Randolph Reads

The World of Jane Austen Fan Fiction

In this month's Randolph Reads post, Environmental Studies Professor Karin Warren shares her love for the Jane Austen Fan Fiction, a gift that keeps on giving. Check it out:

Did you ever love a book or TV or Web series so much, you didn’t want to let it go when you turned the last page or watched the final episode? Did you imagine how the story might continue or what might have happened before, or the consequences if key story elements unfolded differently, or what it would be like if it were set in a different time or place, or even a different world? That’s the allure and delight of fan fiction.

In Spring 2017, I had a sabbatical. I worked on a book, mapped out some new projects, and went for long walks and Thought About Stuff. I wrote to the 45th U.S. president about an environmental policy matter every day for the first 100 days of his administration. And I also read a lot of Jane Austen Fan Fiction (JAFF). Erm...a rather large amount of JAFF.

Fan Fiction is a multiverse of endless possibilities for exploring worlds that inspire, excite, and comfort you. You can create these worlds yourself, or explore the worlds created by others. Much fan fiction is free and, depending on the fandom, in abundant supply. If you’re a writer, fan fiction allows you to be creative and play in someone else's world, and there are many sites that will publish your writing and allow you to get feedback on how good (or bad) the story is. Fan Fiction can also be a “safe” vehicle for less-experienced writers to explore and develop their craft. You can see writers progress through their stories and oftentimes have a dialogue with them about how it is proceeding.

There’s a wide variety of JAFF to be had. The majority relate to Pride and Prejudice, though there is fan fiction of all of Austen’s work. They range from light tweaks to almost unrecognizable versions. Here’s a sampling of what I’ve encountered:

• Lizzy falls off a horse gets amnesia and Darcy finds her wandering the countryside
• Lizzy and Darcy get trapped together in a hunting cabin during a snow storm
• Mr Bennett dies and Lizzy must marry Mr. Collins but then HE dies falling off a horse
• Mary marries Mr. Collins
• Mr. and Mrs. Bennett rekindle their romance with a trip to Brighton and then have a late-in-life son who saves the estate from the entail
• Lydia becomes a famous London Madame and supports her sisters after Mr. Bennett’s death
• The Bennett sisters open a tea room in Meryton after their father’s death Darcy is kidnapped by pirates
• Darcy discovers he has a long-lost brother who ALSO falls in love with Lizzy
• Lizzy is kidnapped by highwaymen and makes a daring escape
• Darcy marries his cousin Anne, she dies giving birth, and then he marries Lizzy
• Lizzy marries a Scottish innkeeper who later dies and she runs the inn on her own like a BOSS
• Lizzy marries Fitzwilliam who becomes Earl of Matlock when his older brother dies but Darcy is in love with her and there is Tension
• Lizzy and Jane help Lydia murder Wickham and hide the body when he turns out to be an abusive husband

Then there are the stories that pick up where the original novel ends. Too many to go into here, though P.D. James “Death comes to Pemberley” is perhaps the best known as it was recently made into a PBS film.

And then...there are the “steamy” NSFW versions. Use your imagination...

And those are just the versions set in Jane Austen’s time. Modern versions abound. They include Darcy as an international spy, billionaire tycoon/playboy, ranch owner/cowboy, Ivy League college trust fund brat, aggressive venture capitalist, renowned neurosurgeon, and celebrity chef, to name just a few. And of course, Darcy as an international human rights lawyer in “Bridget Jones Diary”. Some modern versions switch Darcy and Lizzy’s roles, take place somewhere that is Not England, and much more.

Here are a few JAFF books I’ve enjoyed recently:

• Plausible, engaging, and well-written: Unequal Affections: A Pride and Prejudice Retelling, by Lara S. Ormiston.
• Lively mash-up: Maria Grace’s Jane Austen’s Dragons series (five novels so far). This is a fusion of Anne McCaffrey’s Dragon Riders of Pern world and Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice. Relaxing and entertaining, and DRAGONS.
• Thought-provoking: The Jane Austen Project, by Kathleen Flynn. A JAFF that is both futuristic and period. Two researchers go back in time to save Jane Austen. It asks, If Jane Austen had lived longer and written more, would her legacy and influence be somehow diminished?
• Next on my JAFF to-read list: Pride, by Ibi Zoboi, set in modern-day Brooklyn.

And if I were to write my own JA fan fiction? “Persuasion” would be my playground. In my version, after she is persuaded not to marry Captain Wentworth, Anne Elliott meets an avuncular natural scientist. Impressed by her intelligence and physical fortitude, he recruits her to become a 19th century Lady Naturalist, assisting with fossil observations on the Jurassic Coast near Lyme. Years later, Wentworth reconnects with her there. They end up traveling the world together on a ship purchased with his naval bounty money, doing early observational work that helps form the basis of the theory of evolution developed a few decades later.

Some fan fiction writers write well. Some do not. Some have good editors. Some do not. Some improve over time with feedback from peers on writing web sites, and this is lovely to watch and be part of. What they all share is a love of the original work, and a desire to express their admiration by creating a work of their own. And that is a laudable goal no matter the results.

You can read JAFF for free and contribute your own at this and many other sites: The Derbyshire Writers Guild: https://www.dwiggie.com/