Jane and the Damned by Janet Mullany

I was so excited when I found this book at the library, because I've made it a
point to read all the books I can find regarding Jane Austen and her various
fictional characters. This book follows in the current style, which combines
Austen (or one of her groups of characters) with other fictional constructs like
vampires or zombies, like the vastly popular "Pride and Prejudice and Zombies".
In this work by Janet Mullany, the "Damned "in the book's title refer to vampires
who are living in the town of Bath, England, at the time Jane goes there for her
health. It is amusingly true to life, because the real Jane Austen did go to Bath for
a short time, and according to her biographers, she was unable, while living
there, to do any writing. Author Mullany takes that nugget of information, and
gives us a back story for it - Jane couldn't write while she was staying in Bath,
because she had been turned into a vampire, and no longer had the ability to
write in the "Jane Austen" style.

Mullany peppers her time in Bath with gorgeously drawn characters, some
fictional, but some real, like the Prince of Wales, who has also been turned into a
vampire in order to keep him alive during an attack of French soldiers. Mullany
cleverly has Jane and the Prince becoming friends, with the Prince finally asking
Austen to dedicate one of her books to him, and it is beyond dispute that she
does (although she was said to dislike him). It is little mergings of fact and fiction
like that one that make this work so charming to read for true Austen fans.
Mullany has a few other factual gems in this book, throwing in some famous
quotes from Austen novels while allowing us (fiction) to peek into the origins of a
few of Jane's famous characters, and through the process, answering the
question for many fans, of how a single woman sheltered in smalltown rural
England could know so much about life and love in the broader world. She could,
Mullany tells us, because Austen lived a much more active and interesting life
than her fans ever imagined when she was vampire Jane.

Yes, there are historical inaccuracies aplenty, for my 11-year-old son tells me
that the French never attacked England, and certainly never took over the cities
of Bath and London, as seen in the book. But for true Austen fans, the joy of
imagining Jane fighting on the barricades (as a vampire) to protect the seaside
town of Bath more than makes up for the fact that such battles never took place
at all. But why should that bother the reader? Vampires don't exist either! This
book is a playful romp for Austen fans like myself who enjoy looking for signs of
Mr. Darcy (and Mr. Wickham!) in people Jane actually knew during her life. And it
is very gratifying for fans that Mullany's Jane turned down love and immortality as
a vampire in order to regain her writing skills and bring us the novels we love so
much. Excellent, escapist fun.

Submitted by Gerti