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20 of 21 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Captures the spirit of Jane Austen perfectly., May 29, 2000
Stephanie Barron has created a delightful mystery series that captures the essence of Austen for a modern-day audience. Readers who know Jane Austen through only her novels (and not her letters, for example) may not always recognize Barron's sophisticated integration of fact with fiction, but anyone familiar with Austen's biography will surely enjoy the imagination and cleverness of this series. Mystery lovers and all but the most curmudgeonly of Austen fans will enjoy this well-written tale as well. The first in the series, this book introduces Jane-as-sleuth along with the cast of supporting characters. Barron is true to Austen's character and life (as much as we know of it, anyway) and has written a solid mystery also. Thoroughly enjoyable.
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11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Lots of fun!, October 30, 2006
My local library has the whole Stephanie Barron Jane Austen Mystery series. At first, I was a little put off by the language, and like a couple of other reviewers, thought the language more than a little affected. Yet Ms. Barron is trying to capture the style of Jane Austen, and that is no easy feat. Once I got over my initial reservation about the (overly prim and proper) writing style, I really enjoyed this book. Ms. Barron has obviously done her research and integrates many true accounts of Jane's life into these mysteries (I'm now on the second book, Jane and the Man of the Cloth). For example, Jane had recently recanted her promise to marry a Mr. Bigg-Wither, and the First Jane Austen Mystery takes place shortly after Jane's refusal and fictionalizes how Jane sought solace by visiting a newly married friend, the Countess of Scargrave (who will soon be framed for murder).
I'm not such a purist that I take deep, personal offense at Stephanie Barron's decision to interpolate quotes from Jane Austen's novels into these books, as though Jane was thinking them up at the moment or recording them in her letters and diary. (Some other reviewers thought this "borrowing" an unpardonable breach of copyright, if not moral probity). And you more than get the idea that our famous Darcy was based upon Lord Fitzroy Payne, the (unconsummated) love interest of the Countess of Scargrave. (Though he never was so tactless as to insult Isobel Scargrave's appearance.)
Jane isn't quite the infallibe Miss Marple--she puts many pieces of the puzzle together, but doesn't quite get it right til the very end, when the would-be murderer saves her life.
I really wish that PBS Mystery would produce this series. If it was well done, what a following it would have! And what young British actress wouldn't want to play a 27-year old Jane? (Of course, please don't cast Keira Knightley b/c she's too pretty to play Jane! I made the very same complaint for her having been cast as Elizabeth in P&P.)
All in all, lots of fun, though addictive. I have tons of things on my "to-do list," yet I often neglect what I should be doing in order to sneak in a few chapters.
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11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
terrific premise, well executed, March 12, 2002
What a wonderful idea -- the astute and observant Jane Austen as amateur detective in the English countryside! Of late I have been underwhelmed by several Austen homages and a few mystery novels, but author Stephanie Barron seems to have got it right on both fronts. While no one has ever duplicated Jane Austen's combination of wit and elegance, of the recent authors Ms. Barron comes closest in my opinion, though I do find her occasional use of sentences lifted directly from the original works disruptive. You can tell that Ms. Barron did her research, and she fluidly incorporates people and events from JA's life into the story in an entertaining way. In addition, the mystery is a good one, interesting and plausible. Personally I liked the footnotes, which are neither idiotic nor ubiquitous, as some have stated; there are approximately 40 notes, which are generally brief, informative and interesting -- and easily ignored if one so chooses. I thought the one weakness of the novel was Isobel, Jane's friend and the accused murderess in whose interest Jane acts. She pouts and whines and is inconstant -- certainly not the kind of person one would imagine appealing to Jane. Otherwise, I thoroughly enjoyed this novel and will definitely read others in the series.
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