California Literary Review

Web Site:

http://myjaneausten.com

Books on Amazon:

My first book which came out in 1980, was a work of non-fiction, Getting Even With Getting Old.

In my fiction (under the pseudonym JULIA BARRETT) I have addressed myself to the work of Jane Austen, attempting to pick up Austen's wonderful creations, to extend our encounters with them while keeping with her own themes, speaking in her language, and remaining true to her remarkable wit.

My first attempt (under the pseudonym of Julia Barrett) was Presumption: An Entertainment, a sequel to Jane Austen's PRIDE AND PREJUDICE * (which I undertook with the assistance of Gabrielle Donnelly, an English novelist).

I pursued my fiction altogether by myself subsequently, though given the success of PRESUMPTION kept the pseudonym of JULIA BARRETT (this, at the demand of my publisher). I have done so with each book ever since.

I next turned to Austen's SENSE AND SENSIBILITY, a work entitled The Third Sister.**

The third was entitled Jane Austen's Charlotte: Her Fragment of a Last Novel.*** It takes the unfinished manuscript abandoned by the author at her death (a mere seventy-odd sheets) and brings it to its conclusion. This novel was to answer the recurring fictional question left unanswered in her lifetime, one that has plagued scholars over generations: Where might she have gone next?

And currently, I have completed a new work which is to be entitled, MARY CRAWFORD: REVISITING AT MANSFIELD PARK and which awaits publication.


* This work was called by THE LONDON TELEGRAPH "the next best thing to discovering a hitherto lost novel by Jane Austen "and THE NEW YORK TIMES wrote of it "energetically and often delightfully handled, evoking the spirit of PRIDE & PREJUDICE" while BRITISH HERITAGE added, "a glittering gem. The title gives fair warning of (Barrett's) approach: respect and common sense with a strong dose of humor."

** Of this new book, THE NEW YORK TIMES said, "...a good story, tight writing and a heroine with brains and charm. BRITISH HERITAGE MAGAZINE declared, "Both Barrett and Austen excel at what should be the primary goal of novelists, yet one that so few authors seem to be able to achieve: capturing our imaginations, holding us spellbound, and, even after the story's resolution, leaving us wanting to know more."

*** Of that work, THE WASHINGTON POST said, "Barrett's vision is sound and she brings this very entertaining book to a proper Austen-like conclusion, in which foolishness is chastened, strength of character rewarded and society...hums in equilibrium once more." The LIBRARY JOURNAL tells us too that, "Barrett knows the style and themes of her predecessor thoroughly...it is difficult to know when Austen leaves off and Barrett begins.."

Articles written for the California Literary Review:

• All Whom I Have Loved by Aharon Appelfeld
  Posted on 10 Apr 2007 in Fiction Reviews, Historical Fiction
  

  Aharon Appelfeld’s new novel, All Whom I Have Loved is indeed a riveting, if ominous tale, a story we learn from the near-desperate utterances of a child facing not only his own developmental and family struggles, but the turmoil of an unwelcoming world, that of the East Europe of a prospering Nazi party in the late 1930s!