One Read Leads to Another…

We’re always getting book recommendations from our friends. (In fact, here are a few of mine for you!) Sometimes from online lists – “50 Must-Read Books”,  Goodreads, etc.  But have you ever taken a book recommendation from another book or a movie?

I’m not talking about when you see a great movie, which motivates you to go back and read the book it was based on. Naturally, that happens all the time. That’s how a lot of us started reading Jane Austen, right? – we watched a wonderful movie adaptation first. I mean when a book is mentioned in another book or in a movie. And so you wonder about it, look it up, and decide to read it. I’ve done that fairly often. Sometimes, any excuse will do!

I’ll give you a couple of prime Jane Austen examples.  If you’ve read Northanger Abbey, you know that in it there’s a lot of discussion about Mrs. Radcliffe’s gothic novels, especially The Mysteries of Udolpho.

“The person, be it gentleman or lady, who has not pleasure in a good novel must be intolerably stupid. I have read Mrs. Radcliffe’s works, and most of them with great pleasure. The Mysteries of Udolpho, when I had once begun it, I could not lay down again. I remember finishing it in two days, my hair standing on end the whole time.” (Henry Tilney, Northanger Abbey, chapter 14)

Naturally, Henry Tilney’s enthusiasm made me curious! Yes, The Mysteries of Udolpho is a real book, published in 1794, one Jane Austen actually read herself.  So, of course I wanted to also! Much to my surprise, I discovered it was available through my local public library. I checked it out and read it. It took me at least a couple of weeks (not two days like Henry Tilney), and I didn’t feel my hair stand on end even once, which was disappointing. Tame by today’s standards and painfully long-winded.

So I didn’t become a big fan, but I was glad to have at least satisfied my curiosity. The same goes for the play Lovers’ Vows. That’s the controversial stage play the young people decide to put on in Mansfield Park.  Wondering what all the fuss was about, I looked it up and read it online. Again, very tame by today’s standards. Again, curiosity satisfied! I haven’t yet found and read Harriet’s recommendation to Robert Martin: The Romance of the Forest (Emma).

Movies have recommended books to me too.  I read Ursula Le Guin’s The Lathe of Heaven because that author’s work was praised in the movie version of The Jane Austen Book Club (don’t remember if it was in the book or not). I had seen TLoH on our bookshelf before (my husband reads sci-fi), but I never would have picked it up if it wasn’t for Grigg’s challenge to Jocelyn (and vicariously to me too) – that she should try reading something in a new genre. (And if I hadn’t already read Mysteries of Udolpho, its mention in this movie would have made me do it!)

Also, I read Ballet Shoes by Noel Streatfeild because of Kathleen Kelley’s tearful endorsement of the series in You’ve Got Mail.  Sadly, I have yet to lay my hands on a copy of the original book that inspired that movie:  The Shop Around the Corner (although I have seen the 2 older movie versions of it: The Shop Around the Corner, and In the Good Old Summertime).

Do you see how one thing leads to another… and then another? A movie mention leads me to a novel. Then in turn, I might be inspired to do a little research on the interesting real-life incident both are based on, or to check out a biography about the author, or the next book in the series, or… and down the rabbit hole we go…

One more You’ve Got Mail connection. I originally read Pride and Prejudice after seeing a movie adaptation, but I wonder how many people have been enticed to read it for the first time because it was featured in YGM. Or how about reading Persuasion because it’s incorporated into the plot of The Lake House? Do you suppose many Jane Austen fans have gotten their start that way?I know I’ve received more literary ‘referrals’ – books I’ve read after they were mentioned in other books or movies. Unfortunately, I can’t seem to recall them now. 🙁  If you’re interested, this article gives  a list of 26 Books Featured in Movies, two of them Jane Austen titles.

I just love the idea that a book (or a character in a book) can recommend the next thing I will read! Which made me consider if I’ve ever done that myself – mentioned a book in one of my books. I knew I’d used Romeo and Juliet a couple of times. But then I remembered a dinner party scene in Leap of Hope (modern girl goes back to Regency England looking for her own Mr. Darcy). Trying to fit in with her Regency company, our time-traveling heroine Hope/Kathleen tosses out…

“I just recently finished The Mysteries of Udolpho. Perhaps you have heard of it.”

“Udolpho! By Mrs. Radcliffe?” he exclaimed.

“Why, yes,” I answered. “Have you read it too, Mr. Kingsley?”

“Read it? I locked myself in my room and raced through it all in one sitting, refusing to go out or come down for meals until I had finished. Wasn’t it splendid?”

Here, some of the others within his reach joined in with their eager opinions. Meanwhile, I bowed out of the conversation and returned my attention to Mr. Cavanaugh with a calm smile.

He looked a little surprised by this. “You do not share their enthusiasm for this book?”

“I am glad to have read it, but I really did not care much for it myself. I thought it overly melodramatic and tediously long.”

“Other things are more to your taste.”

“Exactly.” I was thinking of Jane Austen’s novels, but I didn’t elaborate for obvious reasons.

“Such as…” he then said, leadingly.

He was waiting for my answer. I panicked. I couldn’t say Pride and Prejudice or Anne of Green Gables or any of my other favorites that came to mind, since none of them had been published yet. And after The Mysteries of Udolpho, I was fresh out of novels that had been!

“Oh, nothing that would interest you, I’m sure,” I mumbled at last. “They are only novels, after all.”

“You might be surprised what interests me, Miss Kathleen…”

You may have noticed from this excerpt that Miss Kathleen’s opinion of TMoU just happens to be remarkably similar to my own. Surprisingly (or not), my heroines almost always agree with me about everything!

What about you? Have you ever followed a literary referral – one book or movie recommending another? Or did you discover Jane Austen after hearing her name or one of her books mentioned someplace other than the obvious (a JA book adaptation or modern interpretation, etc.)? Have you followed any of the same rabbit tracks I have? Please share your story!

Progress Update: My 10th JAFF novel, Colonel Brandon in His Own Words, is finished! It’s now working its way through the post-production phase (proof reading, formatting, cover design) with a view to a summer publication date! Read more about it here.