Friday 25 December 2009

Captain Wentworth's Diary ~ Amanda Grange

As a lover of Jane Austen, anything really, that pertains to her takes my notice. But especially with Persuasion. Persuasion was the first Jane Austen novel I read and it is (out of the ones I've read so far by Austen) my favorite. So when I saw that this book was supposed to be "Persuasion" from Captain Wentworth's perspective I was pretty excited.

It starts out in the year 1806, when Wentworth (at the time a Commander, not Captain yet) and Anne meet for the first time. Persuasion, by Austen, begins in the year 1814 ... I believe. As Grange writes the first part of the book (almost half), she is going by her own imagination. So, really, if anyone were to write a book about what they thought Wentworth was like based on imagination you would come up with, perhaps, a different description from each person. That said, I pictured him different from what Grange did.

Over all, the book was well written. After the first part of the book (the 1806 part) when you're in the year 1814, the events closely follow Persuasion. It was fun to see how Grange thought Wentworth would respond. In some parts I thought the same as Grange as to how Wentworth was thinking and sometimes I imagined Wentwoth responding differently. But since Austen did not write this book, we really don't know how she originally pictured Wentworth.

The book was interesting and rather fun. Would I read it again? Maybe not, but that's just my personal preference. I thought it was a good book. There was nothing bad in Grange's writing. It just isn't the kind of book that really grabs my attention to read over and over.

So, all that said. I'll leave it up to you if you want to read it. I guess I would recommend it, just for fun.

3 comments:

Nikki said...

I probably wouldn't read it again either, but it was a fun book for a one-time read. ☺ As are all the Jane Austen diary books I've read. I liked Mr. Darcy's diary, too.

Robert said...

It would be interesting to get the story from Captain Wentworth's point of view.

Which Austen novels have you not read? I finished reading Emma last month so I've know read all her novels.

Starting January 24 to Feb 7 PBS will be showing the new BBC Emma(2009).

Ana said...

Robert~
I have read Persuasion, Sense and Sensibility, Mansfield Park, part of Pride and Prejudice and I think that's all. I'm hoping to get to the other ones too. I have them all, it's just a matter of reading them. :)