Abstract
In an anthology celebrating Jane Austen’s ongoing and increasing impact on the global reading community, why write about British novelist Rosamunde Pilcher? Their similarities are numerous and almost mystical. In her novels, Jane Austen captures the strange powers and attractions of domesticity while also lamenting its confinements. The limited, small worlds Austen creates increasingly draw new and younger readers into the fold of Austenites by way of abundant retellings, reconstructions, and novel adaptations such as Bridget Jones’ Diary (1995), I Capture the Castle (1948), Brooklyn (2009), The Cookbook Collector (2010), and some imagined continuations such as Mr. Darcy Takes a Wife (2004), which pick up the story where Austen leaves it. Hence, it is with the world of Rosamunde Pilcher, who has been described by Cosmopolitan as “a Jane Austen for our time.”
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© 2013 Robert G. Dryden and Laurence Raw
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Cornett, S. (2013). Jane Austen for Our Time. In: Raw, L., Dryden, R.G. (eds) Global Jane Austen. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137270764_5
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137270764_5
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, New York
Print ISBN: 978-1-349-44180-8
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