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Anne Elliot A New Beginning A Persuasion Reimagining Mary Lydon Simonsen Books

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Anne Elliot A New Beginning A Persuasion Reimagining Mary Lydon Simonsen Books

I don't exactly know what to call this book. It's not a satire, it's just weird. A satire should make fun of the original--making us laugh at the characters and poking fun at the manners and morals of the time, seeing inconsistencies and hypocrisies (oh, wait, that's exactly what Jane Austen does!). It's really more surreal than satire. That Anne Elliot invents, and even coins the term, jogging. Or that her sister and father found Avon cosmetics. Or that Wentworth and Anne roam the dangerous neighborhoods of Bath following cousin Elliot as he does all sorts of horrible things. Then they adopt a street urchin they've known for about a week. The critical points of the original are glossed over, such as Wentworth's relationship with Louisa Musgrove. The angst that Anne feels, seeing Wentworth and Louisa grow close, is critical to her coming out of her 'old maid' identity. I can see this kind of book being workable--I thoroughly enjoyed the absurdity of P&P&Zombies, for example. But it takes a very skilled hand to parody or create satire based on a master of the art like Jane Austen. I, sadly, don't feel that this book meets the mark.


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Anne Elliot A New Beginning A Persuasion Reimagining Mary Lydon Simonsen Books Reviews

I loved this book and devoured it practically in one sitting. "Persuasion" is my favorite Jane Austen and I have a great affection for the story and the characters. This hilarious little re-telling of it, with tongue-in-cheek humor and Jasper Fforde-esque jokes and anachronisms, was so much fun. I read the two one-star reviews this book earned and can tell that the reviewers totally missed the point and were looking at it with a humor-challenged eye. I thought it was adorable and funny and I was sorry to see it come to an end. No one could possibly love the original more than I do, and I thought that this book was a fabulous companion to it. If you love Jane Austen but don't take everything too seriously, you will enjoy this book. If you have no sense of humor when it comes to great literature, you'd best avoid it, you won't get it.
This Persuassion alternative is quite interesting. The author tell a very interesting story but throws in some funny details that get you laughing. These details don't mesh with regency but do make the story light and funny. In the end, the story of Anne and Capt Wentworth is definitly worth reading. Loved the added characters, really inhanced the story. If your a JA purist you might not like this but if you just loosen your tie and enjoy the ride you will find it pleasuable.
There are not many, if any, varations of persuasion, ergo this one is worth a read because you always wonder what the story would have been like if Anne had some more backbone. Also the story was fun, as Mary Simonsen always is.
I enjoy Persuasion as one of my favorite JA books. This version needs you to suspend belief that running was perfectly acceptable for a Regency period woman, and that Anne invented the word jogging. With the publisher description that Anne became a marathon runner, I was expecting a modern retelling rather than a historical one.
I enjoy the premise of the book, that Anne decides to take over her own life and make her own life choices, becoming a stronger person. This inspires Mary to become a much more sympathetic character.
The story is fun, and filled with modern references, which is not for the JA purist.
I read Jane Austen every year and Persuasion has always been one of my favorites. I do enjoy many of the rewrites and the sequels. This one is just too funny. While keeping the time period and locale the same, the author manages to insert many references to "new" inventions that the characters just happen to hit upon. I will not spoil it for anyone, but if you keep an open mind, Anne's invention of "jogging", the "marathon" and the "running shoe" make sense and add to the re-imagined, confident Anne who still loves her Captain Wentworth. I shared many of my favorite passages with a co-worker who had never read the original. She loved it. Try it,you are in for a treat!
What a hoot. Bet you never thought you'd see that as an intro to a Jane Austen-genre novel. But it is all of that- a delightful, anachronistic romp through "Persuasion" that will have you chuckling from end to end.

Mary Simonsen is a recognized Austen scholar, as she proved in her well-received novel "Searching for Pemberley." But her well-honed, and occasionally ribald sense of humor was laced tighter than one of Elizabeth Elliot's corsets. Here it's as free as Anne running down a country path.

And Anne does run. In fact, she apparantly invented a type of running she first dubbed "jigging," but settled on "jogging" as more descriptive. So when her once and future suiter Captain Fredrick Wentworth aka Rick aka he of the Big Buttons, returns he finds the tanned and toned Anne nothing like the plain-Jane mouse he had left six years earlier. It may be 1815, but this time Anne has plenty of twenty-first century moxie to deal with the motley cast of characters she encounters.

What a bunch of characters they are. Part of the fun of Simonsen's book is picking out her tongue-in-cheek Dickensian character names. The man who more or less invents Anne's running shoes is Mr. Hightops. The army field medics are doctors Johns and Hopkins. There's Phoebe Welling-Dowd, Ready Willing's wife, Ann Able, Lord Knox-Seema and Signora Culogrande.

"Persuasion" has been considered one of Austen's more serious novels. Well, lighten up, Lady Jane. Mary Lydon Simonsen just sent you up, and we're all the better for it.

Jack Shakely
Author of "The Confederate War Bonnet"
I don't exactly know what to call this book. It's not a satire, it's just weird. A satire should make fun of the original--making us laugh at the characters and poking fun at the manners and morals of the time, seeing inconsistencies and hypocrisies (oh, wait, that's exactly what Jane Austen does!). It's really more surreal than satire. That Anne Elliot invents, and even coins the term, jogging. Or that her sister and father found Avon cosmetics. Or that Wentworth and Anne roam the dangerous neighborhoods of Bath following cousin Elliot as he does all sorts of horrible things. Then they adopt a street urchin they've known for about a week. The critical points of the original are glossed over, such as Wentworth's relationship with Louisa Musgrove. The angst that Anne feels, seeing Wentworth and Louisa grow close, is critical to her coming out of her 'old maid' identity. I can see this kind of book being workable--I thoroughly enjoyed the absurdity of P&P&Zombies, for example. But it takes a very skilled hand to parody or create satire based on a master of the art like Jane Austen. I, sadly, don't feel that this book meets the mark.