What if you were Elizabeth Bennet? This book imagines just that!

What if you could control the plot of your own Austen novel?

My love of Austen owes a great deal to Colin Firth, who was kind enough to strip down to his undergarments and jump into a pond in service of the 1995 BBC TV adaptation of Pride and Prejudice, a scene which we all know is not in the original, but which just goes to prove that strictly faithful adaptations aren’t always the best.

I joke, of course (do I?), but this sparkling adaptation—which has delighted and inspired Austen fever in successive generations—was my first introduction to Austen and the spark that ignited a still-burning love affair. When I got to Oxford and there was a chance to specialize in one particular author, of course I chose Austen and those months steeped in her novels, juvenilia, letters, and life story, felt decadently and almost illegally enjoyable. It was when I was in the library around that time, idly staring into space instead of doing whatever it was I was supposed to be doing, that the idea for You Are Elizabeth Bennet first dropped into my mind (which is a good reminder to stare into space more, and at my phone less). I immediately dashed off an email to my friends and family with a snippet of the sort of thing I had in mind, and then sat on the idea for several years before finally bringing it into being.

As a child, mostly thanks to having an older brother, I’d been a fan of interactive fiction like Choose Your Own Adventure and Fighting Fantasy and the idea of using all of Austen’s works to create one single narrative world through which the reader gets to go on a reading adventure based on the decisions they make at various points felt unspeakably delightful. As I got deeper into writing it, I realised of course that ‘choice’ is a central theme in Austen, and about the only agency an Austen heroine has. She may not have much money, or good enough connections, or any means of advancing her status in life except by marriage, but an Austen heroine directs her fate by saying ‘yes’ or ‘no’ to the choices offered her.

In our modern world where dating apps create the illusion of almost infinite choice, it feels even more fitting to offer Elizabeth Bennet a choice of almost all of Austen’s eligible bachelors (and just the right number of ineligible ones). There’s even the chance to say no to them all and become a writer instead, as Austen herself did, which I hope makes it a satisfying Austen-themed adventure for everyone. 

You can purchase your own copy of You Are Elizabeth Bennet at the bookseller of your choice, or here.

Emma Campbell Webster studied English Literature at the University of Oxford where she specialized in Austen. She later worked as an actress in theatre and television before going on to write her first book, You Are Elizabeth Bennet. Originally from Norwich, England, she now lives in Los Angeles with her two daughters, Eliza and Amelia, and Labradoodle, Wally.