What does Jane Austen have to do withThe Bachelor, Crossfit and paleo diets?

Because her classic novel — the one you probably last read at school —Pride and Prejudicehas been remade into a novel calledEligible.

And let me tell you, it’s a rip-snorter, vastly different to what you read in Year 11 English.

It’s the latest read for the Book Club podcast. And the most entertaining one yet:

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Pop culture remakes of Jane Austen novels are nothing new: Her classics have been adapted into film, TV, and theatre.Bridget Jones’ Diaryhas many noted links withPride and Prejudice,Emmawas made into the Alicia Silverstone classicClueless, Sense and Sensibilityhad a modern-day remake in Hilary Duff’sMaterial Girls.

But this version of the Bennet family, and of grumpy Darcy, a Bridget Jones-esque Liz Bennet, and the very dashing Hugh Grant-ish character have had a modern American makeover that in many parts made me snort with laughter.

And of course, as ever, their mum has just one thing on her mind: how to marry off her daughters.

Enter Chip Bingley, a handsome new-in-town doctor who’s fresh offThe Bachelor-esque reality TV dating showEligible… and his best friend, snobby-arsed neurosurgeon Fitzwilliam Darcy.

The other modern remake:Bridget Joneswas based on Pride and Prejudice. (post continues after video)

This novel was the fourth book in The Austen Project, which pairs six bestselling contemporary authors with Jane Austen’s six complete works.

Curtis Sittenfeld is one of the brightest writers in the US landscape — her non-fiction has been published inThe New York TimesandThe Atlantic,and so to be charged with a task such as this, would have seemed monumental.

This froths over with delightful, funny, pop culture references and touches on themes that propel this book straight into 2016: transgender characters, race and class divides, campus assault, anorexia, sperm donors and IVF, the battle of career vs family, and a protagonist who is childfree by choice. There’s hate sex and reality TV and an ending that not even the most modern feminists among us saw coming.

Read Caroline Overington’s The One Who Got Away? Tap that here.

OR Liane Moriarty’s Big Little Lies? Tap that here.

This modern re-telling pissed SO many people off. You can’t imagine the outrage over taking a Jane Austen book and injecting it into the modern world. Which is excellent for book club, because we’re all about the page turners with bite.

I’m not a critic, but I know what I like. And in my opinion this book was a deeeee-light. Read it. Read it. Read it. And then come join the book club. It’s what Jane Austen would have wanted.

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