REVIEW: By A Lady: Being the Adventures of an Enlightened American in Jane Austen's England by Amanda Elyot

We approached By A Lady with some anticipation, being fond of a time travel story and looking forward to a fun romp through Georgian Bath with Jane Austen on hand to provide snarky commentary. Alas, our anticipation was sadly misplaced.

The premise of the novel is quite unexceptionable: actress Cassandra Jane “C.J.” Welles, in the midst of a costume fitting for a play in which she will portray Jane Austen, walks backstage at a Greenwich Village theatre in the 21st century and out into the Theatre Royal in Bath circa April 1801–just a month before Jane Austen and her family will arrive to search for a home there.

C.J. is almost immediately arrested for thievery and begins a tour of the seedy underside of Georgian Bath. Fortunately for those patiently waiting for Jane Austen to arrive on the scene, C.J. is rescued by the eccentric Lady Dalrymple, who introduces C.J. to the handsome Earl of Darlington, who is in his turn much taken with the “original” Miss Welles. His lordship also just happens to be a cousin by marriage of Jane Austen.

“But Editrix,” the cry rings out round the Austensphere, “what’s so bad about that?”

Nothing, of course; but as in many things, the devil is in the details.

Our heroine is a picture of perfection that would make Emily St. Aubert throw up. From the first mention of her “flawless” British accent and the full bosom that accentuates her slender body, our Mary Suedar began pinging like a Pac-Man game and never let up until it exploded in a cloud of improbability right around the time that Mary Sue C.J. saved Jane Austen’s work for posterity. (For those unfamiliar with the concept of “Mary Sue,” please see this article at Wikipedia.)

As for his lordship of Darlington, it’s a good thing he has that attractive Colin Firth-like curl drooping so perfectly over his forehead, because it hid the great big “L” tattooed there. Percy, old thing, you’re 37, not a wet-eared schoolboy. If you were so all-fired concerned about the pink-cheeked peasant children starving on your estate, maybe you should have put down the Kama Sutra about 15 years ago and taken an interest in the management of the estate you were to inherit. You know, like that Darcy fellow or that Knightley dude; real Jane Austen heroes.

(“Did she say Kama Sutra?” a hushed voice whispers in the Austensphere. Yes, she did.)

But then if his lordship weren’t a spineless wuss with an uncontrollable libido, Mary Sue C.J. wouldn’t have had the opportunity to save the Earl as well as Jane Austen. The only mystery is why Jane Austen would have given these dweebs the time of day.

“But what about Jane Austen?” a small voice in the Austensphere pipes up. “We were promised Jane Austen!”

So you were; but what is delivered is less Jane Austen and more a Jane Austen Talking Action Figure: pull her string, and she says a line from one of her novels or letters! She pops into a scene, says something that often comes off bizarre in the context, and toddles off so C.J. can get back to her important business of behaving like a tragic heroine. While we appreciate the author’s attempt to make Jane Austen sound “like herself,” we would prefer to read a Jane Austen who is capable of normal, intelligent conversation.

In a more serious vein, being, as we said, an eager consumer of time travel stories, we were disappointed that C.J. did not seem to think about the consequences of her actions on the future–usually a guiding principle in such stories, and one which provides much of their interest. In the excellent time travel book Time and Again by Jack Finney, that is the principle that provides the brilliant twist ending.

In an attempt to make sense of the occasionally nonsensical plot, we wonder if C.J., rather than actually traveling back in time, got hit on the head with a chunk of falling scenery at that 21st century theatre and went to some weird Janeite fantasy afterlife. How else to explain Darlington’s story about his first wife–a story with elements taken from Jane Austen’s own life, and involving her family members, but changed from a rather ordinary, if tragic, story to a Radcliffean romance that had us wondering if Darlington was purposely lying to C.J. to get into her petticoats. (Not that he needed a story; the petticoats were always his for the invading.)

The authoress seems knowledgeable of the maggoty underbelly of Georgian life: we are dragged, with the heroine, from gaol to indentured servitude to an extraordinary bordello to a madhouse. These are areas generally not served by Jane Austen-related literature, so no doubt many readers will find it fascinating.

All that being said, the Editrix is aware that she is a picky-ass cranky old dried-up humorless Janeite spinster purist–everyone keeps telling us so, so it must be true–and we suspect that there will be an audience that enjoys this novel very much. They would include: those fascinated with Gritty Realism™; those who lurrrrved the Proposal in the Rain scene in P&P3 (with a bonus: snogging in a Sydney Gardens gazebo, in the rain! But Darlington, unlike Darcy, gets to third base. Possibly even halfway to home plate); those who enjoy sexually explicit historical romance/fan fiction; those who enjoyed Mr. Darcy Takes A Wife or Outlander; newer Janeites who are not familiar with Jane Austen’s life story and/or will not be much disturbed by deviations from well-known facts.