This week we read and discussed the essay by Jonathan Lethem called “The Ecstasy of Influence.” In the essay, Lethem discusses examples of copyright and ownership throughout history including Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov.

I recently picked up a copy of The Complete Novels of Jane Austen and have been using her writing to get me through the boredom of quarantine. I’ve been reading Sense and Sensibility relatively quickly so that I can get to Pride and Prejudice, which is one of my favorite novels. As I was reading, I became curious about the ways Austen’s works have been expanded in the years since their original releases, so I did a quick Google search. I searched “books inspired by Pride and Prejudice” and was met with thousands of results.

A list compiled by GoodReads was the first result, so I briefly scrolled through the list of 452 books inspired by Austen’s original. The number one book is That Girl, Darcy: A Pride and Prejudice Story by James Ramos. After skimming through the plot summary, I gathered that the story follows a young boy and his “relationship” with a snide girl named Darcy (coincidence?) after she moves into his neighborhood.

Even with a modern twist, the story sounds as though it follows the original plot fairly closely, even down to the protagonist’s love interest’s name. This novel falls under the umbrella of remix with its movement of the characters to a high school setting and gender-bending the original characters. I think this is a fair example of the things Lethem and Edwards discuss in their pieces because Ramos acknowledges the original novel as his inspiration, but adds his own spin to the plot and characters that makes it appeal to a modern audience.