And I actually grew up in Cincinnati, though I've never lived there as an adult. As an American, I think they always assumed I'd set mine in the United States. I wrote Eligible after I was invited by two British editors to be part of what they were calling The Austen Project-assigning six contemporary novelists to tell present-day versions of each of Austen's six novels.

Why did you choose to set Eligible in the United States? How did you select Cincinnati in particular? The English countryside is an iconic setting for Jane Austen’s stories. I had the opportunity to ask Sittenfeld a few questions about why she chose these locations as the setting for her book and what historic places are important to her.

(I mean, it is pretty hard to compete with Mr. What I didn’t expect was how the places where Sittenfeld chose to set her story would capture my imagination her vivid descriptions of the various Cincinnati neighborhoods and the lush expanse of the grounds of the Bay Area-adjacent Pemberley captivated me almost as much as the characters did. I was even more excited to read Eligible after a friend told me that my employer, the National Trust for Historic Preservation, makes a cameo appearance as the potential future steward for Pemberley, the fabled Darcy family home.Īs expected, I loved the book. Her nonfiction has appeared in The New York Times, The Atlantic, Time, and Vanity Fair, and on public radio's This American Life.As a longtime Jane Austen fan, I was already looking forward to reading Eligible, a new novel by award-winning writer Curtis Sittenfeld based on Austen’s classic Pride and Prejudice. In addition, her short stories have appeared in The New Yorker, The Washington Post Magazine, Esquire, and The Best American Short Stories, for which she has also been the guest editor. Her books have been translated into thirty languages. Curtis Sittenfeld is the New York Times bestselling author of six novels, including Rodham, Eligible, Prep, American Wife, and Sisterland, as well as the collection You Think It, I'll Say It. Her nonfiction has appeared in The New York Times, The Atlantic, Time, and Vanity Fair, and on public radio's This American Life.

Eligible by curtis sittenfeld