Eligible
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3.6 • 5 Ratings
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- $16.99
Publisher Description
THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER
‘This is Pride and Prejudice 2.0 and I must confess, I liked it more than the original’ STYLIST
‘Bold and brilliant’ GLAMOUR
'Sheer joy… Giddy and glam and a hearty update of Pride and Prejudice’ JESSIE BURTON, author of The Miniaturist
Liz and Jane Bennet 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 they are being berated for their single status – and 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 . . .
In this dazzling, heart-warming read, the much-loved classic Pride and Prejudice is catapulted into our modern world, singing out with hilarity and truth.
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Praise for ELIGIBLE:
‘If there exists a more perfect pairing than Curtis Sittenfeld and Jane Austen, we dare you to find it’ Elle
‘These days, if Curtis Sittenfeld writes it, I read it’ Judy Blume
‘Eligible has all the charm, wit and romance of Pride & Prejudice…an absolute delight’ Red
‘Dazzling’ Woman and Home
‘Such a feast of a book’ Nigella Lawson
‘Not since “Clueless,” has Austen been so delightedly interpreted’ New York Times
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.
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
You don’t have to be a Jane Austen fan to enjoy every vignette of Curtis Sittenfeld’s sharp-tongued riff on Pride and Prejudice. Eligible is the story of older sisters Jane and Liz Bennet, who return to their worse-for-wear Cincinnati home to help their father recuperate after a heart attack. A yoga instructor and magazine writer back in New York, Jane and Liz fall back into their roles as dutiful daughters—even humouring their meddlesome mother’s frantic attempts to marry them off. A former reality-TV star and a snobbish surgeon play the roles of love interests; our heroines’ freeloading, CrossFit-obsessed sisters and sardonic dad provide endless comic relief.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In Sittenfeld's modern version of Pride and Prejudice, Elizabeth Bennet writes for a women's magazine, Jane Bennet teaches yoga, Lydia and Kitty Bennet are Crossfit enthusiasts on paleo diets, heartthrob Chip Bingley is a reality-TV star, and Fitzwilliam Darcy a neurosurgeon. Approaching 40, and definitely not virgins, Liz and Jane leave their jobs in New York to return to the old family house in Cincinnati after their father suffers a heart attack. Their mother, having watched contestants compete for Bingley's hand in marriage on Eligible, believes him to be a great catch for Jane. Her hopes for Liz rest with Silicon Valley tech doofus Willie Collins. Austen fans will recognize Liz and Darcy's instant dislike for each other, their serial misunderstandings and sexual tension, and Jane's quiet goodness, Bingley's sister's snobbishness, and Darcy's sister's vulnerability. Sittenfeld adeptly updates and channels Austen's narrative voice the book is full of smart observations on gender and money. She contrasts contemporary crassness with Austenesque gentility, as when Liz and Darcy indulge in hate sex and Willie tries to French kiss Liz. No wonder Mr. Bennet laments the death of manners and the rise of overly familiar discourse. The further afield that Sittenfeld strays from Austen, the less compelling and less credible her story is, and the ending sags under the weight of a television-programmed finale. Overall a clever retelling of an old-fashioned favorite, Sittenfeld's latest offers amusing details and provocative choices but little of the penetrating insight into underlying values and personalities that makes the original inimitable.
