Pride, Prejudice and Jasmin Field: A Novel [Paperback]

Melissa Nathan (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 24, 2001

It starts as a lark for Jasmin Field, the charming, acerbically witty columnist for a national women's magazine.  She joins a host of celebraties gathering in London to audition for the season's most dazzling charity event:  a one-night only stage production of Jane Austen's immortal Pride and Prejudice, directed by and starring the Academy Award -- winning Hollywood heartthrob Harry Noble.  And nobody is more surprised than Jasmin herself when she lands the lead of handsome Harry's love interest, Elizabeth Bennet.  But things start to go very wrong very quickly.  Ms. Field's delicious contempt for the arrogant, overbearing Harry Noble goes from being wicked fun to infuriating.  Her brief moment of theatrical glory looks as if it's going to be overshadowed by the betrayal of her best friend, the disintegration of her family and the implosion of her career. And suddenly she can't remember a single one of her lines.  But, worst of all, Harry Noble -- who, incidentally, looks amazing in tight breeches -- has started to stare hard at Jazz with that sort of a glimmer in his eyes...

Fresh, wild, wonderfully romantic and absolutely hilarious, Pride, Prejudice and Jasmin Field is Jane Austen as the great lady herself never imagined it.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

A plucky hybrid of Bridget Jones and Elizabeth Bennett, heroine Jasmin Field will attract devotees of Fielding and Austen to this flimsy but likable update of Pride and Prejudice. Londoner Jasmin, or Jazz to her friends, writes a confessional column for Hoorah, a "trashy women's magazine" that runs features like "I married my poodle." She gets wind of a charity adaptation of Pride and Prejudice being directed by mega-star Harry Nobel, and auditions for it along with her actress sister, George, and her best friend, Mo. Unexpectedly cast as Lizzy, Jazz strikes up a flirtation with dishy actor William Whitby (playing Wickham) and develops a serious antipathy to Harry Nobel (a Hollywood-style Darcy), whose insufferable arrogance she can't wait to skewer in her column. In the meantime, George finds love with a rakish fellow actor and Mo begins a dalliance with Jazz's nemesis, the oily Gilbert. Like Austen's beloved protagonist, Jazz is strong-minded and stubborn and, also like Lizzy, she must confront the painful realization that her firmly held opinions are not always correct. Nathan's breezy plot follows Austen's story line almost exactly, even going so far as to have many of her characters portray their Austen equivalents in the TV production. Her attempts to remain true to the original novel make for some implausible moments, as when Jazz's younger sister gets implicated in a tabloid scandal with Whitby. A few more creative departures from Austen, along the lines of Helen Fielding's tweaking of the same novel in Bridget Jones's Diary, would have saved Nathan's effort from its awkward contrivances. This Pride and Prejudice is a charming but clumsy update that will have readers rushing back to the original. (May)Forecast: Readers browsing the paperback table are more likely to pick up higher profile titles on the same theme, but this will be a pleasant extra for those who truly can't get enough of British single-girl hijinks.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

As the title suggests, this is a modern and witty retelling of Pride and Prejudice. Jasmin Field, a columnist for a woman's magazine, is invited to audition for a charity production of the Austen novel, which is to be directed by the Oscar-winning actor Harry Noble. Jasmin sees this as fodder for her column but is selected for the lead role of Lizzie Bennet instead, even though the haughty Noble calls her "the ugly sister" after her beautiful sister, George, an actual actress, also auditions. Soon the lives and interactions of the cast members begin to resemble the characters they portray. Everyone swoons over the famous Noble except for Jasmin, who considers him an aloof, unfeeling egotist, which is his cue for becoming besotted with her. All the elements of the original story are here, cleverly molded to fit modern characters and situations involving career women and the contemporary arena for scandals: the tabloids. Nathan succeeds admirably in paying homage to a classic with her delightful tale. Patty Engelmann
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 280 pages
• Publisher: William Morrow Paperbacks; First U. S. Edition edition (April 24, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0060184957
• ISBN-13: 978-0060184957
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5.3 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (71 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,104,128 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

20 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars I've you've never read the real Pride and Prejudice..., February 5, 2002

By 

Dianna Johnston "Compulsive Reader" (Joplin, MO) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Pride, Prejudice and Jasmin Field: A Novel (Paperback)

...then Pride, Prejudice and Jasmin Field will delight! I admit I have never read the original classic by Jane Austen (no wet noodles, please), so all the events written in PPJF were a complete surprise. Reading the reviews before me, it seems there were many who were looking for a good knock-off. Since I've never read the former, I have no idea how well the parallel is drawn; my review will only observe PPJF by itself.

It all starts with a play: an adaptation of Pride and Prejudice performed by a bunch of non-actors for a celebrity audience in order to earn money for breast cancer research. Jasmin (or Jazz if you're her friend), sister George and best pal, Mo, are all auditioning in front of the criticizing and directing eye of Academy Award winner, Harry Noble. Things get started on a rocky path, and as soon as rehearsals begin, Jazz can't imagine seeing the pretentious and callous Harry Noble any more than she has to.

There are many side stories in this novel involving many of the characters: the ins and out of co-star love, love with your enemy, tabloid scandals, the search for the truth behind an unpleasant personality, the reality of an ideal marriage, and self-realization. The novel weaves well together and is very readable and fun. The ending was a little too rushed and tidy for my taste, but I still had a great time reading this book.

As mentioned before, I've never read the original Pride and Prejudice, so I don't know how Nathan's contemporary version compares. As a stand-alone novel, I was very pleased with what I read and glad that I didn't recognize the characters from a previously told story. Lighthearted, simple, and great weekend entertainment, Pride, Prejudice and Jasmin Field is a exciting teaser of more things to come from Melissa Nathan.

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars pleasant update of the classic, January 1, 2002

By 

audrey (white mtns) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Pride, Prejudice and Jasmin Field: A Novel (Paperback)

Because Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice is one of my very favorite books, I was both excited and skeptical about Melissa Nathan's debut novel -- wanting it to be good, but not wanting to set my expectations too high.

I was pleased to find the style and the contemporary retelling worked well. The author has a quiet humor that works nicely, and the characters were interesting. The Darcy-update, actor Harry Noble, is a likeable and compelling lead; the female protagonist, Jasmin 'Jazz' Field is also nicely written. The book is not flawless. While Austen was always consistent in her POV -- we consistently saw and heard and thought the same things Elizabeth Bennett saw and heard and thought -- the text here is sometimes jarring in its change of perspective, even between paragraphs. The occasional cussing is also disconcerting. There are some clumsy, and unnecessary, contrivances to make the story mirror Austen's exactly.

Despite those problems, I enjoyed the book very much and was excited when the protagonists finally 'found' each other, just as I am each time I re-read the original.

Nathan is a gifted writer, and I will definitely read her next book.

16 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Run, don't walk, August 18, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: Pride, Prejudice and Jasmin Field: A Novel (Paperback)

If you are in any way a student of literature, or have any appreciation for the subtle art of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice, drop this book and run!

First of all, I confess I was prejudiced (no pun intended) right from the start because it drives me mad when authors give all their characters "cool" and "trendy" names. In real life, characters like these would not all be called Jazz and Mo. They just wouldn't. Note that Helen Fielding in "Bridget Jones' Diary" was fairly successful in spanning the variety of modern British names. This book, on the other hand, is the British equivalent of writing a novel about American professionals and naming them all Krystyl or Alixz.

And if only that were its only sin. This book tosses subtlety, character development, realism, and Jane Austen's novel right out the window. Characters seem to have been drawn by choosing the Austen character's most salient trait and blowing it up to billboard size, while failing to provide any redeeming qualities. The Jane Bennet character, sister of the heroine, is beautiful as was Jane in Austen's novel. Because she is beautiful, and because she must reenact Jane's misfortunes, she is also stupid and kind of loose.

But the worst by far is the main character, "Jazz," who is to Elizabeth Bennet what Justin Timberlake is to Yo-Yo Ma. Elizabeth in P&P is confident, slightly outspoken, an independent thinker, and not as good a judge of character as she thinks. Jasmin is loud, brassy, rude, sluttish (in the true sense of the word), and downright tacky. Ms. Nathan needs to learn that you do not create an Elizabeth Bennet character by describing a depth-free, loud woman who offends everyone - that's how you get a Caroline Bingley or a Lady Catherine.

Lest you think I hated this book because I'm an Austen purist, that is not the case. I love Clueless, I love the not-entirely-faithful Miramax Mansfield Park, and I laughed myself sick through Bridget Jones. If you enjoy reading books about Ab Fab-esque British singles who swear a lot and seem to hate anything that smacks of class or education, by all means read this book. But it is being touted as a "Pride and Prejudice" update, and it is not that. It's a shallow imitator. Avoid it.

To sum up: this book is only a delightfully fresh look at "Pride and Prejudice" if you thought P&P had too many big words and too much pesky character development, and not nearly enough references to Britney Spears.