Confessions of a Jane Austen Addict

Title: Confessions of a Jane Austen Addict
Author: Laurie Viera Rigler
Pages: 304
Pub: 2008; Plume
Genre: Historical Fiction, Jane Austen

Courtney should be in Los Angeles nursing a hangover and a broken heart.  She recently found out her fiance was shacking up elsewhere and her trusted friend, Sam, knew about it.  Usually when life shoves her face in the mud, she curls up with a good ole Jane Austen book.  But this time, it just doesn't seem enough.  Which is probably why she wakes up in Austen-era.

ILY, book of Victorian England.  You are fantabulous.  Seriously.  Like there were so many cool elements that I read you in almost one sitting.  I love that you kept it real and Courtney aka Jane Mansfield has to use a chamber pot.  And I love that you talk about the stank of unwashed bodies.  And sure we might understand what impropriety means in this abstract way, but having a contemporary woman who wants to shout Paglia rhetoric at the family dinner only to be met with a wave of blushing and embarrassment because dear gawd she only allowed him to touch her ungloved hand is righteous man. (1)

And I have to admit, folks, I still hold endearance toward the regency era.  I can't help loving all of that PROPERness.  Quite possibly because I am so IMPROPER.   But that's another story for another day.

To continue on, not only does this book encapsulate my love of all things Victorian but it sends a firm nod to the time is non-linear and quite possibly interchangeable.  Holla!  Raise the roof! And all sorts of exclamations be had.  So this becomes a tale of time travel except it's not because Courtney only traveled to Victorian England and both her and Jane Mansfield encompass the same body but the question is...are they separate individuals or one and the same?  This much isn't answered, only implied, and I think the implications are purely based on how you want to read it.

Also, I haven't even mentioned Mr. Edgeworth who is worthy for any leading man role.  It's a lovely 18th century romance and it is sure to make anyone happy.

Was this ever a film? 

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(1) events taken out of order but you dig, right?