Obstinate, Headstrong Girl (Bok)

An Obstinate, Headstrong Girl (by a Lady)
Abigail Bok, 2014
St. Martin's Press
350 pp.
ISBN-13: 9781631320057


Summary
Have you ever looked around at the modern world and asked yourself, "What would Jane Austen say?" about the follies of the day. This is your opportunity to discover the answer.

The peaceful hamlet of Lambtown, in central California’s ranch country, is cast into disarray after the Bennet family appears on the scene. From Mrs. Bennet’s social climbing to her youngest children’s dissolute behavior, the newcomers provoke universal censure. Eldest daughter Lizzy, a landscaper, challenges decorum with a series of social experiments aimed at improving the lot of the Spanish-speaking poor. And her gentle brother John offends many by virtue of his romance with local entrepreneur Charlie Bingley.

Nobody is more outraged by the Bennets than thoroughbred breeder Catherine de Bourgh and her amanuensis, Morris Collins. While Collins at first imagines that Lizzy is a promising prospect, she will have none of him, attracted instead to the elusive Jorge Carrillo. Unbeknownst to Lizzy, she has also been noticed by Fitzwilliam Darcy, scion of the founding family of Lambtown. Darcy, tantalized by her spirit but disapproving of her social crusades, makes an awkward pass that is spurned.

How will hearts be healed and peace return to a divided community? Who will move beyond their pride and prejudices to achieve lasting happiness?

Author Bio
• Birth—1775
• Where—Steventon, Hampshire, England
• Education—(The author's helper attended Princeton University,
   earning an A.B. degree)
• Currently—lives in Richmond, California


About the author: The humble author of this volume finds herself much discomposed by her journey in the time travel device into which, in a moment of inattention to the niceties of comportment, she inadvertently strayed. She is even further bewildered by the world in which she finds herself; but, striving for the appearance at least of equanimity, is determined to inscribe a faithful record of all she observes here. Perhaps, by continuing to be true to her nature in such an odd circumstance, she will find her way home at last.

Book Reviews
When I picked up An Obstinate, Headstrong Girl, I confess I didn't expect much—but hope began to rise with the first, witty sentence—and by the time I had finished page one, I was irrevocably hooked. Delicate, clever, wise, completely true to both the eighteenth century and to the twenty-first, this book is absolute perfection. A dizzying debut for a stunningly good writer
Mary Sheldon, author - Amazon Review


What a pleasure to find a modern-day Pride and Prejudice written in the voice of a modern-day Jane Austen! So many authors try to give it to us, but cannot achieve the kind affection for her characters that lies beneath the intelligent irony.... Those of us who consume Austen and her followers for breakfast, lunch, and dinner have found an author who delivers the inimitable voice of our true heroine.
Robin Schachat

Discussion Questions
1. Did you find yourself believing that this novel was actually written by Jane Austen?

2. If you have never read Pride and Prejudice or seen one of the film adaptations, did the story work for you on its own terms?

3. Did the story of Pride and Prejudice translate convincingly to rural California at the turn of the twenty-first century? What changed in the characters and storyline, and did those changes make sense?

4. Some characters from Pride and Prejudice were eliminated, and some new characters were added. Did you miss the missing, and/or did you enjoy the newcomers?

5. The narration is written in Jane Austen's voice but the characters speak in contemporary language. Did you find this juxtaposition awkward, or did it enhance the humor?

6. Some of the themes of this book are overtly political. Were there political undertones in any of Jane Austen's novels, and do modern readers recognize those undertones or overlook them?

7. Some Jane Austen characters have sex, but her novels never have sex scenes. By contrast, modern-day romances nearly always have a sexual element. An Obstinate, Headstrong Girl follows Jane Austen's lead in leaving out any explicit sex. Did the way this was handled in the modern context make sense to you?

8. Have you read any other books in the Austenesque genre of fiction? Discuss the different forms Austenesque literature can take.
(Questions courtesy of the author's helper.)

top of page (summary)