Awesomely Austen series (Hodder and Stoughton)
Jane Austen was a pioneer of her time. She replaced romantic exaggerations in her works with critical realism. Her protagonists are strong, self-confident and independent women who are in stark contrast with their surroundings. These characters are so modern that they could cope with today’s world. Four novels were published during the author’s lifetime: Sense and Sensibility, Pride and Prejudice, Mansfield Park and Emma. Northanger Abbey and Persuasion are posthumous works, and her unfinished novel Sanditon was recently republished, from which a TV series was also made. There are many adaptations of each of her books, for example Clueless, an American comedy released in 1995, which reinterprets the story of Emma in Beverly Hills or Bridget Jones’s Diary by Helen Fielding (and its movie adaptation) is a modern reinterpretation of Pride and Prejudice.
In the Awesomely Austen series, contemporary authors retell Jane Austen’s classics: Pride and Prejudice by Katherine Woodfine, Persuasion by Narinder Dhami, Emma, Northanger Abbey by Steven Butler, Sense and Sensibility by Johanna Nadin, and Mansfield Park in Ayisha Malik’s reinterpretation.
The book is illustrated by the French illustrator Églantin Ceulemans, who herself is a fan of Jane Austen. She felt honored to be able to illustrate the famous author’s works, as she has always loved stories full of love, beautiful clothes, brave young heroines and happy endings. Austen’s characters lived so vividly in her imagination that it was fun to draw them with their friendly pets (whom she hid in many pictures).
