Product Description

It starts as a lark for Jasmin Field, the charming, acerbically witty columnist for a national women's magazine.  She joins a host of celebraties gathering in London to audition for the season's most dazzling charity event:  a one-night only stage production of Jane Austen's immortal Pride and Prejudice, directed by and starring the Academy Award -- winning Hollywood heartthrob Harry Noble.  And nobody is more surprised than Jasmin herself when she lands the lead of handsome Harry's love interest, Elizabeth Bennet.  But things start to go very wrong very quickly.  Ms. Field's delicious contempt for the arrogant, overbearing Harry Noble goes from being wicked fun to infuriating.  Her brief moment of theatrical glory looks as if it's going to be overshadowed by the betrayal of her best friend, the disintegration of her family and the implosion of her career. And suddenly she can't remember a single one of her lines.  But, worst of all, Harry Noble -- who, incidentally, looks amazing in tight breeches -- has started to stare hard at Jazz with that sort of a glimmer in his eyes...

Fresh, wild, wonderfully romantic and absolutely hilarious, Pride, Prejudice and Jasmin Field is Jane Austen as the great lady herself never imagined it.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #185291 in Books
• Published on: 2001-05-01
• Released on: 2001-04-24
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 288 pages

From Publishers Weekly
A plucky hybrid of Bridget Jones and Elizabeth Bennett, heroine Jasmin Field will attract devotees of Fielding and Austen to this flimsy but likable update of Pride and Prejudice. Londoner Jasmin, or Jazz to her friends, writes a confessional column for Hoorah, a "trashy women's magazine" that runs features like "I married my poodle." She gets wind of a charity adaptation of Pride and Prejudice being directed by mega-star Harry Nobel, and auditions for it along with her actress sister, George, and her best friend, Mo. Unexpectedly cast as Lizzy, Jazz strikes up a flirtation with dishy actor William Whitby (playing Wickham) and develops a serious antipathy to Harry Nobel (a Hollywood-style Darcy), whose insufferable arrogance she can't wait to skewer in her column. In the meantime, George finds love with a rakish fellow actor and Mo begins a dalliance with Jazz's nemesis, the oily Gilbert. Like Austen's beloved protagonist, Jazz is strong-minded and stubborn and, also like Lizzy, she must confront the painful realization that her firmly held opinions are not always correct. Nathan's breezy plot follows Austen's story line almost exactly, even going so far as to have many of her characters portray their Austen equivalents in the TV production. Her attempts to remain true to the original novel make for some implausible moments, as when Jazz's younger sister gets implicated in a tabloid scandal with Whitby. A few more creative departures from Austen, along the lines of Helen Fielding's tweaking of the same novel in Bridget Jones's Diary, would have saved Nathan's effort from its awkward contrivances. This Pride and Prejudice is a charming but clumsy update that will have readers rushing back to the original. (May)Forecast: Readers browsing the paperback table are more likely to pick up higher profile titles on the same theme, but this will be a pleasant extra for those who truly can't get enough of British single-girl hijinks.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist
As the title suggests, this is a modern and witty retelling of Pride and Prejudice. Jasmin Field, a columnist for a woman's magazine, is invited to audition for a charity production of the Austen novel, which is to be directed by the Oscar-winning actor Harry Noble. Jasmin sees this as fodder for her column but is selected for the lead role of Lizzie Bennet instead, even though the haughty Noble calls her "the ugly sister" after her beautiful sister, George, an actual actress, also auditions. Soon the lives and interactions of the cast members begin to resemble the characters they portray. Everyone swoons over the famous Noble except for Jasmin, who considers him an aloof, unfeeling egotist, which is his cue for becoming besotted with her. All the elements of the original story are here, cleverly molded to fit modern characters and situations involving career women and the contemporary arena for scandals: the tabloids. Nathan succeeds admirably in paying homage to a classic with her delightful tale. Patty Engelmann
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Review
"A witty spin on [Britain's] favorite novel...with a lovable contemporary heroine at its heart." -- -- Good Housekeeping

"Tremendous fun -- an ingenious update on the greatest love story of all time." -- -- Jilly Cooper

"Tremendous fun -- an ingenious update on the greatest love story of all time." -- -- Jilly Cooper

Customer Reviews

Nicely done
Just bought this paperback now titled ACTING UP at the Santorini airport. I agree with other reviews; a fun read.

I Love This Book!!
I read Pride, Prejudice and Jasmin Field when it first came out in 2000. A few years later, I read it again. And I just finished it for the third time over the weekend. It is by far the most entertaining Austen take off I've come across and is simply delightful. Jasmin is a fantastic protagonist -- witty, lovable yet filled with faults just like any of us. The plot parallels to Pride and Prejudice are very clever and and the characters themselves comment on the similarities that develop in their lives as they rehearse for a stage production of that great novel. Written with much humor and obvious affection for Austen's work, I can't recommend this book highly enough. It is sheer pleasure to read and savor.

decent but lacking
While the Pride and Prejudice plot gives substance to this book, I found it disapointing. Jazz make a nice heroin and Melissa Nathan's style is easy to read and funny.

But Harry Noble as Mr Darcy is a huge, huge disapointment. He has all the defects of Darcy (self centered, pompous...) but none of his qualities. His attitude towards Jazz is childish, and cowardly. The last twist in the book when Jazz and him are about to fall in the arms of one another is simply ridiculous, and really ruined the book for me.