Customer Reviews

Pride and Promiscuity : The Lost Sex Scenes of Jane Austen [Parody]

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(9)
1 star:		(17)

 

 

I find myself in a state of disbelief that a group of Jane Austen readers, such as those that have preceded me in reviewing, could not get a laugh out of this work. I am not your average Jane Austen fan, for I am both male and 21, but I have noticed the custom that other Jane Austen lovers are some of the brightest and creative people per capita. I find her work delightfully humorous and, though not quite to same standard, I found Pride and Promiscuity rather enjoyable in its absurdity.

There were obvious modernities throughout, but I found these to be part of the book's charm. I believe it goes with the territory of this parody; otherwise "Austen" would have been extraordinarily prophetic to write such an exact list of contemporary taboos. I never expect anyone to effectively simulate Austen's ideas or writing, but this was an agreeable farce. I found myself chuckling enough to compensate for those before me, "offended and disgusted." I dare not refer to it as a literary masterpiece, nor the self-proclaimed "discovery of the century," but, as a work of inexorable ludicrousness, I found it well worth my time.

Very disappointing. My daughter and I are Austen fanatics, and the idea of x-rated parodies of Jane was too delightful to pass up. Sadly, they are trite and predictable, and not funny for the most part. In a fit of madness, I bought each of us a copy of this tripe, and that was two too many. The idea had great promise, and it was a very clever idea, but the execution was poor. Try and find this on sale or at a garage sale. It's not worth the full price.

I've been reading the other reviews -- what a hoot! It's either 1Star or 5Stars, depending on whether the reader expected some new arcane insight or was reading with a functioning funny bone. The book is a parody -- Jane Austen herself wrote parodies, so she probably would love this book. It's making fun of the restrictive moral conventions that made it so difficult for a woman such as Jane to be published. It actually shows a lot of respect for her writing. It's clear that the authors did a lot of research on the kinds of words and punctuation she used, plus they seem so familiar with her characters. I think it's amazing that Jane Austen created characters that seem so alive that people are able to imagine them in new situations. Other Austen fans will enjoy reading these scenes, and even people who haven't read her books will laugh when they read these sex scenes described with such proper, old-fashioned style. It's a hilarious mix! So, loosen your corset and bust a chuckle!

It's a fun premise, but it's a pretty light development. Most of the scenes are only mildly funny, and once the delightful thrill of being bad wears off, they become almost boring. On the other hand, the Darcy/Elizabeth scene is utterly hilarious. The prose is solid, but hardly Austenian. Since the entire book takes at most an hour or two to read, it's really not worth the cover price, unless you intend to pass it around to your friends.

I was in a quaint, northern Yorkshire bookstore when this work caught my eye. As I will typically buy anything even remotely related to Jane Austen, as the cover was very much in the style of an early 19th century publication, and as I do enjoy innuendo when done well, I bought it. I began reading it that very night, but was soon disappointed.
First, the circumstances are too bold; Mere insinuation would have better complemented Austen's own writings. Instead, even I was shocked and horrified at many of the downright disgusting scenarios. They ultimately detract from what could have been a very charming and humorous read.
Second, the writing, though superficially in the Jane Austen style, was not remarkable. I know of several people who can achieve the same effect of style with little difficulty (and in fact, I have read several more amusing Austen "sex scenes," written by amateur Austen devotees).
There are a few clever turns, but in considering both the bold scenarios and the mediocre writing, the book, in my opinion, can at most be deemed only mildly amusing.

My friends and I spent last weekend hooting over this book. Yes, it's absolutely irreverent. No, it's not terribly plausible. Certainly, not all the stories are particularly funny......BUT......just read, I ask you, the chapter about Mr. and Mrs. Collins. See if you can read it without laughing aloud.

Ironically, it's far better-written than most of the sequels to Austen's works. Naughty as it may be, it's also dead on with respect to characterization and situation - something most sequel authors seem to dismiss as unimportant. My only complaint with the book is my suspicion that it has been heavily padded; in other words, the authors had two or three really funny ideas, but the other chapters are more vulgar and forced than amusing.

Give it a try, though. If you're not repulsed by naughtiness (it's not porn - just sort of sweetly absurd)and you're not such a purist as to be horrified at the conceit, you might like it.

A bit of clarity for the previous reviewers of this book -- It's a parody! Lighten up and laugh a little.

Austen would have loved this witty and bawdy romp through her own novels. For those of you who read any of Austen's novels and wished the characters would just get over it (and get it on!), here's your very own release.

As a true devotee of Jane Austen and a Cosmo subscriber, I couldn't help but be intrigued by the premise. While Austen's simmering-beneath-the-surface scintillating dialogue just begs to be sexed up for modern readers, this book doesn't quite do the trick. The less-than-perfect ear for Austen's language weighs it down. An ongoing gag about the exact placement of the scenes within the novels (the authors pretend that the sex scenes have been expunged and hidden until now) is more clumsy than fun, because the authors take excruciating care to make the insertions precise. I think a flight of fancy would have been more fun, a free exposition on the themes, language and characters of the novels, rather than this elaborate and somewhat belabored gag. Overall, the authors' concerns with making the silliness of the premise believable outweigh their time spent on making sparks fly; the juiciness of the sex scenes isn't what it could be. It's worth one read-through, but buy it used and let it sit in your living room as a conversation piece. "The Friendly Jane Austen" by Natalie Tyler is a better buy.

This book's inventive claim is that the scenes it contains were cut from Austen novels by censors. Actually, they were cut by good editors--it's hard to sound like Jane Austen and this author misses by a mile, so the little essays just sound precious. Sorry, but its leaden prose, and surprisingly passionless given its subject. Unlike a few other reviewers, I had no objection to the idea of eroticizing the classics, but this book doesn't, in many ways, pull it off.

Oh, so disappointing! I very much looked forward to this sexy parody of the beloved Jane Austen; such a shame it just doesn't work. While the style is often quite close, there are just too, too many jarring modernisms that destroy the necessary suspension of disbelief. And... while there are some quite funny bits, there are more that aren't. It needed a good edit - but that would very likely have left the authors without a book. I should think Jane Austen would have approved of and enjoyed the idea, as one who certainly had a sense of humour, but as a perfectionist in writing I doubt she'd have approved of the execution.