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    The Family Fortune: A Novel
    Unavailable
    The Family Fortune: A Novel
    Unavailable
    The Family Fortune: A Novel
    Ebook346 pages5 hours

    The Family Fortune: A Novel

    By Laurie Horowitz

    3.5/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this ebook

    Jane Austen in Boston: a modern retelling of Persuasion in which the sensible daughter of a flighty Brahmin family finds love against all odds

    Jane Fortune's fortunes have taken a downturn. Thanks to the profligate habits of her father and older sister, the family's money has evaporated and Jane has to move out of the only home she's ever known: a stately brick town house on Boston's prestigious Beacon Hill. Thirty-eight and terminally single, Jane has never pursued idle pleasures like her sibling and father. Instead, she has devoted her time to running the Fortune Family Foundation, a revered philanthropic institution that has helped spark the careers of many a budding writer, including Max Wellman, Jane's first—and only—love.

    Now Jane has lost her luster. Max, meanwhile, has become a bestselling novelist and a renowned literary lothario. But change is afoot. And in the process of saving her family and reigniting the flames of true love, Jane might just find herself becoming the woman she was always meant to be.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHarperCollins
    Release dateOct 13, 2009
    ISBN9780061868436
    Unavailable
    The Family Fortune: A Novel
    Author

    Laurie Horowitz

    Laurie Horowitz began her career as a lawyer in suburban Boston before moving to California, where she became an agent at Creative Artists Agency. She now divides her time between Santa Monica, California, and the Bitterroot Valley in Montana.

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    Reviews for The Family Fortune

    3.5/5

    6 ratings5 reviews

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    • 4/5
      I liked it. I’m not certain that I would go so far as to say that I loved it, but I really, truly liked it. And I was bitter at having to put it down a few times today to clean the house and what not. That is a good sign.

      The Family Fortune is a modern retelling of Persuasion by Jane Austen, and it does a fabulous job. I’ve seen a couple of fan fic type Persuasion stories that do odd things with the character of Mr. Elliot (the junior one who wants Anne) since he is “family” but hot to trot for Anne, as was totally normal in olden times, but really icky these days. The author has thoughtfully updated every aspect of this story.

      I typically don’t care for changing the characters’ names. I usually feel like it’s a coverup–they aren’t yours, we know they aren’t yours, so don’t try to pee on them to mark your territory by making Elizabeth Bennet into Gloria Beauvais, for example. In this story, it worked. Anne Elliot is transformed into Jane Fortune. One of the things I think Horowitz does a really excellent job at is making Jane into the spinster (in her very late 30s) that Austen made Anne. Too many Persuasion knock offs put Jane in her mid to late twenties, and frankly that’s just not the “hopeless” state that Austen had in mind for Anne Elliot.

      Horowitz is rather inventive and departs from the more canonical story by making the Captain Wentworth character (in this version: Max Wellman) actually get his start on his fortune and career success directly from Jane’s influence. Jane has a foundation she establishes on behalf of their family that puts out a literary review. She’s a raging success and doesn’t realize it. She’s a classic shrinking violet, and you love her to pieces. Max is the same idiot that Wentworth is when he first reappears on the scene–hellbent on causing a little pain for Jane as she hurt him all those years ago.

      Jane grows to be more independent than Anne in this version, but I think it’s more of Horowitz’s very clever updating of this story: there are simply more ways we would expect to see Jane break away from her family.

      There were two characters that I questioned in this version: first is that of Captain Benwick (Basil in this version) and second is the younger Mr. Elliot (Guy in this one). Basil isn’t sympathetic in the slightest. He’s a little too full of himself. I never had the impression that Benwick was anything other than a man unfortunate enough to feel too deeply. Basil is just a self-absorbed “tortured” artist. I guess I’ve always felt that if things hadn’t worked out with Anne and Wentworth, Benwick would have made Anne a deserving second place (for a FABULOUS fan fic of that plot line read: Love Suffers Long and Is Kind–don’t read it if you can’t stomach watching Wentworth marry Louisa). By the end of the story, I felt like the characterization of Guy was fine. Maybe the writing thing could have come out sooner?? I don’t know. It was slightly off, but he was definitely the right blend of charm and creepy persistence.

      My biggest beef with this book is the overly short chapters that seem grouped together in chunks of the book. It made those areas a wee-bit choppy.

      Overall, this is a great Austen fan-fic and well worth the read. From what I was able to find, it seems like this is Ms. Horowitz’s first book, and I hope that she is currently being inspired and that we’ll have something else from her soon, Austen or not.

      Oh, and in the interest of full disclosure, if I hadn’t read Pride and Prejudice first, discovered that Darcy was the perfect man, and that in my more inspired moments, I am Elizabeth Bennet, Persuasion would easily have been my favorite Austen book. In fact, if I leave my sentimentality out of it, Persuasion is my favorite. It was Austen’s last complete work, and you can see her maturity, her thoughtfulness. The story is rich, the emotions of the characters completely full. It’s a treat to see Austen deal with the theme of regret so beautifully.
    • 4/5
      Loved this light and breezy modern retelling of Austen's Persuasion!
    • 3/5
      Persuasion is my favorite Jane Austen novel and this is a nice, modern retelling.
    • 2/5
      Not a very good attempt of modernizing Persuasion, but it's tolerable if you can overlook a few unrealistic plots.
    • 4/5
      Laurie Horowitz’s brilliant debut novel began as an exercise, as Horowitz, a Jane Austen enthusiast, thought she needed more practice writing the dialogue of mean people. The result is a witty social commentary on the old rich, interwoven with a love story that will make readers sigh.Technically, THE FAMILY FORTUNE is a retelling of Jane Austen’s PERSUASION. However, it’s interesting to see how Horowitz places the story in modern times. Practical Jane Fortune is 38 years old and perpetually single. She lives in the Fortunes’ old family home with her father, Teddy, and older sister Miranda, neither of whom know the meaning of the word “budget.” Jane spends most of her time either reading books or working for her family’s philanthropic organization, which publishes the literary magazine the Euphemia Review and, every year, grants a promising new writer a place to stay to write his or her novel.When their family is forced to move due to their financial crisis, Jane stays with her sister Winnie’s family for a while. Unfortunately—or luckily, whatever you call it—this means she crosses paths again with Max Wellman, the first recipient of the Fortune Foundation’s literary grant. Max was her first love, but their relationship was stopped by Jane’s disapproving family, who didn’t want her to be with a struggling artiste. Fifteen years later, Max is successful writer with a womanizing reputation, and Jane is still the same as ever. Go figure.Circumstances seem to make it impossible for Max to fall in love with the still-besotted Jane again. Meanwhile, Jane struggles to make an identity for herself, separate from the one her ridiculous family gives her. Maybe it’s only after she learns to love herself that Jane can be open to making her own decisions about her life, and her love.THE FAMILY FORTUNE is a wonderfully told story of the absurdities of high society and the growth of a sensible woman. The romance part of the story left me a bit disappointed, but I appreciated this remarkably successful Austenian-type novel.