Confessions of a Jane Austen Addict

Confessions of a Jane Austen Addict
By Laurie Viera Rigler
Dutton, 2007. 293 pgs. Fiction

Courtney Stone, a modern Los Angeles girl nursing a heartbreak, is transported through time into Regency England, waking up to find herself inhabiting the body and life of Jane Mansfield. Courtney is forced to pretend she is Jane and must learn to adapt to life in the nineteenth century. Although she is a fan of everything Austen, she is not prepared for chamber pots, public baths, bonnets, chaperons and different rules that apply to women of this time period.

While it was fun to experience the sights and sounds of the Regency Era through this novel, there were some definite problems. I think the most frustrating thing was that Courtney is a "Jane Austen addict" but she seems to understand very little about the period. She acts shocked and confused about things that surely an Austen fan would know - not being able to wear makeup or roam town unescorted, even the rules of courtship - romance being central to Austen's novels - are lost on Courtney. Her indignant tirades about feminism seemed remarkably naive for an Austen fan, and she continued to make reference to things that no one of that era would have understood, like when she asks a woman if Hargrove Court was a retirement center. The ending also left off with several inexplicable elements and loose ends. I love Austen and I'm a fan of time travel, but this book didn't really appeal to me on either level.

BHG