After writing my review of Nice to Come Home To, I checked out the author’s blog and apparently, the novel was based on Jane Austen’s Sense and Sensibility. I feel a little silly for not realizing this in the first place, and it calls for a bit of re-evaluation.
Books that adapt Jane Austen or are inspired by her works constitute one of the primary subgenres that I read. Whenever I see something with Austen in the title or on the cover, I at least stop to take a closer look. And there have been so many of these books written recently. In no particular order, there’s The Jane Austen Book Club, Austenland, Jane Austen’s Guide to Dating, The Family Fortune, Confessions of a Jane Austen Addict, Dating Mr. Darcy, Vanity and Vexation, Pride, Prejudice & Jasmin Field, Lost in Austen, Jane Austen in Boca, Jane Austen in Scarsdale, and of course, Bridget Jones’s Diary–just to name a few and not including those books that attempt to write in Austen’s own style and serve as sequels.
From a marketing perspective, the lack of emphasis on the Austen connection makes no sense. The sheer volume of this type of book indicates at least a relative degree of success. And more anecdotally, I feel certain that there are other Austen-lovers who are just as drawn to these types of books. Yet the only mention of Austen on the book itself is a comment from another author in a blurb, referring to Flowers as “Jane Austen gone mod,” which doesn’t indicate that the book is actually adapted from or inspired by one of Austen’s novels. Hiding the connection like this prevents Flowers from drawing on an already-created base.
From an artistic standpoint, it makes a little more sense. Knowing that the novel is based on Sense and Sensibility creates certain expectations, and Jane Austen is an extremely high standard to set. Analysis becomes more about how well the book interprets Austen, instead of focusing on the book’s independent merits. And there are some inherent difficulties in the comparison; a character from Austen’s era wouldn’t undergo the same career difficulties that Pru faces in Nice to Come Home To.
I stand by my earlier review. In fact, drawing on Sense and Sensibility probably gave the novel some of its depth. Looking at the two books together, though, presents a different question. While Nice to Come Home To does a good job of characterizing Pru and Patsy as the Elinor and Marianne-types, it does not seem like the same sort of study in contrasts as Sense and Sensibility. I think the marketing is partially to blame for this. The jacket flaps are all about Pru, making it clear that this novel is about her self-discovery. And the beginning of the novel reinforces this perception; Patsy does not fully enter the narrative for several chapters. While there is an obvious comparison between the two sisters, Nice to Come Home To is truly Pru’s novel, unlike Sense and Sensibility, where there is a greater balance in order to better illuminate the primary theme.
Furthermore, Sense and Sensibility is a particularly difficult novel to update because its central conflicts come from an economic system of marriage that, for the most part, is no longer in place. Elinor and Marianne’s suitors face tremendous pressure from their families to make “suitable,” i.e. economically advantageous, matches. The men in Nice to Come Home To necessarily face much more internal conflicts, which alters the way we view their actions. For these reasons, while I continue to appreciate the novel in general, I don’t believe it adds much of value to the Austen canon.
