While it occasionally veers into cheese territory, King's clear knowledge of the real-life burlesque scene makes for an endlessly interesting and modern backdrop for such a classic story to play out on. Honestly this is one of the best retellings of P&P that I've had the pleasure of reading (certainly better than Eligible). It's there that she locks eyes with one Will Darcy during a performance - sparks fly and the sexual tension crackles, even after she overhears the straight-laced wealth manager call her merely 'tolerable.' From there the familiar story beats play out (to an extent) - Jane's relationship with Bingley, Wickham being a fuccboi of the highest order - and yet the book still manages to be surprising.

While their personality traits largely remain the same, they've been dropped into the mostly glitzy, occasionally grungy, and always entertaining world of New York City burlesque.īennett (as she prefers to be called, versus Lizzy) is an executive assistant by day and a stage kitten by night at Meryton, a lively burlesque venue in Manhattan where she's discovered a loyal found family. In Vanessa King's A Certain Appeal, a group of characters we know and love from Jane Austen's original - Lizzy! Darcy! Jane! - have been reimagined and reformed in exceedingly clever ways. Hi, it's me, a person who can't resist a Pride & Prejudice retelling no matter how hard she tries.

A certain appeal by vanessa king pdf