Enthusiasm

Enthusiasm: Polly Schulman: Putnum: 2006: Young Adult: 198 pages

Julie and Ashleigh live next door to each other and have been best friends since they were small. Though as Julie explains, “there is little more likely to exasperate a person of sense than finding herself tied by affection and habit to an Enthusiast.” Julie never knows what craze Ashleigh will fancy next or how long she will remain obsessed. Julie is much more sensible and is really only enthusiastic about one thing, Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice. That is until Ashleigh picks up Julie’s copy and becomes very enthusiastic herself. Julie is worried that Ashleigh’s enthusiasm might overshadowed her own, and her fears are well-founded when Ashleigh starts to wear full-length skirts to cover her lower limbs and speak in the dialect of the 18th century. Things definitely turn from bad to worse when Ashleigh schemes to crash the local private boys school’s annual cotillion in search of suitable Mr. Darcys for the two of them.

I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book. There were many references to Jane Austen’s novels as well as Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet. This book contains many of the things I love about Pride and Prejudice such as the commentary on social customs and the fun storyline of seeing the good-hearted underdog win her true love. I enjoyed seeing what Austen’s stories might have been like if she were writing in our current day.

AJ