This post was originally published at Novelicious.com and is now at WritingTipsOasis.com. WritingTipsOasis.com acquired Novelicious.com in June 2022.
Today is the 200th anniversary of the publication of Pride & Prejudice by Jane Austen. I'm sure Jane never imagined that her plots, stories and characters would have provided so much inspiration for other writers over the centuries. Spin-off stories exist in their hundreds but they can be like marmite. For those who can't get enough of all things Austen, today I provide you with a list of ten books inspired by her stories and the author herself.
1. A Weekend with Mr Darcy by Victoria Connelly – At a Jane Austen conference nothing goes to plan for Robyn, with a far from perfect love life and Katherine, a lecturer specialising in the works of Austen.
2. Death Comes to Pemberley by P. D James – A sequel to Pride & Prejudice. It is six years later. Elizabeth and Darcy have children and Jane and Bingley are content. Everything is as it should be. Until Lydia Wickham arrives screaming that her husband has been murdered.
3. Pride & Prejudice & Zombies by Jane Austen and Seth Grahame-Smith – I don't know what to say about this one…I think it is self explanatory so we'll leave it at that.
4. Pride, Prejudice & Jasmin Field by Melissa Nathan – a modern day Pride & Prejudice. Jasmin is a national magazine columnist and Harry Noble is a Hollywood heart-throb, they come together in a fund-raising adaptation.
5. Me & Mr Darcy by Alexandra Potter – deciding she's given up on men, Emily decides to take a tour of Austen's country instead. Her head is full of men in breaches but as the tour is full of pensioners it doesn't look promising, until she comes face to face with Mr Darcy himself.
6. The Jane Austen Bookclub by Karen Joy Fowler – a group of five women and one man come together to form a bookclub to discuss the six works of Jane Austen. The Austen book they choose ends up revealing rather a lot about themselves.
7. Bridget Jones's Diary by Helen Fielding – the book said to have started the chick lit phenomenon. Not only was the character Mark Darcy based on Colin Firth's portrayal of Darcy in the 1995 adaptation, but there were also many other parallels to Pride & Prejudice in Bridget's diary.
8. Confessions of a Jane Austen Addict by Laurie Viera Rigler – a book similar in premise to the Lost in Austin TV series. Courtney, a modern day LA girl, wakes up one day in the body of Jane Mansfield. Rude Awakenings of an Austen Addict is the book from Jane's perspective when she wakes up in a modern girl's body.
9. Who Needs Mr Darcy? by Jean Burnett – want to know what happens to Lydia after Pride & Prejudice finishes? Well, in this novel you can.
10. Pride & Prejudice: Hidden Lusts by Mitzi Szereto – We have a Fifty Shades type novel for those of you who would rather like to know exactly what happens behind closed doors.