Reviewer John Cowans: John lives in
retirement in Chester, NS ,where he has been an Instructor with
Seniors College Association of Nova Scotia.
He is currently working on a personal memoir, Other People’s Children, and his first poetry collection, Hope.
Author: Ava Farmer
Publisher: Chawton House
ISBN: 0-978161364475-0-9
Follow Here To Purchase Second Impressions
Author: Ava Farmer
Publisher: Chawton House
ISBN: 0-978161364475-0-9
This has been a good year for Janites! First out of the gate , early in the New Year, was P.D.James’s Death Comes to Pemberley, and now in mid-summer comes Ava Farmer‘s stylistically rich Second Impressions. Both these sequels to Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice will appeal but probably for quite different reasons.
Ava Farmer, the nom de plume ,of Sandy Lerner, the author of Second Impressions, is in real life a farmer who owns and operates Ayrshire Farm in Upperville, Virginia. Ms. Lerner is obviously a woman of many talents because she also manages Home Farm Store in Middleberg, Virginia and is publican of Hunter’s Head Tavern in Upperville. As well, Ms. Lerner is Chairman of the Trustees of Chawton House Library and the Centre for the Study of Early Women’s Writing in Alton, Hampshire, UK. She is also founder of a large technology company and a small cosmetics company. She is the editor of a dictionary of digital music and a book on carriage driving. Chawton cottage now houses the Jane Austen Museum.in Alton , Hampshire , a setting typifying England’s ‘green and pleasant land.’Early in 1809, Jane’s brother ,Edward, offered his mother and sisters the use of this cottage, in Chawton village, that was part of Edward’s nearby estate, Chawton House. There the family lived a quiet life working with the poor, or teaching privately while Jane devoted herself to writing. And it was at Chawton cottage that she wrote Sense and Sensibility (1811), Pride and Prejudice (1813), Mansfield Park (1814), and Emma (1815)
The
mixed enthusiasm that greeted James’s Death Comes to Pemberley
is the result of unfulfilled reader expectations. The novel is
neither pure mystery as James readers are used to nor pure facsimile
Austen as the title suggests it might be. Second Impressions
avoids this kind of disappointment because it is probably as pure
Austen as one can expect when one considers its
authorship. Not only is the story solid, but the language is
extraordinary in its imitation. Consider the following:
“At
length, it was again Mr. Darcy who secured the respectability and
comfort of the last of Mrs Bennet’s unmarried daughters, although
in this instance, not with perhaps such universal gratitude.”
or
this:
“There is little wonder to that, you poor dear,”said
Elizabeth as Georgiana gave the horse the direction toward the home
farm. “I will be completely quiet all the way home, and promise to
offer you no tea-cakes for a week.”
Ms. Farmer takes up the
story of the Darcy Family. Ten years have past since the end of Pride
and Prejudice, Mrs Bennet has died. The French War is over and
peace has come at last. The question posed is how will the characters
created by one author cope with industrialization and the new
fortunes made in trade as described by another.
Whatever your
thoughts regarding this kind of literary continuation of a classic
tale, I would give this one a chance. It is worth the effort just to
enjoy the glory of the language.