Vanity and Vexation: A Novel of Pride and Prejudice [Paperback]

Kate Fenton (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 16, 2005

A clever and cunning modern day retelling of the adored Jane Austen novel

"Tall, dark, and arrogantly handsome---not to mention distinguished, powerful, and rolling in money. Mr. Darcy? No, that's just the woman director of Pride and Prejudice," reports Nicholas Llewellyn Bevan, impoverished novelist and occasional (reluctant) journalist, when a TV production company trundles into his sleepy North Yorkshire valley. Amusedly he watches these glamorous invaders combine the filming of Jane Austen's romantic classic with the much less modest pursuit, off-camera, of real-life romances with the locals.

Under his very nose, his bashful handsome neighbor John is plucked out of a village dance by the famously gorgeous (and wealthy) leading actress, Candia Bingham, with whom he at once falls completely in love. Our would-be hero manages only to trip over the black-booted foot of the intimidating and imperious director, Mary Dance. So he's amazed---and a little bit alarmed---when her steely eye seems to be straying his way.

A witty and entertaining update on Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice, Austen fans old and new will adore Vanity and Vexation's modern take on her sublime blueprint of the romance game complete with sex, money, and power. With an assured and respectful hand, in the context of the contemporary world, Kate Fenton has penned a riveting story with a hilarious twist.

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

What happens when the BBC descends on the quiet North Yorkshire town of Maltstone to make a new version of Pride and Prejudice? For one thing, it upends the life of writer Nick Bevan, who's holed up in Maltstone to work on a novel. In this gender-bending retelling of Jane Austen's classic, Nick and his neighbor and best friend John stand in for Elizabeth Bennett and her sister, Jane, while the parts of Darcy and Mr. Bingley are taken by Mary Dance, the film's formidable director, and Candia Bingham, the leading lady. Both romances are beset with difficulties similar to the ones Austen devised. Is the romance between John and Candia a mere fling? Will Nick and Mary overcome their initial dislike and give in to mutual attraction? It's fun to look for parallels with the original, but though Fenton borrows freely from Austen's plot, she also adds her own twists. The result is brisk and entertaining, a good choice for readers looking for something clever, with an English accent. Mary Ellen Quinn
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Review

"When I read the concept for this one, I shuddered: It'll never work. Pride and Prejudice updated to the 21st century, with the roles reversed? The Mr. Darcy role taken by a woman, and Elizabeth by a man? English novelist Kate Fenton's witty Vanity and Vexation, however, not only works splendidly, but is consistently inventive and entertaining.... Fenton's adroit use of dialogue and her clever characterization place this one a cut above the usual Pride and Prejudice spinoffs." -The Seattle Times

"You don’t have to have read Pride and Prejudice—much less remember it—to enjoy the rewrite. It works beautifully in its own right. If you do know Austen’s novel, you get double the fun.... The tone is witty, the pace quick and the emotions true to the contemporary characters. Austen’s original has great bones, and so does Vanity and Vexation.” -The Washington Post

"The result is brisk and entertaining, a good choice for readers looking for something clever, with an English accent." -Booklist

"A must for any Jane Austen fan!" - Melissa Nathan, author of Pride, Prejudice and Jasmin Field : A Novel

"An amusing, gender-reversing, media savvy, but still very British update of P&P."
-Paula Marantz Cohen, author of Jane Austen in Boca

"A sparkling, frothy tale... There are neat inversions of Austen's plot, lively characters, intelligent writing and a fun love affair." - Elizabeth Buchan, bestselling author of Revenge of the Middle-Aged Woman

"Exciting, sexy, funny... This fresh optimistic tale is the perfect summer read... A witty and clever love story that will keep you gripped until the end - guaranteed to get even the most cynical of readers heaving a deep sigh of contentment." - Company [UK]

"Frothy, humorous and slick." - Daily Express [UK]

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 288 pages
• Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin (June 16, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312328028
• ISBN-13: 978-0312328023
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 6.3 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (16 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #902,093 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

23 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Bridget Jones's Diary Lovers! Enjoy this Inverted Version of Pride and Prejudice, January 16, 2005

By 

Meredith "Austenesque Reviews" (Wilmington , NC USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Vanity and Vexation: A Novel of Pride and Prejudice (Hardcover)

This was such a fun book to read. It is the story of "Pride and Prejudice" in our time period. So if you are looking for a book that carries on the Regency style period and Jane Austen's style of writing this is not it! I recommend this book to anyone who enjoyed watching or reading Bridget Jones's Diary. It is similar to BJD in the language mostly. One, the author uses profanity occasionally and Two, some words or phrases may be hard to understand if you are not British or in this case Welsh.

The author did a fantastic job of not only bringing Pride and Prejudice to the 21st Century but also inverting all the character's genders. Can you imagine the proud, arrogant Mr. Darcy as a woman? You will find character traits of Elizabeth Bennet in the mystery thriller novelist Nick Bevan and Mr. Darcy with film director Mary Hamilton. Also it is hilarious to spot others like Lady Catherine and Mrs. Bennet in the opposite gender roles.

This book will test your knowledge of "Pride and Prejudice" with its many parallels. You can compare what you know from "Pride and Prejudice" and discover that the author used it and reversed it in her story.

It was a wonderful read, I enjoyed the author's intelligent writing. I personally wish she did not include profanity but I wasn't turned off by the use of it. Nevertheless, it was a very funny, entertaining, and intelligent story of "Pride and Prejudice" in the 21st Century with the genders switched.

21 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars like Chinese take-out; good at first, but you're soon hungry, February 10, 2005

By 

Brenda Jo Mengeling (Davis, CA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Vanity and Vexation: A Novel of Pride and Prejudice (Hardcover)

Vanity and Vexation reads very quickly. I read it in a day while home with a cold. The dialog is glib and sometimes witty and things sail along pretty well, but there are some aspects that leave one feeling flat when all is said and done. I finished the book, with a "that's it?" feeling.

The transposition of the Pride and Prejudice plot and characters to 20th century Yorkshire worked for me. The Bennet contingent consists of the town locals, and the Darcy/Bingley group are the film company and cast who are in town to shoot the outdoor location shots for a television remake of P&P. Kate Fenton reverses the sexes of all the major characters. This worked for some but not for others. Mr. and Mrs. Bennet become the owners of the pub in the Yorkshire town. Bernard is behind the bar, not too swift, sometimes annoying, and lacking in tact. Sarah his wife runs the attached restaurant which serves gourmet, not pub, food. She is very sharp and isn't above making fun of her husband. I had no problem with them, nor with the Bingley sisters becoming the two lead actors in the film. Caroline Bingley's character becoming a narcissistic actor who thinks no one is as clever or attractive as he is, is quite good. Even Charles Bingley becoming Candia, the beautiful, flighty, but good tempered lead actress of the film was a successful switch.

The Darcy-Elizabeth reversals were a problem. Darcy becomes Mary, the film's director, and Elizabeth is Nick, a critically acclaimed, but not best-selling, novelist. Fenton tries to swing the Darcy pride onto Mary while keeping her likable enough to accept as the hero, and I didn't buy it. Mary is driven as a director for her art by her ambition, and that is why she treats people like dirt, but yet that's OK because it was for her art. Well, it wasn't OK; she was just a pain, and not even an interesting pain; nor does she ever see the light and mend her ways as Austen did to Darcy. Nick, could have been a genius in the newspaper biz, but he left for a more relaxed life as an author. He's funny and sharp-witted, but but basically just wants to drink with his mates and write enough to stay afloat. How Mary and Nick are ever supposed to be interested in each other as a couple I could never figure out. There's no chemistry, I mean zero chemistry, between them. And therein lay the fatal flaw of the book for me. Fenton's writing was fine, her minor characterizations were fun, and the Charles Bingley/Jane romance worked in Fenton's hands, but the Elizabeth/Darcy romance was a bust.

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Clever Twist, August 28, 2004

By 

Ellen Kay (CT) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Vanity and Vexation: A Novel of Pride and Prejudice (Hardcover)

"Vanity and Vexation" is not a sequel to "Pride and Prejudice" but rather a clever and entertaining retelling of some of the plot elements of that story with a very definite 21st century twist. Though clearly any reader who is familiar with Jane Austen's novel will get a kick out of figuring out how Kate Fenton has produced her own unique version, that should not deter others from reading it. It is a story that can be enjoyed on many different levels.