Blunt-spoken Elizabeth (Lizzy) Bennet and her sister, Jane, are staring down yet another summer of ultra-rich Manhattan “cidiots” invading their turf. At 25, Lizzy is a proud yet seemingly stuck East Hampton local — an avid surfer, aspiring journalist and devoted helper in her family’s struggling bakery. But when rich heartthrob Charlie Pierce and his aloof friend Will Darcy breeze into town, things are never the same for the Bennet sisters.
Sound a little familiar? Fans of Jane Austen will want to get their hands on this charming retelling of ‘enemies-to-lovers’ classic Pride and Prejudice. But here, Austen’s beloved characters are transplanted to the Hampton’s ritzy shores, where class and money clash, feuds and rumors run amok, and Lizzy and Will’s misunderstandings and misjudgments thwart true love.
Southforker chats with co-authors and long-time friends Audrey Bellezza and Emily Harding about their new book, Elizabeth of East Hampton, the follow-up to their first modern-day Austen revamp, Emma of 83rd Street. If you’re looking to devour some pages over the weekend (and maybe escape reality for a beat), this is your next read. Answers have been edited for brevity.
Southforker: Pride and Prejudice has been turned into so many adaptations: film, TV series, books. Why do you think it so adored and how does Elizabeth of East Hampton freshen the source material?
Emily Harding: For better or for worse, the reason we relate to Jane Austen so well is that not a lot has changed. You could say that she was ahead of her time, or you could just say the position of women hasn’t really changed that much. It’s still relatable. All the iterations show that it not only translates to different times, but also different cultures, situations and types of romantic relationships. What would the five sisters look like today? How would people relate to them if they were now in the Hamptons? That was hard but a lot of fun. All of Jane Austen’s books bring up different conversations about class and a woman’s place. I just love her.
Audrey Bellezza: The enemies-to-lovers feeling is so compelling. At the end of the day, it’s a love story. Two, actually. There is the first sight love story, and then there’s the earned love story, so we tried to stay true to that. But we modernized it. All they cared about [in the original] was getting married, but now it’s about figuring out my future, my life, do I want to go to grad school, do I want to start a company?
SF: Who was your favorite character to write?
AB: I really loved exploring Elizabeth’s character. Because of our television background, and because we’re writing together, we develop these character sheets before we start writing. In the original Pride and Prejudice, she walks everywhere, so we continued that and added the surfing. And she’s cool. She’s into music and vintage T-shirts. Figuring out that character was really fun.
SF: How did the iconic Mr. Darcy end up as a blonde surfer?
EH: We made him blonde because it was the stigma in romances that the main love interest can never be blonde (laughs). I think one of Jane Austen’s initial ideas with Elizabeth Bennett and Mr. Darcy was that they were the antithesis of the romance couple. [In our book], Charles and Jane [Bennet] are the perfect romance couple, love at first sight, and then you have Will and Elizabeth, who are just kind of a mess. We figured if he’s the antithesis, he’s got to be blonde. Romance readers will laugh when they see it.
SF: And you brought in his perspective, too.
EH: It was fun because we did the dual POV, so we were allowed to kind of delve in there. It’s one of the original grumpy/sunshine romances, where he must evolve as a person to be with Lizzie. But we got to see that evolution and realize that he does have a very tragic history. Everyone he loved and trusts in his life betrays him or dies. We’re all so hard on him, but he’s doing the best he can.
SF: You both come from TV production and development. Audrey, you’re a two-time Emmy Award–nominated TV producer, and Emily, you’re a writer and TV producer. How did that translate into collaborative novel writing for your first book and then this one?
AB: A lot of Google Docs! We set out this outline exactly the way we would with a television show. We split up the chapters, split up the episodes, and then we kind of just wrote them for each other. We didn’t have any grand plans, but then we got an agent and then Simon and Schuster was like, yep, we’re in!
EH: And then it did well. So they wanted another one, but a Pride and Prejudice. I don’t think we ever even had a discussion. Obviously it would be the Hamptons.
SF: Are there real Hamptons landmarks that weave their way into Elizabeth of East Hampton?
EH: We made a conscious choice to make certain places, like the bakery or the surf shop, amalgamations—a little bit of everything. The Lodge in the book is really the [Stephen] Talkhouse. It’s not exactly the same place, but the same vibe. The Hamptons changes each generation, so we tried to make it so whoever was reading it would still be like, ‘Oh, that’s that!’ even though it might have changed.
SF: What did you love most about researching the book?
Being able to talk to people with a Hamptons history. It’s a rich culture and heritage out there that is forgotten by this pomp and circumstance that arrives for three months every year. It was important for us to get it right and translate for the modern day.
SF: Do you both have a personal connection with the Hamptons?
AB: My parents met in the Hamptons in the late ’60s, early ’70s, and when they had kids, they wanted to continue that. So we used to go out to the Hamptons, to the motels in Montauk, and we fell in love with the area. We had some friends who had homes out there, so we were able to research the area and fall in love with it again.
EH: My husband is English and he’s actually from Hertfordshire, which is where the Bennets live in Pride and Prejudice. It’s just this idyllic countryside where you have a lot of people from London who come out and buy homes, but you also have people who were born and raised there who love it year-long. That’s the Hamptons!
SF: Will you be publishing a recipe for Bennet Bakery’s famous sour cherry muffins?
AB: That is absolutely one of our ideas. I’m working on that.
Elizabeth of East Hampton is available August 6. Meet the authors at these local readings and book signings: Friday, August 9, 5 p.m., Southampton Arts Center; Zibby Owens panel with Swan Huntley Saturday, August 10, 5 p.m., Herrick Park, East Hampton Library’s 20th Annual Authors Night
