Book cover art for Pride and Prejudice and Pittsburgh Credit: Photo: Courtesy of Simon & Schuster

Pride and Prejudice and Pittsburgh, the latest book by author Rachael Lippincott, is, ostensibly, a young adult romance. But the story of Audrey, a Pittsburgh woman magically transported back to 19th-century England, weaves in sci-fi and historical fiction, as well as inspiration from an enduringly celebrated female author.

“When I’m writing it’s not necessarily having all of those elements and trying to stack the book with them,” Lippincott tells Pittsburgh City Paper. “It’s more capturing the voice and the story, and I feel like if that works, then it can be believable, or at least entertaining and not too chaotic.”

But Pride and Prejudice and Pittsburgh, like all of Lippincott’s work, stems from her determination to create authentic characters.

“I could have a really great idea but if I’m not able to capture the voice and get into the headspace and the reality of the characters it’s just not going to work,” she adds. “I’ve had plenty of ideas and then I sit down to write and if the voice isn’t clicking, it doesn’t feel real.”

Released this year by Simon & Schuster, Pride and Prejudice and Pittsburgh adds to Lippincott’s growing roster of titles mostly focused on young LGBTQ love stories. She wrote the New York Times bestseller The Lucky List and co-authored All This Time, Five Feet Apart (adapted into a 2019 film of the same name), and She Gets the Girl (co-written with her wife, Alyson Derrick).

Lippincott’s desire to create realistic characters stems from her reading experiences growing up in Bucks County, Pa. She says that, at the time, when she sought “teen sapphic rom-coms,” the only books she found were “a Sarah Waters novel, which was historical crime fiction.”

“There was Fingersmith [a Waters book] and I would read it between the stacks. I would see glimpses of myself in it. But if I could have found the story of a 17- or 18-year-old girl falling in love for the first time, I would have definitely been able to connect so much more,” she explains. “So, to be able to put these books on the shelf and add to the pile that’s continuing to grow, every day and every year, I just find that so exciting.”

Rachael Lippincott Credit: Photo: Courtesy of Simon & Schuster

As the novel’s title indicates, Pride and Prejudice and Pittsburgh pays homage to Jane Austen, and Lippincott intentionally set the story in 1812, the year Austen’s Pride and Prejudice was published. However, anyone looking for a copy of Austen’s style should abandon any such expectations.

“I don’t think of myself anywhere near the level of Jane Austen,” Lippincott says with a laugh, adding, “It’s kind of like we’re playing in different ballfields entirely. She’s such a special writer, such an iconic writer for what she did and for taking a real examination of her time period and the realities of it, which are just so fascinating to read.”

Throughout the novel, Lippincott compares and contrasts contemporary and 19th-century attitudes, specifically when it comes to the relationship between Audrey and Lucy, a woman seemingly destined to wed an older man.

“You do have the reality of the two of them both kind of questioning and discovering their sexuality,” Lippincott says. “They’re coming at it from very different perspectives. They do have the baggage of their time periods.”

Lippincott says the dynamic between Lucy and Audrey was something she was “really interested in exploring, having those two contrasting stories, but also having these parallel experiences of self-discovery,” which leads to some unpleasant interactions. For example, Lucy calls the prospect of being with Audrey “abhorrent,” something Lippincott believes will still resonate with modern LGBTQ readers and allies.

“Audrey is from present day, so she’s more willing to accept this part of herself because it’s something more familiar to her. Although there’s still people in this country who use the `abhorrent’ line. But it’s more widely visible and more widely accepted than it was back in 1812,” she says. “And I think for Lucy, any divergence of the path that she’s on to marry a man and obey her father is so completely foreign to her. It’s not a common reality, it’s not something you can pick up a book and read about.”