You, Me and the Bourgeoisie by orchidvines
In this fusion between Pride and Prejudice and the film The Family Man, there are two universes. In one, William Darcy is a high ranking executive due for a promotion, recently engaged, and the recent acquirer of a penthouse apartment. In the other, William Darcy runs a family-owned independent bookshop, is married with two kids, and is having a third-of-a-life crisis.
Oh, and a teenager named Jules is in both of them.
Why you should read this: It’s charming, kittens! The author’s whimsical and irreverent style stops the feel-good-fuzzies from turning schmaltzy. And there’s also a dash of meta!
Why you might not like it: Are you allergic to schmoop? Do you object to not-strictly-canon interpretations of characters and situations? Does having to read something on FFN make your eyeballs explode? If you answered yes to any or all of these questions, maybe you should give it a try anyway! Come on, just two chapters. They’re short. And if you still don’t like it, then I won’t even judge you.
Modern, Fusion, PG-13/T, at FanFiction.Net.
This story has a bit of Once in a Lifetime by Talking Heads to it:
You may find yourself in a beautiful house, with a beautiful wife.
You may ask yourself, “Well, how did I get here?”And you may tell yourself, “This is not my beautiful house.”
And you may tell yourself, “This is not my beautiful wife.”You may ask yourself, “Am I right, am I wrong?”
You may say to yourself, “My God! What have I done?”
In the prologue we meet Will and Will meets Jules. The author’s style, let me show you it.
“I’ll be straight with you, buddy,” Jules clicked her tongue. “I’m here to offer you a second chance at something. But I figured having you for coffee and cookies would be a good precursor before I just shove you in. Maybe it’ll dull the shock.”
“Shove me in where?”
“Your new life, silly.”
“I have a life,” Will explained. His head was beginning to pound. “A good, successful life. I’m about two months from a promotion, I’m engaged, I just bought my first penthouse apartment—”
“You’re also an asshole,” Jules shrugged. “Don’t look at me like that, and close your mouth. Eat your damn cookie.”
It’s snappy, which I like. Unfortunately, it’s not entirely grammatically correct. There’s a lot for which I want to get out my red pen, but strictly speaking it’s minor. I can be magnanimous and forgiving when I feel like it.
So Jules somehow sends William into an alternate universe where he didn’t run off to Europe and unknowingly leave a pregnant Elizabeth to cope with an early miscarriage alone. He wakes up married with two kids and living in the New Jersey suburbs. And now a pause while we put our hands to our foreheads dramatically in horror.
Done? Let us continue.
Will wanders around his alterno!life like a drunken zombie for a while, until little by little he discovers that he actually quite likes it. That’s, of course, when Jules returns to ruthlessly snatch him back to his real life: a life in which neither is he married to Elizabeth Bennet, nor has she been pining for him lo these many years. In fact she has rather a lovely boyfriend. Oh noes!
High jinks ensue. Spoiler: it has a happy ending.
Apart from rapid-fire dialogue that occasionally strains credibility (no one actually says “Def totes”), YMatB is a fun and surprisingly emotionally satisfying read. It also contains some delightful pop culture references. This one, in particular, made me cackle:
Inside, Edith Reed was imploring a young girl to buy the Sookie Stackhouse series over the Twilight saga. Unfortunately, this seemed like a lost battle.
This playfulness is mirrored in the title: the word bourgeoisie means both middle class and (in a Marxist sense) the wealthy elite. It also scans nicely to rhyme with ‘me’. Hat trick!
The meta aspect of the story is not something I caught on my first read, probably because it was a WIP and I read it one chapter at a time with prolonged gaps between. (Pro tip: Oofy hates WIPs.) Reading it again, though, I was struck by the parallels between Jules and any fanfiction writer. What is it that we do if not take an established character from his (or her) life and deposit them into other lives? Though our goals are not nearly so altruistic as hers most of the time.
Also, she likes shiny things. What more proof do you need?
