Customer Reviews

Lovers' Perjuries; Or, The Clandestine Courtship Of Jane Fairfax and Frank Churchill: A retelling of Jane Austen's EMMA (A Jane Austen Sequels book)

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Let's face it, Jane Austen's "Emma" is not "Pride & Prejudice." While much is delightful, the central romance of Emma and Mr. Knightley is more platonic than passionate. All the passion resides in the subplot about Jane Fairfax and Frank Churchill, whose "clandestine" love affair occupies (for my taste) too little of the novel.

"Lovers' Perjuries" redresses the balance by retelling the story from Jane Fairfax's point of view. The first half of the novel imagines the meeting, courtship, and secret engagement of Jane and Frank. The second half relates the events of "Emma"--from Jane's perspective.

I read "Lovers' Perjuries" just after rereading "Emma." Even though (declaration!) I'm a friend of the author's, most of the time I literally forgot I wasn't reading Jane Austen! The details and manners of the Regency seemed, as far as I could tell, utterly authentic. The characters are captured to perfection, with all the comedy of the babbling but benevolent Miss Bates, the sanguine Mr. Weston, and the insufferable Mrs. Elton. The lovers, Jane Fairfax and Frank Churchill, are elaborated upon in way that's absolutely true to the Austen originals.

While the prose style may here and there fall a bit short of the original's ironic perfection, it is still amazingly close in its elegance. In the second half, where Joan Ellen Delman's writing is woven together with Austen's, it was done so seamlessly that I often wasn't sure which was which!

There's something in the unfailing sensitivity of Jane Fairfax, seen in this novel focussing on her, compared to the blithe if later lamented judgments of Emma, which lends great poignancy to her version of the story.

"Emma," being a more ironic novel than "Pride and Prejudice," is less emotionally powerful. "Lovers' Perjuries" looks more deeply into the turbulent emotions (jealousy, shame, doubt, passion) suggested in the "Emma" subplot, but never fully revealed by Austen. However, in spite of the more serious cast of the story, it never lacks the wit so characteristic of Jane Austen. If you like being inside the prose world of Jane Austen, "Lovers' Perjuries" is about as close as you can get outside...Jane Austen.

This is a book for readers who know Jane Austen's "Emma" and would like to spend more time with its characters and see them from a different perspective. I bought the book based on the review on "austenblog" (which is also posted on this amazon page) and I found the austenblog review accurate, so I won't repeat here what it already says. On one point, I disagree, however, in that I found it hard to take much interest in the many new characters introduced in the Weymouth part of the book (the first 142 pages), because I knew that none of them could play any significant part in the Highbury part (the last 220 pages). The author, Ms. Delman, has developed the scenes and characters at Weymouth in a way that makes it plausible that an accomplished and somewhat formal Jane Fairfax would breach the proprieties by entering into a secret engagement, but the great missed opportunity in the Weymouth section is the lack of one or two scenes focusing on Frank's aunt, Mrs. Churchill, who is such a dominating but entirely behind-the-scenes presence in "Emma." In particular, there is no scene in which Jane Fairfax meets with and interacts with her soon-to-be nemesis, Mrs. Churchill -- whereas in, for example, "Pride & Prejudice," there are several scenes in which Elizabeth Bennett encounters her nemesis, Darcy's aunt, Lady Catherine De Bourgh. In the Highbury part of the book, Ms. Delman does well in showing how Jane's agreement to a secret engagement enmeshes her in a series of deceptions that in our modern times are similar to the deceptions of two people, married to others, who are carrying-on a long-distance affair: letters must be addressed to intermediaries, encounters must betray no appearance of special affection, etc. As to style, Ms. Delman does well: "Lovers' Perjuries" maintains the same consistent, authentic tone throughout its 360 pages. The basic problem with the book lies in the basic problem of the central story of Frank Churchill and Jane Fairfax: once the story gets to Highbury and the familiar "Emma" characters, the two main characters are seldom able to interact with each other, or with anyone else, openly, sincerely, so as to show or share their true feelings. As a result, neither one is able to develop or grow or learn very much more about human nature and human folly. This, however, is not Ms. Delman's fault; in a project like this, focusing on secondary characters in a famous novel, one must stay within the character definitions set by the author of the original novel -- at least, during the scenes and the time-periods covered by the original novel. In "Emma," neither Jane nor Frank develop greater wisdom about human nature; instead, Jane is held in suspense pending Frank's decision to disclose, keep hidden, or end the engagement, and Frank is held in suspense because his aunt's temper makes it impossible for him to make a disclosure, because it might upset her so much that it would aggravate her illness and trigger a physical set-back. Notwithstanding this problem, Ms. Delman does very well in those scenes that her story permits her to present, capturing Jane's emotion and frustration and persuasively taking us through the character arcs involving Jane and Frank that, in "Emma," we only see from a distance, indistinctly. The great success of "Lovers' Perjuries" is that it shows us that one of Austen's key secondary stories -- the story of Frank and Jane in "Emma" -- is plausible and convincing in its own terms, and thereby we receive a more complete sense of what it was like to live in Austen's world.

Like most people who end up on this page, I am an avid fan of Jane Austen, but I generally avoid faux sequels or retellings of her books from the hero's point of view. However, as I was re-reading "Emma", it occurred to me that it would be interesting if someone had written the story from Jane Fairfax's point of view. Her character is mostly overshadowed by others, and her story arc is only outlined in a general sense, so there is room for creative interpretation without simply repeating Jane Austen's words or, even worse, twisting characters to talk or act inconsistently.

Lo and behold, such a book exists, written by Joan Delman! Delman does not make any jarring errors. Her style is similar to Jane Austen's, and the language and scenes are all appropriate to the period. The characters are also fully consistent with "Emma". I enjoyed the prehistory to "Emma", giving the background of Jane Fairfax's meeting with Frank Churchill and their engagement. Jane's character was likable and understandable, while still remaining true to her behaviour in "Emma", where she appeared (to Emma) to be reserved and cool.

However, despite the very enjoyable prose, the book does not rise to the level of a stand-alone work. Perhaps part of the problem is that we know the outcome of the main plot line, so there can't be much suspense or surprise. Personally, I was not convinced of Jane and Frank's love for each other; although all their actions and described thoughts were consistent with being in love, I did not feel much of anything between them. Ms. Delman certainly wasn't able to create a passionate romance or a memorable hero on a par with a Mr. Darcy or Mr. Knightley. Of course, she had to work with the characters provided by Jane Austen, and so Frank Churchill was already somewhat too flawed, but... I have a feeling J.A. could have turned the story around with Frank as the main hero, a la Emma Woodhouse, who was also far from perfect. (Indeed, in this book, it's very clear that Emma is not too likable from Jane Fairfax's perspective - in fact, Jane's benevolence toward her at the end seems somewhat too generous.) On the other hand, maybe there is a reason Jane was a supporting character in Austen's story... perhaps there is not quite enough meat to her tale, or it doesn't follow the right type of progression, to make a successful main plot.

In any case, I did enjoy reading the book for the prose, believable period detail, etc., but surprisingly, I preferred the Weymouth part of the story. It was new, and I liked the supporting characters created by Ms. Delman. In fact, I thought the most compelling romance in the book was that between Miss Devere and James Hammond (Miss D. was heavily borrowed from Elizabeth Bennet, and the romance from Persuasion, but it was still very well-done) - this was the resolution I was most eager for at the end of the book, and not the happy conclusion between Frank and Jane. Once the story got to Highbury, there was not enough of interest happening in Jane's life to make it really stand on its own as a plot. Furthermore, a few things that looked reasonable from the point of view of an onlooker don't quite make sense from the point of view of Jane... for example, it was not clear why she decided to immediately take a position as governess after breaking up her engagement with Frank. Indeed, with the compelling and consistent backstory of Jane's relationship with the Campbells, it looks very odd that she continued to stay in Highbury despite their many invitations to join them in Ireland, and then abruptly decided to go directly to Mrs. Smallridge's, without saying goodbye to the Campbells. It's funny that once you start digging too deep in the lives of minor characters, certain inconsistencies even in the wonderful original novel come to the surface.

To sum up, a good effort, probably as good as possible, but Jane Fairfax is a minor character for a reason. I don't regret reading the book, and you will enjoy it too, if you just want another stroll in Jane Austen's world, with a pleasant story to pass the time. For myself, I think I've learned not to try any of these faux sequels, prequels, "coquels", etc. again - as good as they are, they can never be on a level with the original work.

I chose this book as a source for a term paper in my Jane Austen class as part of my requirements for earning my MA in English. I am expanding the ideas from that paper to my Master's thesis, focusing on retellings of "Emma," namely on whether the sequels' heroine can stand up consistently and morally with Austen's other leading ladies. I found "Lover's Perjuries" to be one of the best retellings that I have read about Jane Fairfax. Delman writes Jane Fairfax as a moral yet flawed character (just like Austen's other heroines!). Delman sticks to the storyline of "Emma" faithfully, but when she does embellish, with extra characters or plot lines, the writing is fresh, delightful, and fits fluidly within Austen's original plot.

Delman answers those little nagging questions about Jane Fairfax (why DOES she enter into a secret, questionable relationship with Frank in the first place? What was Jane's true relationship with Mr. Dixon? What did Frank and Jane argue about on the road when she was leaving the strawberry party?) in a believable and creative way. The story does not seem stretched or or cause the reader to question the author's intentions or historical or literary accuracy. Although no one can match Jane Austen in her style, wit, and insight into human and literary character, Delman does an outstanding job in writing Jane Fairfax as a heroine who could easily stand up next to Elizabeth, Anne, Elinor, Marianne, Catherine, and yes, even Emma herself.

I don't know why this book has not gotten more attention that it has. It is excellent.