SHAKESPEARE NEEDS YOUR HELP

Seriously, Shakespeare needs your help. The church where he and his wife Anne are buried has fallen into extreme disrepair. Holy Trinity Anglican has set up Friends of Shakespeare's Church and is asking theater and history lovers to "adopt a gargoyle, sponsor a spire." There is a link specifically set up for donations in US $. (There doesn't appear to be anything specifically set up for Cdn $ - profoundly stupid, considering how much help Stratford, Ont., alone could give - but paypal should be able to do automatic conversions.)


And on a completely different topic: Cameron Dokey & Suzanne Weyn?
Has anyone read Cameron Dokey or Suzanne Weyn? Apparently they're doing YA retellings of fairy tales, and I'm a sucker for a good recast fairy tale. Amazon ratings are high, but I've always considered those relatively meaningless. Any opinions out there?

Quickie Book Review

I'm reading the Pamela Aidan trilogy that is supposed to be Mr. Darcy's side of Pride and Prejudice. The first book, An Assembly Such as This, was fun and well done.

However, I'm bogging badly in Duty and Desire, the second in the series. Aidan has made three very poor choices, in my mind, by deviating not from what Austen *said,* but from how she *wrote.*

Austen avoided politics and high society. In doing so, she kept the books from dating and allowed the readers to focus on the fate of her characters and not be distracted by their own opinions on the Napolean War, Caroline Lamb, etc. Aidan has had Darcy attend a ball where he was shocked by waltzing, got into a political argument, and then was shocked to the core by Caro Lamb, and gone on for a couple of pages about what he'd do if she was his wife.

Austen avoided religion. It was probably because there was nothing for her to say at the time, there being few controversies and not a lot of different denominational options, but I've always considered it one of the strengths of her female characters that they take it upon themselves to fix their own problems, not try to pray them away.

Aidan made Darcy devout, which is fine, but the way she's having everyone in suddenly start talking like they've had an evangelical conversion, it's really making my atheist spine cringe. I can't reconcile the painfully shy Georgiana from the original book with this bouncy one who feels delivered by Divine Providence from Wickham. It is unnecessary, out of character, and jarring, and every time I think it's over, I get clubbed with Aidan's devotions again. Barely a page after the bit about Georgiana, we hit the line about the servants blessing their Christmas bonus "in thanks to their Maker for destining them for Pemberley." I'm finding this really nauseating, particularly in light of how many of Austen's books are about finding happiness and security by *breaking* "destiny."

And finally, Austen didn't get coy. Aside from the comment in Northanger Abbey about how fictional heroines should support each other, she never broke into her narrative with literary opinion or advertised her other work. Aidan has a gratuitous bit about someone getting Sense and Sensibility as a Christmas present.

Because I enjoyed the first book, and because I'm curious about how Aidan's going to handle Lady Catherine, I'm going to plow on. But I think I'm going to have to skip to the end of the chapter, because Aidan keeps throwing me unpleasantly out of the world she's trying to depict.

ETA: And now we have the pagan sacrifice. Um, no. WTF were the Republic of Pemberly people reading, because it CAN'T have been this book!