Title: Me and Mr. Darcy
Author: Alexandra Potter
Thoughts: As someone currently working on a novel that pays homage to Pride and Prejudice, I just have to say this one thing: it is entirely (and often all too) possible to stick too close to the original when one is retelling a famous story. Pride and Prejudice is a great book--my favourite, as a matter of fact--and no one who retells the original word for word is doing themselves justice. A perfect nugget like the original Austen is hard to compete with on the best of days by the best of writers so all you chick-lit wannabes out there take heed: borrow if you must, but don't copy passages of the original. And when you (inevitably) get to the part where your Darcy stand-in writes his revelatory letter explaining everything, please don't steal lines from Austen. Please. Please. You aren't as good as Jane Austen, and voluntarily putting yourself up for comparison with one of the greatest novels of all time? Just painful. For everyone involved.
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