Vanity and Vexation (review)

Yesterday, while pouting about houses at Barnes and Noble, I picked up an adaptation of Pride and Prejudice from the Bargain bin. It's by Kate Fenton, and I found it highly amusing. Vanity and Vexation is still set in England, primarily Yorkshire, but it reverses the gender roles: "Lizzy" is an unknown male writer, and "Darcy" is a successful movie producer. "Jane" is Lizzy's brother-in-law. Mr. Bennet is the pub's landlady, and Mr. Bennet is her husband. Lydia becomes Lizzy's son, seduced to Thailand by someone Lizzy (Nick Bevan) almost slept with. The book is a self-conscious adaptation, especially since what brings "Darcy" and "Bingley" to Yorkshire is that they're making a 4-part TV adaptation of Austen's novel. The first episode of the book turns out to be Bevan's novelization of what's happening to him; the final three episodes use the "correct" names. (I'm using many quote marks here.) I found the book was engaging and I didn't want to put it down. The third and fourth episodes were tense. The book had some downsides, mostly from being firmly in the romance genre: too many characters were overly described, there are blatantly stereotypical sex scenes, "Jane" is a blue-eyes Adonis, and Darcy reassures Lizzy/Bevan about his sexual prowess. But overall a good book for a weekend read.