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Review

The Secret Diary of Lizzie Bennet

Bernie Su & Kate Rorick

This book is based on the YouTube series The Lizzie Bennet Diaries and

is a modern day retelling of Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice.

I would recommend watching the YouTube series before reading this book!

First sentence:

“It is a truth unversially acknowledged that a single man in

possession of a fortune must be in want of a wife.”

My mum gave me that quote on a T-shirt.

Summary:

Twenty‑four‑year‑old grad student Lizzie Bennet is saddled with student loan debt and still living at home along with her two sisters—beautiful Jane and reckless Lydia. When she records her reflections on life for her thesis project and posts them on YouTube, she has no idea The Lizzie Bennet Diaries will soon take on a life of their own, turning the Bennet sisters into internet celebrities seemingly overnight.

When rich and handsome Bing Lee comes to town, along with his stuck‑up friend William Darcy, things really start to get interesting for the Bennets—and for Lizzie’s viewers. But not everything happens on‑screen. Lucky for us, Lizzie has a secret diary.

The Secret Diary of Lizzie Bennet takes readers deep inside Lizzie’s world and well beyond the confines of her camera—from the wedding where she first meets William Darcy to the local hangout of Carter’s bar, and much more. Lizzie’s private musings are filled with revealing details about the Bennet household, including her growing suspicions about her parents’ unstable financial situation, her sister’s budding relationship with Bing Lee, the perils of her unexpected fame, and her uncertainty over her future—and whom she wants to share it with.

source: Goodreads

My opinion:

The Secret Diary of Lizzie Bennet is based not only on Jane Austen’s novel Pride and Prejudice but also on the YouTube series by Bernie Su and Hank Green.

Lizzie Bennet is a master student and lives in California with her older sister Jane and her younger sister Lydia, Lydia’s cat Kitty, her dad and her meddling mother. The story follows Jane Austen’s novel pretty closely but relocates the action to modern day America.

I discovered the YouTube series pretty soon after it launched and fell in love with it immediately. The book now gives a little more insight into the background story that we didn’t see in the web series and completes the story in a perfect way. Lizzie’s voice is conveyed so well and since the end of the web series was at the end of March 2013 it was so nice to revisit the Bennet sisters, her struggles with growing up and their love lives and the embarrassment her mother brings along daily.

It is a well-known story brought back to focus again and that is done really well. If you like Pride and Prejudice adaption I would highly recommend looking into the web series and afterwards read this book. If you are a Jane Austen purist, I am not really sure you will enjoy it but maybe it will be the first adaption you like. Who knows?

You can watch the YouTube series here.

For more information about The Lizzie Bennet Diaries visit the Homepage.

There is also another web series currently running on YouTube that retells Jane Austen’s Emma called Emma Approved and another one that is called Welcome to Sanditon which retells Jane Austen’s unfinished novel Sanditon.