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A review by emmareadstoomuch
The Secret Diary of Lizzie Bennet by Bernie Su, Kate Rorick
4.0
1. If you haven’t read Pride & Prejudice, what are you doing with your life?
2. If you have read Pride & Prejudice but you haven’t watched The Lizzie Bennet Diaries, what are you doing with your life?
3. If you have read Pride & Prejudice and watched The Lizzie Bennet Diaries, hurray! Now read this book.
https://emmareadstoomuch.wordpress.com/2016/11/12/the-secret-diary-of-lizzie-bennet-review/
God, I love P&P. I have a strange fascination with romance novels (and rom-coms, for that matter), because very frequently I feel nothing when I’m reading them. But Pride & Prejudice is not in that group. Its better adaptations aren’t either, and The Lizzie Bennet Diaries is totally one of the better adaptations.
The concept is essentially a modern day retelling, with Lizzie Bennet as a grad school communications major creating video diaries based on her life. Darcy owns a digital tech company (as does Ricky Collins), Bing Lee (okay, the name feels a little much for me but hey) is a trust fund med student, Catherine de Bourgh is a venture capitalist, Charlotte is a fellow grad student and the video diaries’ editor. Lydia is a party girl and Jane is ridiculously kind (too kind for a realistic character, if you ask me). Kitty is a literal cat and Mary is a cousin. It’s all so fun.
It doesn’t always work, though. Jane Austen is subtle, as was the web series in its own way--yes, the videos are fully from Lizzie’s perspective, and her status as the “prejudice” leads to broad-stroked renderings of events, but there is still that certain surprise at Darcy’s interest and all the miscommunications. The book finds a lack of the subtlety one could argue the videos have in excess. In attempting to hint at Darcy’s interest in Lizzie and explain how it seems Jane could be uninterested in Bing, it makes both entirely too clear. What’s the fun in that?
Still, I’m struck by how clever this retelling is. It doesn’t want, strangely, for a lack of (a traditional) Kitty and Mary in the household, the grad school format works well, and the Ricky Collins plotline is full-on genius. The series totally deserved all of its lauding, and the book is a fun read for those who have and haven’t seen it. (Still, I recommend watching the vids.)
Bottom line: all my Austen-holics out there, go to YouTube and search “lizzie bennet diaries.” You’ll be so happy you did! (Everyone else: become an Austen fan, stat!)
2. If you have read Pride & Prejudice but you haven’t watched The Lizzie Bennet Diaries, what are you doing with your life?
3. If you have read Pride & Prejudice and watched The Lizzie Bennet Diaries, hurray! Now read this book.
https://emmareadstoomuch.wordpress.com/2016/11/12/the-secret-diary-of-lizzie-bennet-review/
God, I love P&P. I have a strange fascination with romance novels (and rom-coms, for that matter), because very frequently I feel nothing when I’m reading them. But Pride & Prejudice is not in that group. Its better adaptations aren’t either, and The Lizzie Bennet Diaries is totally one of the better adaptations.
The concept is essentially a modern day retelling, with Lizzie Bennet as a grad school communications major creating video diaries based on her life. Darcy owns a digital tech company (as does Ricky Collins), Bing Lee (okay, the name feels a little much for me but hey) is a trust fund med student, Catherine de Bourgh is a venture capitalist, Charlotte is a fellow grad student and the video diaries’ editor. Lydia is a party girl and Jane is ridiculously kind (too kind for a realistic character, if you ask me). Kitty is a literal cat and Mary is a cousin. It’s all so fun.
It doesn’t always work, though. Jane Austen is subtle, as was the web series in its own way--yes, the videos are fully from Lizzie’s perspective, and her status as the “prejudice” leads to broad-stroked renderings of events, but there is still that certain surprise at Darcy’s interest and all the miscommunications. The book finds a lack of the subtlety one could argue the videos have in excess. In attempting to hint at Darcy’s interest in Lizzie and explain how it seems Jane could be uninterested in Bing, it makes both entirely too clear. What’s the fun in that?
Still, I’m struck by how clever this retelling is. It doesn’t want, strangely, for a lack of (a traditional) Kitty and Mary in the household, the grad school format works well, and the Ricky Collins plotline is full-on genius. The series totally deserved all of its lauding, and the book is a fun read for those who have and haven’t seen it. (Still, I recommend watching the vids.)
Bottom line: all my Austen-holics out there, go to YouTube and search “lizzie bennet diaries.” You’ll be so happy you did! (Everyone else: become an Austen fan, stat!)