FOREWORD THIS WEEK
07.09.08
1. HAPPILY EVER AFTER?
Sequels to classic novels explore unanswered questions.
2. FAST FOREWORD
News, awards and announcements from our wire.
3. FOREWORD FOOTNOTES
Titles of note from our review stacks.
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1. HAPPILY EVER AFTER?
Of writers of classic literature, few are more beloved than Jane Austen and Charlotte Bronte. Their witty, mysterious, proud, and strange characters stay with readers like old friends. Indeed, these two authors have such a devoted following that a whole genre exists of sequels and retellings of their novels. This fall, three new sequels will be available to lovers of period fiction.
Because Austen presents such a narrow view in her novels—she usually focuses the point of view on only one character from a cast of dozens—the possibilities for sequels to her novels are endless. What is life like for Sense and Sensibility’s Eliza, Colonel Brandon’s ward? What kind of adventures does Pride and Prejudice’s Lydia have in Brighton? What happens to the characters after the stories end? These are the questions that a variety of authors seek to answer with the fifteen sequels published by Sourcebooks’ Landmark imprint.
Lydia Bennet’s Story (978-1-4022-1475-8) follows the youngest sister of Elizabeth Bennet, the heroine of Pride and Prejudice. Her infamous elopement with Mr. Wickham was the scandal which eventually brought Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy together. Here, author Jane Odiwe presents her version of what could have happened during Lydia’s vacation in Brighton to bring about their elopement, and a look at their life together after the wedding.
Odiwe’s Lydia is as wild and reckless as readers of Austen’s novel could imagine. It is satisfying to see a plausible description of their relationship and lifestyle during their marriage, and the few glimpses readers are offered of Elizabeth, Darcy, and other original characters is faithful to the original. Lydia’s story is told in narrative, and through letters and diary entries.
Part One tells the story that readers have already heard. Part Two is more inventive: Lydia’s wild actions were probably hard to imagine for Austen, who traveled little, and probably always in the company of respectable family and friends. Odiwe’s story takes Lydia sea-bathing where she watches half-clad men ride horses in the surf, and to parties where she has to fend off the advances of an over-eager army captain. Her new acquaintances are interesting and well developed, and Wickham is just as scandalous as ever. The ending will be a complete surprise.
Mansfield Park is one of Austen’s least-loved works. Its heroine, Fanny, was called “insipid” and “unbearable” by the author’s own relatives. And its “hero,” Edmund, is criticized as being “cold and formal.” Luckily, neither of these two are much present in Joan Aiken’s sequel Mansfield Park Revisited (978-1-4022-1289-5).
While Fanny and Edmund are in the West Indies straightening out Edmund’s late father’s business affairs, Mary Crawford and her brother Henry return to Mansfield Park and become acquainted with Fanny’s sister Susan who lives there now. Since Mary had been on the verge of marrying Edmund when her brother ran off with Edmund’s married sister, Susan and the rest of the Bertram family don’t quite know how to handle the situation.
Soon history begins to repeat itself. Young Susan finds herself drawn to her cousin Tom, while Henry Crawford is falling in love with her. Aiken’s characters are likeable and stay true to their origins.
Austen’s critic, Charlotte Bronte (who once wrote, “What sees keenly, speaks aptly, moves flexibly, it suits her to study: but what throbs fast and full, though hidden, what the blood rushes through, what is the unseen seat of life and the sentient target of death--this Miss Austen ignores.”) penned another of the best-loved books in history. And its sequel, The Wide Sargasso Sea, written 119 years later, proved that literary sequels can be successful.
Jane Eyre’s Daughter (978-1-4022-1237-6) tells the story of Janet Rochester, daughter of Jane Eyre and Edward Rochester. The story is as gloomy and full of mystery as Bronte’s own tale. Elizabeth Newark’s Janet is never much loved by her mother, who sees her as a rival for her husband’s affection. She looks like a young Jane Eyre, and Jane herself prefers Janet’s brother Oliver, who has the same dark, brooding looks as his father. Janet feels overshadowed by her mother and her parents’ love and her story doesn’t begin, she says, until she is sent to boarding school while her parents and her brother travel to Jamaica.
Provisions are made in case of Jane and Edward’s disappearance or death, and on her eighteenth birthday, having seen nothing of her parents for more than two years, Janet is sent to live with Colonel Dent, their neighbor in Yorkshire. There she meets the temporary tenants of Thornfield Hall; Roderick Landless, who looks very similar to her father; a new friend, Laura; and a host of other characters. Readers, especially those devoted to Mr. Rochester, will enjoy this story of shipwrecks, intrigue, and of course, love.
by Whitney Hallberg, Managing Editor
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ISBN 9780977888405
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Cry of Justice
This handsomely bound and dust-jacketed hardback fantasy novel recently won the CSPA retailer vote for Best Novel of 2007! Ships from Central US warehousing with professional invoicing. Order from Atlas Books Distribution at 419/281-1802 (6883 fax), or via e-mail: order@bookmasters.com
Web page: Cry of Justice at Bookmasters.com
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2. FAST FOREWORD
Readers Embracing Translated Fiction
In a blog on the Web site of the UK’s Guardian, Stuart Evans discusses how the English-speaking world’s newfound respect for translated works has benefited Japanese writers like Haruki Murakami and Hitomi Kanehara. The winners in the Translation category of ForeWord’s Book of the Year Awards include:
- Good Night, My Darling by Inger Frimansson (Caravel, 978-1-929355-37-2)
- Anima Mundi by Susanna Tamaro (Autumn Hill Books, 978-0-9754444-4-3)
- El Zarco, The Blue-eyed Bandit by Ignacio Manuel Altamirano (Helen Lane Editions, 978-0-930829-61-2)
ALA Explores Library Gaming
Video gaming Web site Gamespot.com looks at the $1 million grant given to the American Library Association by the Verizon Foundation. According to the article, the ALA plans to use the grant “to build a model for library gaming that will help improve literacy and learning skills.”
A dozen gaming experts from public libraries will help the ALA build an “online literacy and gaming resource.”
Gamespot.com
The Bookstore as Ecosystem
At PopMatters.com, in a series about used bookstores, Ian Mathers writes about what makes these shops so special in “The Delicate Ecology of the Used Bookstore.”
“They’re like little groves with fragile ecosystems, assembled and nurtured by dedicated souls to give the rest of us places to spend a little quiet time,” Mathers writes. “No used bookstores I’ve ever been to have been raucous, and I wouldn’t want them to be.”
PopMatters
From staff reports. Share your news and information with Whitney Hallberg, Managing Editor.
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This week at Publishing Insider, Kassia Krozser suggests that publishers can learn an important lesson from the gaming industry.
At Shelf Space, Jim McCluskey says that if you want to learn, you've got to say the Magic Words.
At Editor’s Notes, Editor in Chief Heather Shaw orders a book through Amazon's CreateSpace and is not impressed.
At Publishing Matters, Michael Cairns talks about small publishers and ForeWord Magazine.
Visit www.forewordmagazine.com for publishing news, book reviews, and the ForeWord Book Club.
3. FOREWORD FOOTNOTES
Body, Mind & Spirit. GOD IS NOT DEAD: WHAT QUANTUM PHYSICS TELLS US ABOUT OUR ORIGINS AND HOW WE SHOULD LIVE by Amit Goswami (Hampton Roads, 309 pages, hardcover, $28.95, 978-1-57174-563-7): professor emeritus of the University of Oregon Institute for Theoretical Physics and author of Quantum Doctor considers the benefits of leading a balanced life that combines both the quantum and the material worlds; includes topics such as the universality of love, the existence of souls, and the power of dreams, e.g., Samuel Taylor Coleridge graphically described the dream journey through symbols that helped him compose “Kubla Khan.”
Business & Economics. THE BUSINESS START-UP TOOLKIT by Daniel Sitarz (Nova Publishing, 1 CD, 100+ business forms, 383 pages, softcover, $39.95, 978-1-892949-43-1): attorney and author of Small Business Accounting Simplified presents business, accounting, marketing, and legal information as part of the publisher’s new Legal Toolkit series; references include advantages of a limited liability company, the addition of a new partner to a partnership, and payroll depository records for tracking tax liability.
Business & Economics. VACATION HOME FRACTIONAL CONVERSION: A COMPLETE GUIDE FOR HOME SELLERS, BUILDERS AND REAL ESTATE PROFESSIONALS by Daniel G. Morton (Fractional Retreats, 8 x 11, tables, 252 pages, softcover, $44.95, 978-0-9816427-0-3): real estate professional presents the advantages of shared vacation home ownership, which allows one to align cost with actual use and still gain the benefits of appreciation; topics include the nature of fractionals, rotating priority system, and risks for fractional owners, e.g., when an owner doesn’t pay his expenses or when there is damage to the property by another owner.
Health & Fitness. LIVING LONG AND LOVING IT: ACHIEVING A HEALTHY AND ACTIVE LIFESTYLE by Irvin M. Korr and Rene J. McGovern (Prometheus Books, b/w photographs, 314 pages, softcover, $18.95, 978-1-59102-572-6): osteopathic physician and geriatric psychologist present a holistic approach to healthy living based on principles of osteopathic medicine; chapters include “The Mythology of Health and Disease,” “Old Machinery in New Contexts,” and “Freedom of Motion,” where the authors comment about body attitudes: “our postures and the ways in which we move, communicate much about us and our mental attitudes.”
Health & Fitness. STOP AGING START TRAINING: LOOK AND FEEL TWENTY YEARS YOUNGER by Salvatore Fichera (Basic Health Publications, b/w photographs, 247 pages, softcover, $18.95, 978-1-59120-218-9): exercise psychologist and Healthwise columnist writes about fitness, health, and mind/body synergy; includes the three most important components of exercising--variety, technique, and intensity, which, when increased, the body is rewarded by “upward spiraling positive regeneration.”
History. ALEXANDER THE GREAT AT WAR: HIS ARMY, HIS BATTLES, HIS ENEMIES by Ruth Sheppard (Osprey Publishing, 7 x 10, color throughout, maps, 256 pages, hardcover, $24.95, 978-1-84603-328-5): Oxford history scholar presents one of history’s most famous generals (356-323 BC) who became master of most of the known world; chapters include “Greece and Persia in the 5th century,” “Alexander’s Army,” which notes trumpet signals for the relay of orders, and “Phoenicia and Egypt,” with pictures such as Alexander as pharaoh at the Ammon Temple in Luxor.
Literary Collections. A PLACE CALLED MAINE: 24 AUTHORS ON THE MAINE EXPERIENCE edited by Wesley McNair (Down East, 318 pages, hardcover, $25.00, 978-0-89272-760-5): professor emeritus and writer in residence at the University of Maine presents stories about the state and the writing experience; essays include novelist Ann Beattie’s “Not Winter,” environmentalist Rachel Carson’s excerpt from “The Sense of Wonder,” and Pulitzer prize winner Richard Russo’s “Autumn,” which is “…the season of paradox. When the leaves turn, when the physical world is at its most heart- breakingly beautiful, what we are witnessing, purely and simply, is death.”
Pets. ANIMAL SUBJECTS: AN ETHICAL READER IN A POSTHUMAN WORLD edited by Jodey Castricano (Wilfrid Laurier University Press, 425 pages, softcover, $38.95, 978-0-88920-512-3): associate professor of Creative and Critical Studies at the University of British Columbia presents thirteen essays concerning animal welfare, ranging from animal suffering in factory farming to circuses; essays include “Electric Sheep and the New Argument from Nature” by Angus Taylor, “Monsters: The Case of Marineland” by John Sorenson, and Barbara K. Seeber’s “‘I sympathize in their pains and pleasures’: Women and Animals in Mary Wollstonecraft,” where sympathy for the suffering animals and their connection to domestic tyranny is a recurring pattern in Wollstonecraft’s writing.
Political Science. IRAQ AND THE EVOLUTION OF AMERICAN STRATEGY by Steven Metz (Potomac Books, 288 pages, hardcover, $29.95, 978-1-59797-196-6): research professor of national security affairs at the U.S. Army War College Strategic Studies Institute examines American strategy in Iraq as a single, time-series case study to explore and demonstrate points about American security strategy; some of the discussions concern the Carter Doctrine, Desert Storm, and clever rhetorical devices for making the WMD case, e.g., “one technique was to conflate the types of WMD.”
Sports & Recreation. GOLF ARCHITECTURE: A WORLDWIDE PERSPECTIVE, Volume Four edited by Paul Daley (Pelican Publishing, 10 x 8, maps, hardcover, $49.95, 978-1-58980-616-0): author of Links Golf: The Inside Story and Favourite Holes by Design: The Architect’s Choice has completed the fourth in a series about golf courses and collected essays; course portraits include “Pine Needles” of North Carolina by John Fought, “Fishers Island” off the Connecticut coast by Ed Getka, and Phil Ryan’s “Ode to the Mountain, Golf in Stone and Sand,” about Ireland’s Ballybunion Golf Club where the wind from the Atlantic rattles the parka and can send the ball into massive sand dunes on the sixteenth hole.
by Alex Moore, Book Review Editor