SAVING JANE AUSTEN A Comedie Grotesque edition by DANIEL CURZON Literature Fiction eBooks
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A novel in e-mails about Jane Austen, who has been preserved Cryonically since 1817, and now returns to life to try to write a new novel, but can she resist the threats to her tranquility, her civility,and even her very life that surround her in the modern world?
Review from FOREWORD REVIEWS
SAVING JANE AUSTEN
A Comedie Grotesque
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ForeWord Review
For an author who only published six novels (the posthumous Sanditon is a partial novel not published until recently), Jane Austen’s Regency-era fiction has immense staying power. Not only have her books spawned innumerable fan-fiction items, works such as Pride and Prejudice now have sequels, prequels, and spinoffs. Many of these works continue Austen’s characters’ stories or take those characters down fictional side roads.
Then there are the zombies (Pride and Prejudice), vampires (Emma, Jane Bites Back) and sea monster send-offs (Sense and Sensibility). Starting about 2009, the idea of creating a mashup of Austen and a horror icon took root, beginning with Pride and Prejudice and Zombies. One could argue that this trend has continued with other historical figures such as Abraham Lincoln and Edgar Allen Poe in computer games, movies, and fiction.
Saving Jane Austen belongs with those novels, but it’s quite different in approach and content. Daniel Curzon takes a decidedly satirical view of Ms. Austen and her writing style, crafting a novel composed of e-mails between the cryogenically frozen and revived head of the famous authoress and an elderly American rare books dealer (now retired) named Aubrey Oxbridge, president of the What Would Jane Austen Do club. More than this, by way of summation, would spoil the fun.
Curzon’s Jane Austen retains her era’s viewpoint on matters public and private. Her lack of a body to which her head can be attached—and the limitations thereby forced on her—doesn’t stop her from getting back to writing. What she produces is a dizzying blend of nineteenth-century British society and modern life that seems to want to go in two directions at once. It’s also hilarious.
Curzon is very adept at taking on the Austen writing style and melding it with a contemporary story of a woman transported into the future who must learn to adapt. This novel mirrors Austen’s focus on Regency-era class divisions and social manners by bringing in several topics of current concern (gender identity, neo-Nazis, immigrants, and longer lifespans) to replace them. The result is a roller-coaster ride, chuckle-per-page gem that will probably outrage “true” Austen fans and delight readers who can handle humorous approaches to famous authors. Satire is an acquired taste, and one which Curzon uses to great effect.
This is not a beach read by any means (one must know at least the basics about Austen to get the majority of the humor) Saving Jane Austen is a novel best enjoyed by readers who like guilty pleasures. It’s a book well worth savoring.
Janine Stinson
August 6, 2012
SAVING JANE AUSTEN A Comedie Grotesque edition by DANIEL CURZON Literature Fiction eBooks
They weren't kidding when they used the word "grotesque" in the subtitle.I was drawn into this ridiculous plot (which involves Jane Austen's head being frozen and revived in present times without a body) by the slight humor of the first few chapters. The hope of a funny plot as well as the fun of seeing Jane Austen in today's world, kept me reading through the middle.
One would suppose this story line would be forced to contrast the purity of the early 1800's with the immorality of the 2000's, but this! This book parades every sort of sexual perversion--from a dissatisfied elderly couple, to variations of homosexual activity, to a horse mating an apple tree, to the idea of an ear canal as a possible, well, you get the idea--before the delighted eyes of a naive Jane Austen.
I read to the end in hopes of discovering the author's "point", because the whole book feels more like a social commentary being stuffed down one's throat rather than a comedy. In the process, various segments of society are bashed, Catholics, Anglicans, Unitarians, Christians, homosexuals, heterosexuals, Nazis, Germans, English, Americans, Muslims, organic farmers, anorexics, the paparrazzi, etc.
I regret spending my time reading this worthless book. It was not funny, not light-hearted, not even entertaining. And the opposite of any Jane Austen book I've ever read.
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SAVING JANE AUSTEN A Comedie Grotesque edition by DANIEL CURZON Literature Fiction eBooks Reviews
I should say up front that I read, at his request, Mr. Curzon's novel in progress a couple of years ago and that he dedicated it to me. Although I understand that he has made some minor changes, I believe the novel is essentially the same one I read. I liked it then; I like it now.
Anyone familiar with Mr. Curzon's fiction knows that he is a master of satire and that no religion, cult, political party, bigotry or ism is safe when he is riding herd. SAVING JANE is no exception. But like all good satirical writing, this novel is abundant in subtle humor. Mr. Curzon has created a character in Miss Austen who, as a many times over female Rip Van Winkle, is confronted with being awakened in the 21st Century and is a bit overwhelmed at what she sees computers, e-mails, Nazi skinheads, women open about the love that once dared not be mentioned, female genital mutilation in the name of religion, etc. etc. As I said, nothing is off Mr. Curzon's table. Mother Teresa is lucky she didn't make a sandaled appearance.
What Mr. Curzon does so well is convince the reader, at least this one, that Jane Austen, were she brought back to life today, would act the way this character does. Furthermore, the novel she dictates to her assistant reads like it might have been written by Miss Austen-- no small achievement on the part of Curzon. Of course, the dialogue is pitch perfect. I can think of no fiction writer who does it better. Eudora Welty has said that dialogue should never bore the reader. Mr. Curzon's meets her high standard.
As much as I liked this novel and smiled often as I read it, I would not recommend it to everyone. If you are looking for a beach novel or have no interest in having your brain combed-- Norman Mailer's wonderful description of what his working the crossword puzzle each morning did for him-- then you should look elsewhere. Unfortunately THE LORD WON'T MIND has many more descendants than EMMA and DEATH IN VENICE so there's enough mindless writing for everyone.
Daniel Curzon’s broadside against the brutish absurdities of contemporary culture takes the form of an epistolary novel for the digital age emails exchanged by the cryogenically preserved head of Jane Austen, her mostly nefarious household staff, and her nonagenarian benefactor (the beleaguered president of the What Would Jane Austen Do society in the U.S.). Along the way, Curzon demolishes political correctness, religious extremism, celebrity stalkers, literary feuds, the digital age, reality TV, and our naïve veneration of the past as “a bower of lilac-scented hammocks and tea parties.” Revived after two centuries in the deep freeze, Miss Austen comprehends modern life with surgical precision, deploring and chastising freely even as she revels in the wonders of the Internet and Mixed Martial Arts, all the while indulging in more misguided matchmaking than Emma ever dreamed of. Completely reliant on hired hands to operate her power pack, keep her clean, feed her the odd treat (which has an unsettling way of spilling out of her severed neck), and operate her computer, she decides to cash in on her newfound celebrity by writing her first novel in two centuries. Excerpts from her work in progress are among the novel’s most hilarious passages—what would Jane Austen make of premarital cohabitation and gay lib? Curzon answers that question and more in a tale peopled by Neo-nazis, porn stars, ultra-orthodox Muslims, paparazzi, a butch lesbian with admirable reserves of sense and sensibility, and a priapic horse. It’s page-turning, laugh-out-loud fun with a surprising and satisfying finale Austen might have envied. Modern life is low comedy for those who think and those who feel, but books like this make it almost bearable. Break out the claret (and laudanum if you have it handy) and prepare for a treat!
The book is beyond idiotic, absolutely absurd and lacks any creativity, what was supposed to be funny is not even remotely so.
They weren't kidding when they used the word "grotesque" in the subtitle.
I was drawn into this ridiculous plot (which involves Jane Austen's head being frozen and revived in present times without a body) by the slight humor of the first few chapters. The hope of a funny plot as well as the fun of seeing Jane Austen in today's world, kept me reading through the middle.
One would suppose this story line would be forced to contrast the purity of the early 1800's with the immorality of the 2000's, but this! This book parades every sort of sexual perversion--from a dissatisfied elderly couple, to variations of homosexual activity, to a horse mating an apple tree, to the idea of an ear canal as a possible, well, you get the idea--before the delighted eyes of a naive Jane Austen.
I read to the end in hopes of discovering the author's "point", because the whole book feels more like a social commentary being stuffed down one's throat rather than a comedy. In the process, various segments of society are bashed, Catholics, Anglicans, Unitarians, Christians, homosexuals, heterosexuals, Nazis, Germans, English, Americans, Muslims, organic farmers, anorexics, the paparrazzi, etc.
I regret spending my time reading this worthless book. It was not funny, not light-hearted, not even entertaining. And the opposite of any Jane Austen book I've ever read.
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