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

By: Mags

Mags — Wed, 19 Apr 2006 14:45:44 +0000

For a minute I thought you were going to talk about the Other Incident in the Ballroom, with the Big Reveal and the Swoon.

By: Allison T.

Allison T. — Wed, 19 Apr 2006 13:12:55 +0000

Alas, my enjoyment of this book deteriorated rapidly after the initial chapter and premise. It wasn’t just the tantric sex the 4th time the heroine meets the hero, no it was the Incident in the Ballroom. C.J. is making her first visit to the Rooms at Bath when she notices what seems to be a fly drowning in the punchbowl of negus. An elderly couple approach–will they drink the fly? No, no, C.J. rips off her 18-button glove and PLUNGES HER ARM UP TO THE ELBOW into the punch to retrieve it.

First, was there no ladle? Second, if this incident is meant to show the modern heroine’s spunky 20th century independence, then the author is sadly mistaken. I can’t think of any century or circumstance in which it was appropriate to plunge one’s limbs into the food.

By: Mags

Mags — Fri, 07 Apr 2006 14:34:13 +0000

As I’ve said previously, I’m still waiting for the Mr. and Mrs. Rochester Mysteries. I’d buy those like a shot.

By: Allison

Allison — Thu, 06 Apr 2006 17:40:49 +0000

I’ve started this book, and don’t find it too bad so far, but neverthelss my mind is completely unable to wrap itself around the twin concepts of “Jane Austen” and “Tantric Sex”–I flipped ahead to one of the ahem! bits to find our heroine–suitably stimulated by the knowledgeable fingers of the Kama Sutra-reading hero–seeing the colors of the chakras and practicing muhlubunda (pelvic floor) breathing in 1801 Bath and the volume just slipped from my nerveless grasp.

I think it’s time that They start to pick on some other dead, out-of-copyright female authors. What about those Bronte girls? Colin Firth as Mr Rochester–that’ll invigorate a whole new wave of Bronte-mania. Now “Emily Bronte” and “Tantric Sex” are concepts that I could envision a little more clearly….

By: Mags

Mags — Tue, 04 Apr 2006 15:55:21 +0000

That really is not relevant to my review. Criticism of a book is not criticism of the author or her intentions.

Unless you mean the Mary Sue references, and perhaps I should clarify that I considered C.J. more of a Mary Sue in that she is too much of a picture of perfection than an author avatar.

By: Elizabeth K. Mahon

Elizabeth K. Mahon — Tue, 04 Apr 2006 15:11:46 +0000

I just wanted to point out, that even though you didn’t like the book (and granted I haven’t read the latest version), it’s been a labor of love for the author for six years. That’s all.

By: Mags

Mags — Tue, 04 Apr 2006 14:57:31 +0000

I reviewed the book, not the author. Also, most of my complaints (at least those voiced in the review) had to do with the plot, not the historical accuracy or lack thereof.

By: Elizabeth K. Mahon

Elizabeth K. Mahon — Tue, 04 Apr 2006 14:04:24 +0000

I feel compelled to defend the author of By a Lady. I read an earlier version of the novel when it was called Sense and Sensuality. Yes, there various historical inaccuracies that I pointed out to her at the time, that probably haven’t been changed but you have to admit the author’s heart was in the right place. Playing Jane Austen in Howard Fast’s play The Novelist (which you probably wouldn’t like either as it’s an imagined romance between Jane and a Sea Captain that inspired Persuasion while she was dying) had a profound effect on her.

By: Mags

Mags — Mon, 03 Apr 2006 16:35:41 +0000

Yes, but she had an excuse of sorts. Don’t want to give too much away…

By: Dae

Dae — Mon, 03 Apr 2006 06:35:57 +0000

Please dear, no conniptions. Somewhere, at her little roll-top desk in the sky, Jane is at this very moment pennign excellent snark about such idiotic authoresses.

Did the heroine in this novel ever, by any chance, succumb to an attack of the vapors?