Friday, January 6, 2012

A Book Review... Lost in Austen: A Create Your Own Jane Austen Adventure

I Received Lost in Austen by Emma Campbell Webster in the mail the other day (online shopping with Christmas money) and finished it in almost one sitting. I did finish it in less then four-and-twenty hours, however. Unfortunately I cannot add "Improves her mind by extensive reading" to my list of accomplishments (it's a LiA book joke, you'll get it in a minute). Anyway, the review and then my scores :)

 I really enjoyed this little game/book combination. The story starts off in  P & P,  with you as Elizabeth Bennet. You remain Elizabeth through the entire book, of course, though certain decisions take you into other stories where you meet new people, good or bad, and you basically live the life of another Austen heroine.  All in all I recommend this book at least once to all Austen fans. It brought a smile to my face many times. Note: I was reminded of how I watch Star Trek reruns, ahem, very sarcastically. My dad says it's similar to the Mystery Science Theater, where basically there is a man watching old, cheesy, Sci-Fi films, making sarcastic comments the whole time. Moving on...

The stories I went through are as follows,  Pride & Prejudice, Northanger Abbey, and Persuasion. I had the hardest time refusing Capt. Wentworth in Bath, as a result of watching Persuasion  with my sister last night, but I did it because just this first time I wanted to end the story with Mr. Darcy. As it should be.
Here are my scores.

Intelligence:
starting-200
lowest-0
highest-360
ending-0

Confidence:
starting-200
lowest-0
highest-350
ending-50

Fortune:
starting-50
lowest-0
highest-590
ending-510

Connections:
Inferior:
Sir William Lucas
Mr. Collins
Mother
Mary Bennet
Father
Charlotte Lucas
Mr.Wickham
cousin Bennet (Cousin "Elliot" in Persuasion)

Superior:
Charlotte Lucas
Distant Cousin in Grosvenor Street
Mr.Wickham
Father
The Tilneys
The Gardiners
Mr. Darcy
Miss Darcy
Capt. Benwick
cousin Bennet

My-oh-my... here is my list of accomplishments (pitifully short) and Failing (astonishingly long)

Accomplishments:
Love of Walking
Boulanger (dance)
Highly Observant
Reasonable Piano-playing Skills
Once Spent the day at Weston-super-Mare
True Understanding of Pride
First -Aid Skills
Ability to Fall in Love Easily and Often

Failings:
Resentful
Love of walking
No Style, Taste, or Beauty
Insufficient Knowledge of Embroidery
Incredibly Nosy
Blind Partiality
Willful Prejudice
Ill-timed Liveliness
Ill-Timed Sense of Humour
Unhappily Small Portion
No Real Friends
Unreasonably High Expectations
Distastefully Suspicious

(You can stop reading now)

Deplorable Weakness for Gothic Literature
Extremely Bad Houseguest
No Governess
All Five Sister Out at nce
Breathtakingly Poor Judge of Character
Blind
Partial
Prejudiced
Absurd

(No, Really, I wouldn't mind if you stopped)

Lack of Influence
Feebleness of Character
Eavesdropping
Failure to Learn From Past Mistakes
Spiteful and Vindictive (thankfully they were counted together, I was running out of space on my page)
Immodesty (I think very highly of my own good qualities...the few that I have)
Remorseless Heartbreaker (I'm sorry Capt. Wentworth!)
Slacker

That is thankfully the end of my extensive list of failings...
It's no wonder it took me so very long to catch a husband!

2 comments:

  1. This book is fun isn't it? I recently installed the computer game Matches & Matrimony which reminds me a bit of it. =) I still haven't gotten though my second time around in this book, where I was going to try to weave in and out of as many stories as possible (besides NA and Emma because I already did those) but I haven't been in Persuasion yet. I shall be a relentless heartbreaker though because I'm going to marry Mr. Darcy in the end. =)

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  2. Melody,
    Yes! I love this book :).
    I went through it again today, *goofy grin* without reading the storyline so as to finish quickly, and I made made way through P&P, Emma, S&S,and Jane's real life (Mr. Lefroy) and Persuasion. I was proposed to by Mr. Collins, Mr.Darcy, Col.Brandon, Mr. Knightly, and I accepted Capt.Wentworth.

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