Old Friends and New Fancies

Author: Sybil J. Brinton
Published: July 2007 (Sourcebooks); 1st printing: 1914 (Holden & Hardingham)
Category: Fiction
Rating: 7/10

When I first started reading Old Friends and New Fancies I had mixed feelings because I felt a bit lost. The only Jane Austen I've read voluntarily is Sense and Sensibility, and Pride and Prejudice was last read in sophomore year of high school for English. This really lives up to the claim on the cover, "The first Jane Austen sequel ever created," as characters from all six Austen novels are brought together in Bath thanks (or no thanks) to Lady Catherine.

There is a lack in character development, but I might feel that way because I haven't read four of the original Austen novels (sacrilege, I know), and perhaps Brinton expected the reader to have a basic knowledge of the books and characters. I think that to enjoy the book , having a good idea of P&P and Mansfield Park would be the most beneficial. Thanks to Wikipedia, I started reading faster once I wasn't so confused about what was going on.

It's easiest for me to view this from a P&P-centric view, so to me, the book focused on the marital prospects of Georgiana Darcy, Col. Fitzwilliam, and Kitty Bennet. Thanks to the social rules of the time, there are a lot of hurdles on the way to matrimonial felicity. Sometimes, I'd say to myself, "If he/she just came out and told him/her about what happened, we wouldn't be reading about enduring emotional suffering for several months." But you know, because the characters are in polite society, they don't talk about the things they should and spread gossip about the things they shouldn't.

Georgiana and Fitzwilliam are engaged at the beginning of the story, but they don't have those kinds of feelings for each other, thank goodness. I'm absolutely skeeved at the idea of cousins marrying each other, and a Georgiana-Fitzwilliam match has not gone unexplored in other novels. They agree to break off the engagement as they will not suit and go off to pursue true love. Fitzwilliam finds it in Mary Crawford of Mansfield Park, a woman with a closet full of skeletons that the horrible Steele sisters are more than eager to let out in the middle of Lady Catherine's party. Of course, Lady Catherine doesn't hesitate to practically kick Mary out of her house, and Mary's pride is injured and she doesn't want anything to do with Lady Catherine's relations, even if she loves one of them.

Georgiana, however, finds herself involved in a love triangle between Kitty Bennet and Lt. William Price of Mansfield Park. Kitty saw him first and is under the impression that Price will offer for her because he's nice to her. If Price knew that being polite to Kitty and asking her for some dances would lead him to such a pickle, I doubt he'd ask any young ladies to dance knowing he might be engaged before he even knew it. He declares himself to Georgiana but she won't have any of it because she's Kitty's friend. Kitty has rejected a marriage proposal from Mr. Morland because she wants Price instead.

It boggles the mind a bit, so I think it'd be easier to show you the book's relationship's in a crude MS Paint diagram. Arrows show where feelings are one-way, mutual, etc.

It does seem confusing, but I found as I kept reading that I really wanted to know what happened next. It was like reading correspondence from my friend inside Old Friends and New Fancies filling me in on the latest gossip. The writing style allows no detail involving our main characters to go unnoticed, and I have no reason to gripe about the book being too boring with basal exposition. It's very character-driven and doesn't wait for you to catch up. I plowed through the second half of the book like nothing. I think I was slow reading the beginning because I dislike Lady Catherine, Lucy Steele Ferrars, and Anne Steele. Awful people! Sadly, no poetic justice for any of those women, unless you count being yelled at by Lady Catherine enough punishment for the Steele sisters.

I enjoyed Old Friends and New Fancies but maybe a real Austen fan who actually reads the original novels would enjoy it to its full capacity.