{"id":59,"date":"2011-02-15T03:47:16","date_gmt":"2011-02-15T03:47:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/andbirds.org\/sc\/?p=59"},"modified":"2011-02-17T07:46:39","modified_gmt":"2011-02-17T07:46:39","slug":"london-outskirts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/andbirds.org\/sc\/?p=59","title":{"rendered":"London Outskirts"},"content":{"rendered":"

London Outskirts<\/em> by Kent<\/strong><\/p>\n

In London Outskirts<\/em>, Elizabeth Bennet is stranded in — well, the outskirts of London.\u00c2\u00a0 By sheer coincidence, Darcy happens across her and, naturally, returns her to the Gardiners’ house.\u00c2\u00a0 On the way, they air their various grievances, and within very short order their relationship is able to progress without any misunderstandings whatsoever.<\/p>\n

Why you should read this: <\/strong>It’s funny, quick-paced and sharp-witted.\u00c2\u00a0 Somehow, Kent manages to combine careful characterization and thoughtful commentary on both Pride and Prejudice<\/em> and fandom conventions with his signature cracktastic style.<\/p>\n

Why you may not like it: <\/strong>It’s common for reviewers to babble OMG this sounds just like Jane Austen!!! <\/em>Nobody could ever say that about London Outskirts <\/em>because it sounds nothing whatsoever like Jane Austen.<\/p>\n

He gleefully takes up every fandom trope and smashes them together. The humour is anything but subtle.\u00c2\u00a0 The premise assumes that, if Darcy and Elizabeth’s misunderstandings were magically cleared up, they’d start making out in maybe five minutes.\u00c2\u00a0 The plot consists largely of them (1) talking, or (2) trying not to jump each other’s bones.\u00c2\u00a0 Also, while most authors try (and fail) to avoid anachronisms, Kent seems to consider them as the chocolate sprinkles on the cupcake of lulz.<\/p>\n

If you don’t like any (or all!) of these things, you probably won’t like London Outskirts<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Regency, AU, Teen, <\/strong>at DWG<\/a><\/p>\n

I hate fanon.\u00c2\u00a0 I hate the Earl of Matlock and Madeleine Gardiner and George, William and Georgie Darcy.\u00c2\u00a0 I hate Jane Bennet’s inevitably golden hair. I hate Darcy’s curls and dimples.\u00c2\u00a0 I hate Elizabeth’s magically delicious breasts and I hate her significant garnet cross.\u00c2\u00a0 I hate it all.<\/em><\/p>\n

London Outskirts<\/em> includes all of these things, along with a number of other things I hate, too.\u00c2\u00a0 Any one of these could easily ruin an otherwise decent fic.\u00c2\u00a0 However, London Outskirts <\/em>isn’t a decent fic and makes no pretensions at being so.<\/p>\n

It’s a brilliant <\/em>fic.<\/p>\n

Any number of authors can blindly adopt generic fanon as they turn Darcy and Elizabeth into generic stars of generic romance novels.\u00c2\u00a0 (And they do.)\u00c2\u00a0 Kent, on the others hand, adopts as many pieces of fanon as can possibly be crammed into one story, then winds them up until they approach good from the other direction.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s like the Spaceballs <\/em>of Austen fandom.<\/p>\n

The clich\u00c3\u00a9s and anachronisms only make the genuinely thoughtful content stand out all the sharper.\u00c2\u00a0 Where most plots exist to maximize angst, London Outskirts’<\/em> plot — such as it is — exists to maximize witty banter. His Elizabeth is lively, charming and arch; his Darcy is clever, snarky and wry. Together, they’re firmly back in the Benedick-and-Beatrice style of the originals.<\/p>\n

Here’s Elizabeth in a moment of alarm:<\/p>\n

Mr Collins’s face held such a look of joy that Elizabeth wondered for a horrible instant if her father had died.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

And here’s Darcy being romantic:<\/p>\n

“Do I need to change, sir?”<\/em><\/p>\n

“No, of course not.\u00c2\u00a0 Apart from your incredible vanity, you are perfect.”<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Extra points: Wickham does not show up in person, and in fact, only shows up at all when Elizabeth describes being driven to smack him, unusual euphemisms abound (see: curricles) the Bennets are neither evil incarnate nor sentimentalized in pretty much any way, Darcy and Elizabeth are kickass without approaching the typical Sueishness, and Kent is such a good writer that his words are a genuine pleasure to read.<\/p>\n

This isn’t to say there are no flaws at all.\u00c2\u00a0 Some of the modern prose falls flat (“You are not so bad yourself, Mr Darcy”) — this is Kent’s first Austenfic, and in some ways it’s much less polished than his later ones.\u00c2\u00a0 As I implied above, the premise is somewhat less than likely — the scenario gives us no reason to think that Elizabeth’s antipathy would vanish any sooner than in canon, where clearing up their misunderstandings is only one step in their eventual reconciliation.\u00c2\u00a0 The vaguely slapstick humour doesn’t always mesh perfectly with the romance and largely faithful characterization.<\/p>\n

Yet overall, it’s one of the best fics in the fandom: clever, enjoyable, thoughtful and witty. I wholeheartedly recommend it.<\/p>\n

\"4<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

London Outskirts by Kent In London Outskirts, Elizabeth Bennet is stranded in — well, the outskirts of London.\u00c2\u00a0 By sheer coincidence, Darcy happens across her and, naturally, returns her to the Gardiners’ house.\u00c2\u00a0 On the way, they air their various grievances, and within very short order their relationship is able to progress without any misunderstandings…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[42,14,40,43,41,44,17,46],"class_list":["post-59","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-matilda-plantagenet","tag-author-kent","tag-era-regency","tag-length-novella","tag-plot-coincidental-encounter","tag-quills-four","tag-rating-teen","tag-type-au","tag-type-plot-departure"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/andbirds.org\/sc\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/andbirds.org\/sc\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/andbirds.org\/sc\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/andbirds.org\/sc\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/andbirds.org\/sc\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=59"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/andbirds.org\/sc\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/andbirds.org\/sc\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=59"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/andbirds.org\/sc\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=59"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/andbirds.org\/sc\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=59"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}