The Bennet sisters have been summoned from New York City.Liz and Jane are good daughters. They’ve come home to suburban Cincinnati to get their mother to stop feeding their father steak as he recovers from heart surgery, to tidy up the crumbling Tudor-style family home, and to wrench their three sisters from their various states of arrested development. Once they are under the same roof, old patterns return fast. Soon enough they are being berated for their single status, their only respite the early morning runs they escape on together.
For two successful women in their late thirties, it really is too much to bear. That is, until the Lucas family’s BBQ throws them in the way of some eligible single men . . . Chip Bingley is not only a charming doctor, he’s a reality TV star too. But Chip's friend, haughty neurosurgeon Fitzwilliam Darcy, can barely stomach Cincinnati or its inhabitants. Jane is entranced by Chip; Liz, sceptical of Darcy. As Liz is consumed by her father’s mounting medical bills, her wayward sisters and Cousin Willie trying to stick his tongue down her throat, it isn’t only the local chilli that will leave a bad aftertaste.
But where there are hearts that beat and mothers that push, the mysterious course of love will resolve itself in the most entertaining and unlikely of ways. And from the hand of Curtis Sittenfeld, Pride & Prejudice is catapulted into our modern world singing out with hilarity and truth.
Caroline Baum's Review
How clever is Curtis Sittenfeld in this updating of Pride and Prejudice! Shifting the action to Cincinnati, this wickedly funny version is full of fresh twists involving IVF, subprime mortgages, gender roles, feminism and hate sex. Yeah, hate sex, apparently it's a thing.
Lizzie Bennett is a journalist working for a magazine called Mascara in NYC when she returns home to Cincinnati, where she learns her family are broke and encounters Fitzwilliam Darcy, a rude neurosurgeon. The stage is set for a marvellously rebooted, contemporary telling of one of the world's most loved stories, and Sittenfeld exploits all the intricacies of Austen's plot, while adding newly minted social commentary that has its own bite and sass. A delight.
About the Author
Curtis Sittenfeld is the bestselling author of the novels Prep, The Man of My Dreams, American Wife, and Sisterland, which have been translated into twenty-five languages. Her nonfiction has been published widely, including in The New York Times, The Atlantic, Time, Vanity Fair, and Glamour and broadcast on public radio’s This American Life. A native of Cincinnati, she currently lives with her family in St. Louis.
Industry Reviews
Praise for ELIGIBLE: 'If there exists a more perfect pairing than Curtis Sittenfeld and Jane Austen, we dare you to find it' Elle 'Bold and brilliant' Glamour 'Eligible has all the charm, wit and romance of Pride & Prejudice and also takes these characters who are such a stalwart feature of our literary landscape and treats them with such affection and humour, that I defy anyone not to find Eligible an absolute delight' Red 'Dazzling' Woman and Home 'Fizzy' and 'Funny' Psychologies 'Such a feast of a book' Nigella Lawson 'Three cheers for Curtis Sittenfeld and her astute, sharp and ebullient anthropological interest in the human condition... not since "Clueless," which transported Emma to Beverly Hills, has Austen been so delightedly interpreted' The New York Times 'An enjoyably light-hearted romp' Financial Times 'Hilarious and endearing family drama' Kirkus Reviews 'Effortlessly entertaining and delightfully readable' The National 'A delightful romp for not only Austen devotees but also lovers of romantic comedies and sly satire, as well ... Bestselling Sittenfeld plus Jane Austen? What more could mainstream fiction readers ask for?' Booklist 'Sittenfeld adeptly updates and channels Austen's narrative voice-the book is full of smart observations on gender and money... A clever retelling of an old-fashioned favourite' Publishers Weekly Praise for CURTIS SITTENFELD: 'Novelists get called master storytellers all the time, but Sittenfeld really is one' Maggie Shipstead 'Sittenfeld has an astonishing gift for creating characters that take up in residence in reader's heads' Washington Post 'When it comes to tearing apart contemporary American family life, Sittenfeld is up there in a class of her own' Guardian 'Curtis Sittenfeld shares with Salinger a knack of capturing, in effortless prose, a teenager mindset...It feels important...Most vitally of all, it feels like adolescence' The Times 'Sittenfeld is a pin-sharp observer' Independent on Sunday
