Eligible: A Modern Retelling of Pride and Prejudice

Eligible: A Modern Retelling of Pride and Prejudice

Author:
Series: 21 Jane Austen retellings
Tag: 2016 Summer Reading Guide
Length: 512 pages
ASIN: 1400068320

This is the fourth installment of the Jane Austen Project, which invites contemporary authors to rework Jane Austen's novels for modern times. Sittenfeld is no Jane Austen, but she's okay with that: her snappy writing and spirit of playfulness make this such good fun for Jane Austen fans, if you're willing to go with it. (Think what 10 Things I Hate About You did with The Taming of the Shrew. Our modern tale is set in Cincinnati, where Lizzie is re-cast as an NYC-based magazine editor, Jane is a yoga instructor nearing 40, Darcy is a snooty brain surgeon, and Bingley is an ER doctor turned star of the reality show "Eligible," (which, in a running gag, all the characters watch but pretend not to). If you're revolted at the idea of on-screen sex in an Austen remake, or Darcy and Liz spewing profanity, this is NOT for you. The purists will need their smelling salts.

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About the Book

Publisher’s description:

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • Wonderfully tender and hilariously funny, Eligible tackles gender, class, courtship, and family as Curtis Sittenfeld reaffirms herself as one of the most dazzling authors writing today.

This version of the Bennet family—and Mr. Darcy—is one that you have and haven’t met before: Liz is a magazine writer in her late thirties who, like her yoga instructor older sister, Jane, lives in New York City. When their father has a health scare, they return to their childhood home in Cincinnati to help—and discover that the sprawling Tudor they grew up in is crumbling and the family is in disarray.

Youngest sisters Kitty and Lydia are too busy with their CrossFit workouts and Paleo diets to get jobs. Mary, the middle sister, is earning her third online master’s degree and barely leaves her room, except for those mysterious Tuesday-night outings she won’t discuss. And Mrs. Bennet has one thing on her mind: how to marry off her daughters, especially as Jane’s fortieth birthday fast approaches.

Enter Chip Bingley, a handsome new-in-town doctor who recently appeared on the juggernaut reality TV dating show Eligible. At a Fourth of July barbecue, Chip takes an immediate interest in Jane, but Chip’s friend neurosurgeon Fitzwilliam Darcy reveals himself to Liz to be much less charming. . . .

And yet, first impressions can be deceiving.