenfeld possesses the gifts that might lend themselves to such an enterprise: an appraising eye for telling social and status details (“ Prep”) and a persuasive ability to channel her characters’ inner lives (“ American Wife” and “ Sisterland”). The novel is largely set in Cincinnati and stars Liz Bennet, her four sisters, their social-climbing mother and self-absorbed father, and the sisters’ assorted suitors.Ĭertainly, Ms. “Eligible,” by the best-selling novelist Curtis Sittenfeld, is a “modern retelling” of “Pride and Prejudice,” commissioned by the Austen Project, which has been pairing contemporary authors with various Austen works. Helen Fielding’s 1996 novel, “Bridget Jones’s Diary,” showed that it was possible to lift Austen’s story line and create a funny contemporary novel about a spirited young woman in search of love, while reminding us that “Pride and Prejudice” was one of the original screwball comedy/romcom templates. “Pride and Prejudice” alone has countless progeny - from the classic 1995 BBC adaptation, to more fanciful variations like “Pride and Prejudice and Zombies” and “Twilight” (Pride and Prejudice and Vampires). It is a truth universally acknowledged that many a writer in want of a good romantic comedy plot has turned to Jane Austen.
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