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Lux et Veritas: A Pride and Prejudice Retelling
It's junior year at Yale, and Elisa Benner is stressed out. A new class, a new captain of the men's ice hockey team, and a brooding rich kid threaten her academic standing, her confidence, and her humor. Will this modern-day Elizabeth Bennet get the same happy ending as her original counterpart?
Lux et Veritas is a modern retelling of Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen, but readers do not have to be familiar with the original book to understand (and hopefully, enjoy) this version.
Lux et Veritas is a modern retelling of Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen, but readers do not have to be familiar with the original book to understand (and hopefully, enjoy) this version.
333 pages, Kindle Edition
Published September 2, 2019
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15 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
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May 22, 2020I gave up at 16%, sorry. Too much gratuitous explaining! When I got to a point where a characters says he goes to Penn and the author feels compelled to clarify, “The University of Pennsylvania was in Philadelphia,” I had to stop. First of all, if a reader hasn’t heard of Penn, does it matter? And maybe they can guess where it is based on the name, if there is some earthly reason why it matters. Second, the University of Pennsylvania still is in Philadelphia and presumably always will be; why “was”? And that was just the most egregious of the clunky bits. Not for me, sigh.
September 19, 2019
Modern reimagination of Pride and Prejudice.
This modern reimagination unfolds at Yale and I liked many of the quirky details (probably not considered quirky by US citizens) about the life and history of Yale.
It was however a rather dry read. It can be beneficial to sometimes read a book that is interesting but is easy to put down though.
It lacked the emotional aspect of the story. After I had finished it, I was left wondering at what attracted Elisa Benner and Fitzroy Delaney to the other.
The author had changed names, family connections and gender of several of the characters but it was easy to discern who was who. I particularly liked Jamie(Jane), every woman needs a gay best friend...
Worthwhile
This modern reimagination unfolds at Yale and I liked many of the quirky details (probably not considered quirky by US citizens) about the life and history of Yale.
It was however a rather dry read. It can be beneficial to sometimes read a book that is interesting but is easy to put down though.
It lacked the emotional aspect of the story. After I had finished it, I was left wondering at what attracted Elisa Benner and Fitzroy Delaney to the other.
The author had changed names, family connections and gender of several of the characters but it was easy to discern who was who. I particularly liked Jamie(Jane), every woman needs a gay best friend...
Worthwhile
September 30, 2019
3.5 stars rounded up to 4 stars
This is a modern retelling that brought back painful memories of how stressful college was if one tries to balance a social life with the demands of academia.
It was easy to recognize the various characters from P&P as well as the phrases from canon. George Wickley plays the same role but in college life coeds have a choice to file charges for such. Lydia is a "Little Sister" to Elisa which is only a role where the older "sister" is to provide guidance navigating the newcomer around and introducing her to college life. It is not a relationship which requires intimacy.
There are several gay relationships in this tale and, of course, Delaney (Darcy) interferes with one which brings censure from Elisa. Elisa struggles with one college course lead her to having a tutor assigned and he is our "Collins". There were many descriptions of how the campus colleges and grounds were laid out and the desirability of certain dorms over other. I found that hard to imagine, never having been to Yale's campus nor having seen a map layout.
The dean who is monitoring discipline problems and academic progress happens to be Professor de Bourgh who also has an interest in Delaney's life. Delaney's parents are basically non-entities for him and his sister, Janette.
IMHO this is more a tale for young adults. I pushed through it. The creativity in using the general outline from canon was well done.
This is a modern retelling that brought back painful memories of how stressful college was if one tries to balance a social life with the demands of academia.
It was easy to recognize the various characters from P&P as well as the phrases from canon. George Wickley plays the same role but in college life coeds have a choice to file charges for such. Lydia is a "Little Sister" to Elisa which is only a role where the older "sister" is to provide guidance navigating the newcomer around and introducing her to college life. It is not a relationship which requires intimacy.
There are several gay relationships in this tale and, of course, Delaney (Darcy) interferes with one which brings censure from Elisa. Elisa struggles with one college course lead her to having a tutor assigned and he is our "Collins". There were many descriptions of how the campus colleges and grounds were laid out and the desirability of certain dorms over other. I found that hard to imagine, never having been to Yale's campus nor having seen a map layout.
The dean who is monitoring discipline problems and academic progress happens to be Professor de Bourgh who also has an interest in Delaney's life. Delaney's parents are basically non-entities for him and his sister, Janette.
IMHO this is more a tale for young adults. I pushed through it. The creativity in using the general outline from canon was well done.
November 2, 2019
2.5
The book was well edited and spelling etc was good, but the story itself wasn’t very engaging. The book concentrates on telling, rather than showing us, and lacks emotion.
The author spends a lot of time explaining the Yale college system and campus geography in detail, which isn’t really necessary for the story and though interesting enough it takes away from the romance plot. I found it really strange that the author kept adding lines such as “at that time” when explaining an action, eg. she mentions that the college Facebook had just gone online and this is before the social media Facebook existed, she also mentions that a future presidential candidate was a Yale student. It didn’t make sense that Elisa was having these thoughts, as she is living in 2002 and isn’t aware of future developments in any of these areas. It was very jarring and, alongside the other detailed information on Yale, felt like the author forgot she was supposed to be writing a novel. The strange part was that despite all this unnecessary information, as a non-American I had to google the terms junior etc and how the semesters worked which was not explained at all!
The relationship between Elisa and Delaney seems quite juvenile. There is very little emotion. Elisa is physically attracted to Delaney and spends a lot of time agonising over him. It hasn’t got much depth and feels more like a high school age couple, maybe 14/15. The interactions with the Dean are also strangely childish. Possibly it was written for YA? It would make more sense if it’s aimed at a young audience, as they really don’t behave with the maturity or expectations of 20 year olds. It wasn’t clear what changed Elisa’s mind about Delaney. The letter he gave her had barely any information and no detail, yet it somehow made her completely distrust Wickley and trust Delaney, which made no sense. His trust in revealing so much was what convinced her in the original. Right up until she decides he was going to kiss her, she doesn’t like him.
I did like how the author used the college system to
make them ‘sibs’ and the house master a kind of parent. I also liked the inclusion of gay characters. There was some mention of ethnicity and also Elisa being adopted, but not followed through in any plot points.
The book was well edited and spelling etc was good, but the story itself wasn’t very engaging. The book concentrates on telling, rather than showing us, and lacks emotion.
The author spends a lot of time explaining the Yale college system and campus geography in detail, which isn’t really necessary for the story and though interesting enough it takes away from the romance plot. I found it really strange that the author kept adding lines such as “at that time” when explaining an action, eg. she mentions that the college Facebook had just gone online and this is before the social media Facebook existed, she also mentions that a future presidential candidate was a Yale student. It didn’t make sense that Elisa was having these thoughts, as she is living in 2002 and isn’t aware of future developments in any of these areas. It was very jarring and, alongside the other detailed information on Yale, felt like the author forgot she was supposed to be writing a novel. The strange part was that despite all this unnecessary information, as a non-American I had to google the terms junior etc and how the semesters worked which was not explained at all!
The relationship between Elisa and Delaney seems quite juvenile. There is very little emotion. Elisa is physically attracted to Delaney and spends a lot of time agonising over him. It hasn’t got much depth and feels more like a high school age couple, maybe 14/15. The interactions with the Dean are also strangely childish. Possibly it was written for YA? It would make more sense if it’s aimed at a young audience, as they really don’t behave with the maturity or expectations of 20 year olds. It wasn’t clear what changed Elisa’s mind about Delaney. The letter he gave her had barely any information and no detail, yet it somehow made her completely distrust Wickley and trust Delaney, which made no sense. His trust in revealing so much was what convinced her in the original. Right up until she decides he was going to kiss her, she doesn’t like him.
I did like how the author used the college system to
make them ‘sibs’ and the house master a kind of parent. I also liked the inclusion of gay characters. There was some mention of ethnicity and also Elisa being adopted, but not followed through in any plot points.
October 1, 2019
A very nice P&P adaptation set on an Ivy League college campus. The translation of characters into college life was fun and interesting -- it was somewhere said that an old English village can relate in modern times to a campus setting because how self contained it can get ! The timeline was also adapted, fitting into more or less than one semester.
It was fun to read, though many details of this specific college life (Yale) were explained over and over in a way that was helpful and slightly annoying at the same time.
The romance factor was low, even considering that this was a very close and thorough adaptation.
Some key points were not made visible for my perspective, yet it was well structured and true to the spirit of the original.
It was fun to read, though many details of this specific college life (Yale) were explained over and over in a way that was helpful and slightly annoying at the same time.
The romance factor was low, even considering that this was a very close and thorough adaptation.
Some key points were not made visible for my perspective, yet it was well structured and true to the spirit of the original.
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