Rating: 
Summary: Better than Jane herself
Review: Arielle Eckstut told me that she wrote this book to turn Jane Austen on her ear. Well she did just that with Pride and Promniscuity. The book is a hilarious send-up of Austen's work, written perfectly in its style. The only difference is that Arielle's work is the "lost sex scenes". You might characterize this as "Jane Austen Meets Jackie Collins".Arielle gives you a look inside Austen's head as to what might have happened if Austen was commissioned to write a romance novel in the style of her day. What was funny for me is that the book is written perfectly in the stodgy stuck up British Style and the sex scenes fit seamlessly into the mix. To see these scenes written in the same manner as the rest of the book gives them an almost surreal quality. They are almost as unreal as some of what happens in Austen's books. Make no mistake. I am a big Jane Austen fan. I find her work fascinating and moving. But I laughed and laughed at this endeavor because it is so preposterous that it is hysterical. For example, just imagine Elizabeth and Marianne from Sense and Sensibility talking about fun with animals (I will leave you to your own devices on that). Or Jane Benett, Mrs. Hurst and Caroline Bingly...together. Or Mr. Collins being VERY bad and being punished. Or Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy... You get the idea. This is not for the faint of heart. If you like Spinal Tap, The Rutles, Airplane and Mel Brooks, you'll love this book. And if you're and Austen fan with a sense of humor as I hope you are, you'll love it too....
Rating: 
Summary: Save your money and your soul!
Review: As a true devotee of Jane Austen and a Cosmo subscriber, I couldn't help but be intrigued by the premise. While Austen's simmering-beneath-the-surface scintillating dialogue just begs to be sexed up for modern readers, this book doesn't quite do the trick. The less-than-perfect ear for Austen's language weighs it down. An ongoing gag about the exact placement of the scenes within the novels (the authors pretend that the sex scenes have been expunged and hidden until now) is more clumsy than fun, because the authors take excruciating care to make the insertions precise. I think a flight of fancy would have been more fun, a free exposition on the themes, language and characters of the novels, rather than this elaborate and somewhat belabored gag. Overall, the authors' concerns with making the silliness of the premise believable outweigh their time spent on making sparks fly; the juiciness of the sex scenes isn't what it could be. It's worth one read-through, but buy it used and let it sit in your living room as a conversation piece. "The Friendly Jane Austen" by Natalie Tyler is a better buy.
Rating: 
Summary: Give it a chance......
Review: I find myself in a state of disbelief that a group of Jane Austen readers, such as those that have preceded me in reviewing, could not get a laugh out of this work. I am not your average Jane Austen fan, for I am both male and 21, but I have noticed the custom that other Jane Austen lovers are some of the brightest and creative people per capita. I find her work delightfully humorous and, though not quite to same standard, I found Pride and Promiscuity rather enjoyable in its absurdity. There were obvious modernities throughout, but I found these to be part of the book's charm. I believe it goes with the territory of this parody; otherwise "Austen" would have been extraordinarily prophetic to write such an exact list of contemporary taboos. I never expect anyone to effectively simulate Austen's ideas or writing, but this was an agreeable farce. I found myself chuckling enough to compensate for those before me, "offended and disgusted." I dare not refer to it as a literary masterpiece, nor the self-proclaimed "discovery of the century," but, as a work of inexorable ludicrousness, I found it well worth my time.
Rating: 
Summary: Pride and Promiscuity: The Lost Sex Scenes of Jand Austen
Review: I was dreadfully disappointed in this book. It sounded as though it was going to be a good laugh, but it turned out to be the most boreing book I have ever read. My recommendation is save your money it is not worth it.
Rating:
Summary: Pride and Promiscuity
Review: I was in a quaint, northern Yorkshire bookstore when this work caught my eye. As I will typically buy anything even remotely related to Jane Austen, as the cover was very much in the style of an early 19th century publication, and as I do enjoy innuendo when done well, I bought it. I began reading it that very night, but was soon disappointed.
First, the circumstances are too bold; Mere insinuation would have better complemented Austen's own writings. Instead, even I was shocked and horrified at many of the downright disgusting scenarios. They ultimately detract from what could have been a very charming and humorous read.
Second, the writing, though superficially in the Jane Austen style, was not remarkable. I know of several people who can achieve the same effect of style with little difficulty (and in fact, I have read several more amusing Austen "sex scenes," written by amateur Austen devotees).
There are a few clever turns, but in considering both the bold scenarios and the mediocre writing, the book, in my opinion, can at most be deemed only mildly amusing.
Rating: 
Summary: Pride and Repugnance
Review: I'm sorry I hated it! I bought something I thought would be different! I guess, maybe, I should have reviewed it more. I'm giving it three stars though, because although I hated it, it was well written and just OKAY. I wouldn't read it again though!
Rating:
Summary: Loosen Your Corset!
Review: I've been reading the other reviews -- what a hoot! It's either 1Star or 5Stars, depending on whether the reader expected some new arcane insight or was reading with a functioning funny bone. The book is a parody -- Jane Austen herself wrote parodies, so she probably would love this book. It's making fun of the restrictive moral conventions that made it so difficult for a woman such as Jane to be published. It actually shows a lot of respect for her writing. It's clear that the authors did a lot of research on the kinds of words and punctuation she used, plus they seem so familiar with her characters. I think it's amazing that Jane Austen created characters that seem so alive that people are able to imagine them in new situations. Other Austen fans will enjoy reading these scenes, and even people who haven't read her books will laugh when they read these sex scenes described with such proper, old-fashioned style. It's a hilarious mix! So, loosen your corset and bust a chuckle!
Rating:
Summary: meh.
Review: It's a fun premise, but it's a pretty light development. Most of the scenes are only mildly funny, and once the delightful thrill of being bad wears off, they become almost boring. On the other hand, the Darcy/Elizabeth scene is utterly hilarious. The prose is solid, but hardly Austenian. Since the entire book takes at most an hour or two to read, it's really not worth the cover price, unless you intend to pass it around to your friends.
Rating:
Summary: Save your money and your soul!
Review: Ok, I, like other reviewers, bought this book because I thought it would be an entertaining piece in the style of Jane Austen containing jane austen's characters. While it does use Jane Austens characters, the style is superficially similar (at best) to the great author. I wasn't expecting more character or plot insight into Pride and Prejudice or Emma, but I also wasn't expecting something that virtually spits on these works! It was a WASTE of money and I had to pick up Persuasion and read it cover to cover just to get my soul back! I gave this book 1 star because it might be an ok read for those who don't have Jane Austens books deeply engrained in their hearts.
Rating:
Summary: Not at all in the style of Jane Austen
Review: The premise of this parody of Jane Austen's work is intriguing, if rather unlikely. An amateur scholar discovers some lost manuscripts of Jane Austen's, presumably risky scenes she was forced to cut from her novels by her editor. After the discovery she contacts a renowned Austen scholar who on the basis of stylistic comparisons pronounces the manuscripts authentic. This part of the book is very entertaining as it makes fun of academic procedures and the propensity of some scholars to focus on issues of grammar and style.
The main part of the book contains the supposedly lost sex scenes from Jane Austen's novels. Though superfluously the text reads like in the style of Jane Austen, a closer look reveals that it is quite badly written in rather stiff prose not the least reminiscent of Jane Austen's language. As to the content, this is even more disappointing; I am no prude and I like my sex scenes hot and steamy, but these were just revolting and lame. Also, the author completely misses one of the main attractions of Jane Austen's novels, which is exactly that the reader is not told everything. I think the great tension between Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy results from the fact, that we as readers can only guess at what they do behind closed doors.
If you cannot get enough of Jane Austen and want to know more about her "real" life, then read her letters, there she is more open and more acerbic then in the novels. Sadly, this book definitely does not live up to its promise.
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