Guest post written by Pride and Prejudice in Space author Alexis Lampley
Alexis Lampley is an author, illustrator, and Austen enthusiast who can be found @alexislampley, for writer life updates, @nerdyink, for her bookish business with her husband, @latenightletterer, for hand-lettering and illustration, and @dropandgivemenerdy, for all things bookstagram. Alexis lives in Gulfport, Mississippi with her husband.
About Pride and Prejudice in Space: Embark on a journey through the stars with Pride and Prejudice in Space, a vibrant and exquisitely illustrated reimagining of a classic of literary fiction. This fresh take on a beloved story intertwines the elegance of the Jane Austen novel with the adventurous spirit of sci-fi books, creating a unique reading experience for fans of both genres—and perfect for readers of Pride and Prejudice and Zombies
I wish I could say that my love for this story began with the book. But in truth, I came to Pride and Prejudice via the 2005 movie. That DVD played so often in the background as I wrote my first novel in college that I had even the director’s commentary memorized. I hadn’t heard of the 1995 BBC adaptation and wouldn’t find it for many years. (Due in part, I’m sure, to my stubborn loyalty to the movie, and my unwillingness to see anyone other than Matthew Macfadyen as Mr. Darcy).
I had always believed a book was superior to its movie. But it took me a couple years before it finally struck me that I’d never tested the saying on Pride and Prejudice. It felt like an injustice that needed to be corrected, so I went to the bookstore. Now, I have a deep love not only for the story but for the many iterations of the cover.
My first copy, a pink mass market Barnes and Noble paperback, was anything but fancy. I wanted a version that matched what I felt about the story, but this cover didn’t do it justice. I must have lamented my copy’s pitiful cover often enough for my friends to notice. Come the following Christmas, they had bought me four different editions of the book with wildly different covers. It was here that my annual December reading of the story began, a different edition each year. I now have enough copies to last the rest of my life, and I love seeing the many ways each cover interprets and presents throughout the story. It’s why, ultimately, I put three different versions into the world myself. In fact, the first cover I created would be the early soil from which the tree of my artistic career—and eventually my small business, Nerdy Ink—would grow.
That first cover (below) was designed for a small publisher called Creative Action Network. The second would be a pocket edition we published directly through my business. The third (below) was the catalyst for Pride and Prejudice in Space.
In the summer of 2020, while in the early stages of design for that third edition of Pride and Prejudice, my husband and I had an opportunity for a kid-free vacation. Not one to squander the chance to squeeze productivity out of unexpected free time, I stayed up late each night of that trip catching up on reading and brainstorming for work.
One of the 70+ copies of Pride and Prejudice in my collection is a Pulp style cover featuring Colin Firth as Mr. Darcy. It’s one of my favorites because it’s such a delightful juxtaposition of exterior art and interior world. Suddenly I saw an opportunity for a similar, charming mismatch for my own edition, but with the cover designed to look like a vintage Sci-Fi novel.
While I briefly considered actually changing the interior to match this new cover, I very quickly and almost subconsciously dismissed it. But when I shared my first cover sketch with my husband the next morning, he encouraged me to consider it. He has always been a champion of my work both as an artist and a writer. While I was hesitant to think it was my place to alter my favorite story, he was entirely confident I could pull it off, and suggested we print it ourselves once I wrote it. I had self-published a book before, and we’d successfully published one book already. It wasn’t out of the realm of possibility. And so, in the sunlight of his encouragement, I let the seed take root.
My first attempt was to change only the setting, leaving Austen’s words largely untouched. I didn’t want this to be “inspired by” Pride and Prejudice in a way that you had to squint at the details to connect the pieces. I wanted it to be the pieces. Pride and Prejudice, just…in Space, with Austen’s era transplanted into a technologically advanced space-faring world. I soon realized the issues with that. Most glaringly, I was asking my future readers to essentially reread the classic. There was a part of me that felt it would be wrong to put my voice over Austen’s—I didn’t want to overstep in a story that I loved so dearly. The more I wrote, however, the more confident I became in adding my vision, the more I listened to the constant refrains of my early readers who begged for “more space!” My goal then became to honor the original in every way that I could, to write in collaboration with Jane Austen, rather than feeling I was imposing my work upon hers.
How best, then, to bring readers into the world I envisioned?
To me, as an artist, the most natural way to build a world to complement the plot was to do it visually. What better way to be certain that the exterior matches the interior, than to pull the art from the cover and sprinkle it inside? Through the development of each character’s handwritings, spaceship designs, communication logs, brochures, notes, maps, and a myriad of additional ephemera, the world becomes more tactile and immersive. It allows me to offer up information in engaging ways that won’t detract from the story. (insert: COMS) I don’t know what this story would have been without the art. A drawing could convey knowledge without the need of a paragraph of exposition or drive the plot forward with nothing more than a sketch. (insert: LYDIA DRESS) In every instance, my goal was to enhance the reader’s experience and add depth to the story.
Another important aspect was balancing Austen’s world with a more futuristic setting, but without the social constraints that make her story what it is. I would often wrestle with this question. How can I let the women and girls in my adaptation have these freedoms and yet keep them restrained by the rules of the time? Then I look at the world that we are currently living in, and I have my answer. So, I focused on the Bennet sisters’ inner lives, their talents, and their relationships with one another; celebrating their sisterhood—which I’ve always seen but wished was more apparent—and how they lift one another up in big and little ways throughout the story.
The one exception to my rule of staying true to the original was that of Lydia’s storyline. When I initially watched the movie, I saw Lydia as self-obsessed and annoying, a girl who didn’t care about the consequences of her actions. When I read the book, I felt her ending was deserved. And then I watched The Lizzie Bennet Diaries, and my perspective changed. The present-day setting revealed Lydia’s situation with Mr. Wickham for what it actually was: A fully-grown man grooming an underage girl. The era of the original setting had obscured this for me, but now I could relate. I remember being a boy-crazy 15-year-old. If I’d been more outgoing, I could easily have ended up like her. Suddenly I saw so much of myself in her. What kind of artist could I have been if I’d spent my time nurturing my potential back then, instead of chasing boys? What if those around her had seen her potential instead of only her actions? I got to grow up, and Lydia deserved the same.
And look where that has landed me. Not only have I gotten to adapt and illustrate one of my favorite novels of all time, but because of the work I do—in part thanks to that little pink copy that sparked my obsession with alternate book covers—I was able to illustrate the very cover of the novel I wrote. So, my hopes for matching the inside with the outside of the book finally came true, even though to do so meant shifting the genre to sci-fi. I could not have done it without the invaluable influence of so many adaptations that came before me.
