Rose Martin wrote to send us a review of Miss Lucy Steele by Ruth Berger, about which we posted previously.

“Miss Lucy Steele”, the new German S&S retelling by Ruth Berger, is an extremely well written, altogether delightful book. It is very like Austen’s own writings in its lovely irony, but different and more modern in scope and outlook. S&S has never been my favourite Austen novel, mostly because Edward is, well, not really the kind of man you’d fall in love with, is he? And Elinor herself, in her moral perfection and unfailing self-control, is certainly a less lovable character than other Austen heroines. Her morality is at times one-sided and self-serving. She judges Lucy harshly for wanting to marry Edward, a man richer than herself, but isn’t she guilty of the same sin?

Ruth Berger cleverly exploits these weaknesses of the S&S characters when she rewrites the story from Lucy’s perspective. She starts years before the onset of the story in S&S to give a very plausible family background to Lucy and her silly sister Anne, and also fills in the details about Lucy’s long-standing engagement to Edward that is only mentioned in passing in S&S. But she focuses on Edward almost as much as on Lucy. S&S never leaves Elinor’s perspective, and what we are told about Edward are largely Elinor’s conjectures. She thinks he loves her and not Lucy. Lucy (in Berger’s novel) thinks Edward loves her and not Elinor. Edward himself, Berger tells us, rather likes them both and doesn’t really care whom he marries in the end. It could even be the lord’s daughter chosen for him by his mother. But his most fervent wish is to be finally left alone by all those pestering women who pressure him, so that the poor boy finds himself in the most humiliating predicaments all the time!

The book is a joyful read for everyone, not only for those who know S&S. Hopefully, there will be an English translation soon, although I am afraid the truly lovely style will suffer somewhat from translation.

Thank you for pointing me to the book.

Rose

You’re welcome, Rose. We are glad that you enjoyed the book. However, we are exceedingly fond of Elinor Dashwood and find it hard to believe that Jane Austen meant for us to consider Lucy Steele at all sympathetic–though she is a brilliantly-drawn character, certainly. Nor does Elinor, in our opinion, judge Lucy because she wants to marry a richer man; Lucy wants to marry him BECAUSE he is rich, not because she loves him. If she loved Edward, would she have thrown him over so easily for Mr. Robert Ferrars? Well, we suppose we would have to read the book to discover Ms. Berger’s argument on that score, hmm? Thanks for sending in your review, Rose.