Eligible

I laughed a lot reading Eligible. Yes, it’s silly, but this version of Pride and Prejudice had me hooked from the outset, probably for no other reason than that it forced me to consider the Bennet family and the sisters, in a new, twenty-first century light.

Liz, late 30’s, magazine writer, and her older sister, Jane, a yoga instructor, live in New York, whilst youngest sisters Kitty and Lydia, are busy with their CrossFit workouts and Paleo diets to consider careers. Mary, the middle sister, is earning her third online master's degree. And, yes, Mrs Bennet just wants to… show more.

I’ll read anything by Curtis Sittenfeld, and this modern retelling of Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice I started the day it came out.

Sittenfeld brilliantly updates Austen to make the classic story more relevant than ever. The Bennet sisters curse! Jane Bennet is almost 40! Mr. Bingley was on a reality dating show!

As someone who has also written an Austen retelling (my first novel, Ladies of the House, is inspired by Sense and Sensibility), I admire Sittenfeld’s care with the plot points we all love from the original—you’ll laugh out loud when our modern Darcy and Liz… show more.

Sittenfeld is one of my very few “auto-buy” authors: I gobble up everything she writes. Eligible is arguably her breeziest book, updating Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice to the modern day, complete with Cross-Fit workouts, Paleo diets, and reality TV dating shows. All of your favorite characters—the Bennet sisters, Bingley, and of course swoon-worthy Darcy (elevated from Mr. to Dr. here)—are represented, and Sittenfeld’s wry dissection of contemporary life would make even Ms. Austen smile.