Rachel Katzman, the protagonist
of Kathleen A. Flynn’s debut novel, The
Jane Austen Project, is offered a chance to do what many fans of the author
of Sense and Sensbility and Emma must have longed for — to go back
in time to meet the novelist herself, and, hopefully, unearth a long lost
manuscript.
On reading the premise, I was
expecting a riotous Austen/sci-fi mash up — Pride
and Prejudice with time lords rather than zombies. What I got instead was —
and it almost feels strange to write this — one of the most realistic
depictions of time travel I’ve ever come across.
By this I don’t mean that Flynn
has a well-developed theory about how to warp the space/time continuum — the
mechanics of the operation remain unclear — but that she has devoted
considerable effort to imagining what the experience of suddenly finding
yourself in 1815 might be like, describing the sounds, tastes and smells, and
allowing us to really feel it, rather
than just marvel at the pretty costumes.
The impressiveness of this
imaginative leap is added to by the fact that Rachel herself isn’t an early
twenty-first century tourist. Her world is alien to us too. It’s one where Jane
Austen’s cottage is the site of a sprawling theme park, Austenland, and where
the Old British rule the world through a second, even more domineering empire.
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| Kathleen A. Flynn |
Rachel approaches 1815 as she
would any other exotic locale (she’s a medical doctor who’s travelled extensively)
but the challenges here are different to any she’s experienced before. She and
her colleague, Liam Finucane, struggle with how to rent suitable accommodation,
secure an introduction to Henry Austen and his set, hire and manage servants.
Any aberration from normal social protocol and etiquette could be the
difference between their mission’s success and failure, adding an almost
thriller-like layer to the usual web of Austenian misunderstanding and
misalliance.
Rachel is also a mouthpiece for
Flynn to explore why so many of us love Austen — for her keen understanding of
humanity rather than a hackneyed ‘marriage plot’. It’s a joy to have a heroine
who can love the period without subscribing to its values. Rachel is more
comfortable with casual sex than her male colleague, Liam. She’s come armed
(literally) with contraceptives so as not to deal with one particular aspect of
early nineteenth-century hygiene. She’s the doctor on this mission even if Liam
is posing as one.
What I liked best about the novel
was the small canvas on which the story was depicted. The number of locations
is limited — an echo of what Jane Austen’s life was like — and Flynn manages to
introduce high drama with only limited corset ripping and surprisingly few
deviations from behaviour one could imagine as contemporary.
I had two slight criticisms.
First the ending suffers from the usual paradoxes of time travel and, second,
the romance plot wasn’t as compelling and did feel a little predictable (perhaps
mirroring where the writer’s interests really lie?). There were only so many times I wanted to
hear about Liam smelling like bay leaves and a taciturn Darcy-esque character
is a little unbelievable when he’s just been blasted back centuries.
But, overall, The Jane Austen Project was a pleasant
surprise — quirky and highly researched while being eminently readable. A quick
shout out to mentions of the disastrous Bronte Projects too — these were very
entertaining!
Do you know of any 21st-century
novels about the 19th-century you think the Secret Victorianist
should read next? Let me know — here, on Facebook or by tweeting
@SVictorianist.
