Jane has a crush on Charles Bingley, a student at the neighbouring boy's prep school, Pemberly Academy, who has recently returned from a semester in England with his best friend Darcy. The only people who are nice to her in the whole entire school are her roommate Jane Netherfield and the only other scholarship girl, Charlotte Lucas. SO you have Elizabeth Bennett, a scholarship student in a rich-girl school obsessed with prom. Unfortunately, the author of Prom and Prejudice seems to have absorbed nothing from Pride and Prejudice except the surface story it imparts. Like Clueless, that ridiculously adorable retelling of Emma, so fluffy on the surface, but filled with subliminal messages. So if you want to tell a modern-day story about consumerism-obsessed teens, the economic divide and the superficiality of rich brats, Pride and Prejudice would be the perfect vehicle. Obviously, I'm not saying that every retelling of a classic must impart the same message as the original in fact, what's the fun in that?! The idea is to use that old bastion as a foundation to build a new structure, one that interfaces intelligently with the world you live in. The essence of the literature is in its legacy, and that can only be found in the subtleties and sub-contexts of the novel. So you see, when you are retelling a Jane Austen novel, or any piece of literature, it is not enough to simply use the name of the characters. In an era where women academicians and philosophers were all but unknown, Austen used the only avenue open to her to espouse her brand of social commentary - the novel.' In fact, the story was merely a vehicle to examine critically the mores and customs of the society of her times. 'Jane Austen's purpose in writing her novels was not merely to tell a story. I also said something similar, but in a different context, in my review of The Grand Sophie.

'Fairy tales are generally symbolic stories which mask universal human desires too emotional or frightening to deal with head-on.' Karen wrote something in her review of Ash that I think would be very applicable to Prom and Prejudice as well. She's then going to go all 'Carrie' on them and kick their ass. It's going to be about how Jane Austen rises from her grave and hunts down all the people who write terrible, terrible sequels and retellings of her book. It's going to be called JANE AUSTEN: ZOMBIE TERMINATOR. So I'm going to write my own version of a Jane Austen book.

Prom & Prejudice by Elizabeth Eulberg