Author: Paula Marantz Cohen
ISBN: 0-312-32502-9

The following review was contributed by: Kathryn Atwood: Click Here To View More Of Kathryn's   Reviews

There's something about Jane Austen's novels that makes the suddenly addicted
reader cry out: "What?  She only wrote six?"  The unsuspecting will instantly
crave more of her witticisms, her lovely command of the English language, her
hilarious but believable characterizations and her entertaining plot points that
always lead to a satisfyingly happy ending for the lovers, no matter how
star-crossed they initially appear.

Aside from the literal screen adaptations of Austen's works (including those
produced by the BBC and A&E),  the proof of her artistic timelessness are the
adaptations which take her basic plots and characters and place all in an
updated setting, such as the film "Clueless" (based loosely on Jane Austen's
novel, "Emma").

"Jane Austen in Scarsdale," by Paula Marantz Cohen, is a literary adapta  tion
in the same vein.  It takes the basic story of Austen's novel, "Persuasion," and
sets it in the middle of a contemporary New York prep school.  Austen's Anne
Eliot, an almost-old maid who still pines for a love she was advised against
years ago, becomes Anne Ehrlich, a guidance counselor for ivy league-bound high
school students and their hyperventilating parents.  Her long lost love, the
now-engaged Ben Cutler, is based on Austen's Captain Frederick Wentworth and the
person who advised against their union so many years ago is Anne Ehrlich's
grandmother, Winnie (Lady Russell, a close family friend in Austen's book).

Although "Scarsdale" is great fun for Jane Austen fans, who will be constantly
running back to the original story in their minds, the essential question is
this: does Cohen's book work on its own?  Can non-Austenites enjoy "Scarsdale"
on its own merits?  A wildly deafening yes!  Austen's truths are indeed timeless
but Cohen has added a profoundly compelling story - all her own - to the bare
bones of Austen's novel.   Although it is not fitting for an Austenite like
myself to blaspheme, I must say that while reading "Scarsdale," I frequently
thought that Cohen had actually improved Austen's basic story (sorry Jane!)

Cohen's writing skills are formidable and I was often at her mercy, either
doubled up with laughter at her witticisms and hilarious characterizations or
racked with pathos as the eminently patient Anne Ehrlich agonizes over the
renewed proximity of her lost love but quietly soldiers on.  Paula Marantz Cohen
is a writer of exceptional talent who, while giving a nod to a classic, has
created a masterpiece of equal parts poignancy and hilarity that is entirely her
own.  I certainly hope she intends to write more than six novels because I'm
hooked!