Dancing With Mr. Darcy short stories compiled by Sarah Waters

I was so excited when I found this book at the library, because I've made it a point to read all the books regarding Jane Austen and her various fictional characters. This anthology, however, sadly misses the mark for me as a reader. Because of my nature, call it compulsive if you will, it is a very rare book that I will not read from beginning to end, whether or not I'm enjoying myself. It is shocking to me that while reading this collection of short stories, how often I had to force myself to keep reading, and how often I couldn't stand what I was reading. I've worked as a teacher of freshman composition, and I can honestly say, there were only one or two essays or stories I couldn't stand over the years. This collection contains at least a half dozen writings that fall into that category.

Don't get me wrong. There are one or two short stories in this book which are well-written and worth being included in a published anthology. But others are simply abhorrent and go against everything in the very nature of an Austen fan. Most seem like the well written but immature ramblings of teenaged Austen fans, as so many of these stories share the common themes of passing college-level exams, or doing things of which parents don't approve. Some other stories are beyond imagining - which is to say, that I can't imagine writing a story based on Austen that involves a character with her pants around her ankles, characters walking around in the whiffy waste of an overflowed toilet, or a story in which the main character poses in the nude and has the vocabulary of a longshoreman. Not to say that Austen didn't have a pragmatic edge, or that her characters didn't occasionally use the toilet, step in poo or appear in the nude, but the disconnect between the original subject matter and some of these stories is just too great. Perhaps the fault lies with me, but I can't bridge that gulf. As a result, this collection of stories is something I regret having read. Readers who love Jane Austen would be much better served reading authors like Joan Aiken or Carrie Bebris than wasting their time with this nonsense. As Mr. Knightley would say in Emma, "Badly Done."

Submitted by Gerti