Why write a classic variation?
"If there's a book that you want to read, but it hasn't been written yet,
then you must write it."
Toni Morrison, Writer, Professor
Nobel Prize Literature 1993
Why write a "Pride and Prejudice" Variation?
I fell in love with Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice, in 1996, two months after I got married. It was interesting to notice how much my husband and I had in common with this story. After that, my interest had just grown more and more.
As you probably know, Pride and Prejudice is considered one of the most important literary works in the English language. However, it was not until 1995 that this beautiful story reached an entirely new and unexpected status.
After the meteoric success of the BBC series "Pride and Prejudice", broadcasted on September 1995 with a surprising audience of 10 million spectators (40% of the population in England, by the time!). Its characters became part of the collective imaginary, inspiring a new generation of writers to write down, but mainly or online, their ideas, creating new settings or filling the gaps of the original story. A new world comes into existence: the world of Pride and Prejudice Fanfiction and Variations. (Click here to see one of my university assignments about this subject).
"Pride and Prejudice"
The BBC series was broadcasted in 1995, with Jennifer Ehle, as Elizabeth Bennet, and Colin Firth, as Mr Darcy.
"Pride and Prejudice"
by aminawolf.deviantart.com
on @deviantART
Fanfiction work and classic variation are a work of fiction, written usually by a fan, which contains some elements of the original, like the main characters (who would want a P&P variation without Mr Darcy or Miss Elizabeth?) or settings, but vary in the plot. Some versions are set in the present, and some others involve even vampires or a fairy tale world. Some can be very small, just a chapter and others can be an entirely new novel.
Come on! Who never wanted to know how was the conversation between Mr Darcy and his aunt, Lady Catherine, about her visit to Elizabeth, being such talk the beginning of the happy end so long awaited? “It taught me to hope as I had scarcely ever allowed myself to hope before,” Darcy says in the book. You cannot be surprised if I tell you that hundreds of fan writer have written about it already.
However, despite those new writers reinvented the story, changing circumstances, facts or even add and subtracting characters, Mr Fitzwilliam Darcy and Miss Elizabeth Bennet are always kept as the main characters. Moreover, it does make much sense. Who in sound mind would try to separate a couple which is so perfect after all?
Apart from Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, and Bram Stoker's Dracula, Pride and Prejudice is one of the few literary variations to find a niche in the editorial market.
So it was that, after discovering this amazing world, and reading as many of these books as it was possible, I decided to write my version. The American writer and professor, Toni Morrison, said, "If there's a book that you want to read, but it hasn't been written yet, then you must write it.” So I hope my book is all about it: the borrowed beauty of the original characters and settings added with a generous portion of adventure and a bit of drama.
I hope you can enjoy reading it as much as I did writing it.