Two Different Worlds: A Dance from Pride and Prejudice
A chemist may seem an unlikely romance novelist, but Angela Parisi-Menoutis is used to shattering stereotypes. As Board Chair and Senior Vice President of Laboratory Operations at Quantex Laboratories, Parisi-Menoutis is one of a small number of women who direct laboratory and analytical testing for a contract research organization. She recently added “author” to her resume with the publication of her first novel, “Two Different Worlds: A Dance from Pride and Prejudice."   “I’ve read all of Jane Austen’s novels in high school, but “Pride and Prejudice” was special,” she says, adding that she was “captivated” by Mr. Darcy. That made it easy for her to choose the subject of her first novel. “Some people read as a means of escape to another place,” she says, “but I like to write to go into another world. In writing this book, I felt as if I were sharing it with Jane Austen. I was writing alongside her.”   The novel examines what it might be like for a modern day reader to enter into the world of “Pride and Prejudice.” The main character, Arianne Prescott – a chemist like Parisi-Menoutis – was able to exchange places with Elizabeth Bennet, Austen’s heroine. Although Arianne was determined at first to stay true to the events of the novel and avoid altering any of the outcomes, she was overcome by her feelings as she was swept into Austen’s world.    Parisi-Menoutis says the novel was a tribute to Austen, and she used whole excerpts from “Pride and Prejudice” to sustain the mood of the novel. “I wanted the reader to feel transported into the world of Georgian England just as the heroine was, and I believed the best way to do that was to use Austen’s own words when describing the characters and any events which the heroine held in common with Elizabeth Bennet. It also meant that my book could be enjoyed by those who may not have read Pride and Prejudice. In fact, I’ve had readers tell me that they turned to Austen after they had read my book, which makes me very proud.”   In summary, Parisi-Menoutis says, “What I love most about writing is that I get to create an entire world from the very start, with a little bit of me in it.”