 Oh no. Oh no. Oh no. We are friends. It is a loud and you're having me want. It's not my fault you picked a hard project. Mara hugely disagrees with me. Generally speaking, I hate retellings. Not always, but they are the exception out the rule when I like a retelling. And yet I always pick them up because if it's something that I love and you promise to be like it or promise to capture something of what I loved about that in your story, I'm like, yes, please. And nine times out of 10, I'm like, oh no. Oh no. Oh no. So when retellings are done right, I think that should be celebrated. And that's what we're gonna do today because this author is two for two. And not since Madeleine Miller have we had a track record like that on retellings. So I want to talk to you today about, I don't know what the series is called or if it even has a name, but Pride and Peer Meditation and Sense and Second Degree Murder by Teresa Price. Oh, it says it literally on the cover. A Jane Austen murder mystery, although it's a pretty uninspired name for the series if that is the name of the series. So the title did not make that apparent to you. This is a retelling of Pride and Prejudice, but it is a murder mystery. And this is a retelling of Sense and Sensibility, but it is a murder mystery. And these retellings play pretty fast and loose with their source material. But that being said, they also play kind of fast and loose with historical, I guess historical detail, historical, historical stuff. I mean, these are two things that are huge pet peeves of mine, things that are almost guaranteed to get you on my chopping block, phrase and borrowing from Angela from Literature Science Alliance, because I like it. But like retellings already, almost a zero hit rate with me. And then if you're, if you're messing with historical detail in a way that is noticeable, I am, I did a whole rant video that was literally just talking about that for one book. It wasn't even a book review per se. It was just nitpicking, everything had got wrong in history, or as, as pertains to historical detail. And that was half sick of shadows and I'll leave that link down below if you're curious. So these are things that like drive me nuts that I call out and nine times out of 10 annoy the bejesus out of me. So the fact that I like Pride and Pre-Reditation and Sense and Second-degree murder should tell you something. Why, why these work for me and why others don't? Well, there's many reasons why others know, but these work for me because I think these are prime examples of what I often talk about when I talk about historical detail and when it can be messed with. So in the half sick of shadows video that I just referenced, and in other videos, and actually me and Hilary from Book Born had a whole discussion about historical accuracy in fiction, it doesn't matter, why does it matter? How does it work? How much does it, you know, should that be paid attention to? Is there ever a time when it doesn't matter at all? So that was I think a pretty lengthy discussion. So I'll leave that link down below as well. But when she and I talked about in that video and what I've talked about many times when it comes to criticizing fiction for its attention or lack of attention to historical detail, is if you have changed details, I require that to be done consciously. The comparison that I often make is to art, you know, when you students of artists like Picasso, they didn't start with cubism, you know, they they learned how to do a regular normal still life first, trying to paint things accurately, correctly, trying to mimic something looking realistic, those traditional techniques. And then once they've mastered those, then they can start messing with it and start consciously altering that and consciously changing that. And we can talk about whether or not it's important, like how, you know, the study of an art affects artists and might inhibit creativity. That's a valid conversation to be having. But I think it's still a good comparison for what I'm talking about, which is, you should know what the historical details are before you write the thing. And then if you decide that for your story, you are going to change that and are consciously choosing to change that, because there is a reason for it, not that you have no idea what history was like, it just feels vaguely like it could have been like this, might have been like this, who knows if it was like this, but I want it to be like this, so you just make it that without any attention to why it may not have been like that. And that's when it falls apart. If you have no idea, but if you do know what it was, if you do know what the situation was, what the rules were, what the laws were, what customs were in place, etc, etc, etc, what resources were available, what modes of transportation were in use, what the fashions were at the time, things like this, if you know those things and are like, but for my story, I'm going to change it and this is how and this is why. By necessity, you have already a greater awareness of the context in which you are placing this new thing or the context that you are changing by introducing this thing or by changing this thing. So in my view, you are more likely to be able to more organically insert this thing that technically doesn't belong there, because you are consciously choosing to do this. So that's one of the main reasons why these books work for me. Because there's an afterword by the author explaining the things that she did change, the things that she was inspired by that really did happen and how she sort of took that and ran with it or asked, okay, this didn't happen, but what if it did? What might that look like? And that's why it works because it doesn't feel like she's just like completely wibbly wobbly on, I don't know, put skirts and corsets on them and call it historical. Like, that drives me nuts. There are so many books I read, well, not so many, but it feels like many, where the only thing historical about it is that they have a horse and carriage and not a car. And I'm like, but you clearly wanted to tell a modern story. Nothing about this story is historical other than the fact that they're dressing funny. So if that's the only thing that she wanted, I don't know, right about cosplayers in the modern day, because everything about the situation, the way they're behaving, what they're talking about, what their customs are, what their slang is, what their dialogue is like, what the social norms are that you're depicting have nothing to do with the era that you are ostensibly writing about. And it drives me wild. So these books do a pretty decent job, in my opinion, of saying, okay, was this typical of the time? No. Is there any evidence that anybody was getting up to this at the time? Again, no. But is it possible that they could have, i.e., where the resources for this technically available? Yes. Okay. So if the resources were technically available, how might one go about acquiring things like this or go about doing things like this? And how would other people in their lives react to them doing things like this? So it's that kind of thought process that makes it feel a lot more authentic and organic, as opposed to, again, just like a modern story, but in a corset. So well done on historical detail. Is it perfect? No. Does she take liberties? Again, absolutely. But it feels consciously done. It feels like care and thought was put into what and how much could be changed without completely taking you out of the historical setting and also still making it feel like pride and prejudice and sense of sensibility. So again, and this is where she takes great liberties with the stories themselves that she's retelling. And this is why they work as retellings for me as well. Because if you retell something and it's basically the exact same story as the one you're retelling, well, that's borderline plagiarism. Then you're just kind of like, this was a great story. How can I cash in on that? Oh, I know. I will retell it. And unless, you know, you're doing a really good job kind of subverting the entire story by changing one element. If your story is almost the exact same, I'm like, what was the point of that? I'll just go read the original. Alternatively, there's there's books that go so wildly off the mark that have like that are unrecognizable from the story that they're supposedly retelling that I'm like, again, did you just want to cash in on the name that cash in on the fact of it being a retelling of this thing? Because that's a buzzword, but you actually have no interest in retelling the story because it has literally nothing to do with those themes, those characters, that plot or anything. So it's a kind of a fine line to walk a tough needle to thread. I'll grant you this is why they almost never work for me. I'm not saying it's easy to do it. But I still expect it to be done well. And I'll complain about it if it's not. This is the project you set for yourself. So it's not my fault you picked a hard project. So again, these books do a good job of being recognizably the thing that they are, recognizably the thing that they are inspired by. When you read, if let's say you started reading this, but like you didn't know what the title was at all, you didn't know what this was, you just like found a manuscript that was untitled and you started reading it, you'd be like, Brian prejudice, this is Brian prejudice. Okay, this is, I mean, this is not Brian prejudice, but like, this is Brian prejudice. Same with sense and second degree murder. If you had no idea what this was, didn't see the title, let's even say that the character names are the same as from those books, but let's say the character names were changed, you'd still go sense and sensibility. So the the main plot beats the situation these characters are in are recognizably paralleling the situations of the characters from the original stories, but in a new and interesting way that creates a different story because these are murder mysteries. And so obviously there has to be a murder, which is already going to be a different thing. But she doesn't just say, okay, what if I just take the story of pride and prejudice where they're all in their house and they're going to these dances and Mr. Darcy is mean at the dance and like, you know, pride and prejudice and we're like, but what if at the ball, someone fell down dead and now they have to do, you know, an Agatha Christie style, you know, talking to all the guests and then a sit down at the end where Lucy is like, you pursue was just kidding it wasn't you was actually like, no, she doesn't do that. It's not you. It's not nothing like that, frankly. She's she's changed the positions, occupations and social situations of the characters in the story and how they come to meet and how they come to be rivals. She's changed those things while still keeping this core like essential thing about how they feel about each other and how that changes over time, but in a completely different context because Lizzie works for her father was a solicitor or a barrister. I don't, I'm not clear on the difference between those two things. I also don't remember which one he is, but I think he's a solicitor and Darcy works for a rival firm. And there I mean, there we do have a murder mystery that we do, you know, invent a situation where someone is dead and this needs to be investigated. That's the big shift. But so this is the thing that sets up this rivalry between them, isn't that like he said she was ugly at a dance, it's that they are rivals professionally. And that is a completely different situation from what you have in Pride and Prejudice. And yet, as it goes on, you're like, okay, well, this wasn't a dance. But like this conversation that just happened, I know which part of Pride and Prejudice this is, but it's so interesting to see it play out in a total for a totally different reason in a totally different context, while still keeping this like core central truth of the nature of their relationship the same. So I just think it's really well done. And it was really exciting to read it. Because if you have read Pride and Prejudice, you are recognizing stuff. But at the same time, things are necessarily different. And so I personally I'm like turning the page going, okay, well, I know who this is in Pride and Prejudice. And I know what their arc is in Pride and Prejudice, but we got a murder here, and it has to be somebody. So I don't know if that arc is going to be exactly the same. So it's exciting to read that and be like, I mean, I'm seeing a lot of stuff that I know. So some things I'm like, yeah, well, I saw that coming because that's who you are in Pride and Prejudice. But other stuff I'm like, but this is gonna something is going to have to be different. And some things already are a little different. So who is it? What's going to happen? How is this going to go? So I think it's quite exciting to read it as somebody who knows Pride and Prejudice. And then since the second degree murder, I liked even better, partly because I just like sense and sensibility better than Pride and Prejudice. Yes, I am wearing a Pride and Prejudice sweatshirt. They don't make a sense and sensibility sweatshirt because no one else likes sense and sensibility. But sense and second degree murder, it already has a death in sense and sensibility. It's not really a spoiler to say, I don't think because the book, both books open with this. This is how the original sense and sensibility starts. This is the catalyst for a lot of the events of the book that their father dies, the father of the the main family that you're following, the sisters, their father dies in the beginning of the book. That's what sets in motion the change in their life that the book is about. But so in sense and second degree murder, they're like, what if that death was suspicious? Damn, you got yourself a murder mystery. And once this takes place, again, more in an urban environment, I mean, it's still regency. But instead of having the young women living in the countryside and moving to yet another place in the countryside, they're more in the city. It's still the same core situation of being demoted in status, demoting demoted in living conditions. And here again, similarly to Pride and Premeditation, we have the father having had an occupation that one of the sisters was involved with. He's not a lawyer, a solicitor, he's a private investigator. And so this already creates a reason why maybe his death is suspicious. And the middle daughter, Marianne, was very interested in her father's business and helping him a lot and he supported that. But again, it doesn't make the book doesn't paint this as like absolutely normal for her to do a society fully accepting fully accepting this. So she really can't inherit her father's business. And that's like a big point in sense and sensibility, is that they don't inherit their father's property. This is what reduces their circumstances. So the fact that she was able to do this while he was alive, and as soon as he's dead, she can't do it anymore, she can't inherit the business anymore. Like they are, they don't have his income, they don't have his money, they don't have his house. It's still the same situation. But she has those skills that she acquired from when she was working for her father. And the older sister, Eleanor, isn't as passive a character as she is in the original story. But again, her interest is in sort of like scientific experimentation. I've seen this done really stupidly in other books where I complain about this, where they have like a full on laboratory and they're like being, you know, they're basically in stem but in their agency and you're like, but no. Here Eleanor like, because they did have some extra money, so she was able to sort of like buy things and they had apothecaries and they had things like that back in the day. So she could just kind of mix stuff and kind of see what happens and take notes on it, which is like low key how chemistry started. People just sort of mix this stuff together and see oh what happened. And again, as a female in this world in reduced circumstances, she's like, well, how can I try to help my family make money? Maybe I can try to make perfumes, which is a reasonable thing for a young woman to maybe look into possibly doing to make some money for her family. So there's a lot of choices that it makes where I'm like, you're like fitting these interesting things in, but still making them feel believable for the time that's supposed to be taking place. Completely utterly believable, where like, no, not entirely. Like it does feel a little farfetched they'd be doing these things and that they'd get away with it. But it's still done in a manner where you're like, I buy it, I buy it. They would have the ability to do this, the resources to do this, and the way people are reacting to it is pretty much what I would expect. And here again, because it's a murder mystery, the plots of the, the events of the book, of the original book are many of the like sort of key plot points are recognizably present. Certain character dynamics, interactions, certain sort of like epic keystone moments, they happen, but for slightly different reasons in slightly different ways, in slightly different circumstances, but where you're still like, oh, this is that scene where this happens. And how interesting it's happening, not quite that way, of course, but like, interesting, this new reason for that to be happening. So again, as a huge fan of sense sensibility, I'm reading this and going, I recognize that, but oh boy, how interesting and exciting that it's actually this now. And I wonder if it's going to shake out the way that it did in sense and sensibility, or will it go differently? Because we do have a murder, so somebody did it. So something's got to change. So I think it did a fantastic job changing those things and still making it feel like sense and sensibility. Well, also, nothing like sense and sensibility because it's a different setting, different reasons for people to be together, a different place, different stakes, but still very recognizably sense and sensibility and still believably the Regency era. Insummation, these two books, if you like the original books that these are based on, I think there's a lot to love. If you like books that actually kind of care about historical detail and that's not to say that they won't mess with it because, again, she does. She messes with it, but in a way that feels conscious and deliberate and still the bounds of being reasonable. These books sort of, as concerns historical detail, they sort of follow the rule of cool from Dungeons and Dragons, which is would this happen? Would that technically be allowed? Is this technically realistic? No, but it's pretty cool. So we're going to let them do it. So yeah, well done. And I fully intend to read the next one. I think the next one is going to be Manslaughter Park, which would be Mansfield Park. And Mansfield Park is so hated on, I feel like it's everyone's that and Emma are people's least favorites, I think. But Emma still gets more love because of all the film adaptations. People just hate Mansfield Park and I love Mansfield Park. Sense and sensibility and Mansfield Park are two of my favorites because that's just the story of my life, isn't it? So anyway, I recommend these. Definitely pick them up and be excited with me for the next installment, which since sense and second degree murder only came out this year, it'll be a minute. But looking forward to it and yes, well done. So that's all I have to say. Let me know in the comments down below your thoughts and feelings about Austin, about retellings in general, about retellings of Austin, about historical fiction, about historical detail, about caring about that, not caring about that. I'll tell you, Mara hugely disagrees with me. We are friends. It is allowed. She thinks historical accuracy is utter BS and is never a question at all. And I obviously disagree. But we're still friends. It can be done. So let me know your thoughts and feelings, whatever you want to let me know. I post videos on Saturdays. Other random times we'll add up next Saturdays so like and subscribe. Join my Patreon if you feel so inclined and I'll see you when I see you. Bye.