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Jane Austen

My favourite Jane Austin novel would have to be Northanger Abbey.

I love Pride and Prejudice, but Northanger Abbey is quite funny. After all it is about the silliest heroine ever. :)
 
I had to read Mansfield Park for O level English Lit, and almost got put off her for life. I have never really enjoyed any book I had to study for school; all that over-analysing spoils any enjoyment for me. As I read, I can think to myself "Ah, so the author's saying so-and-so here", but I do not want to have to write a 2,000 word essay about it!

Anyway, after the BBC adaptation, which I saw most of, I decided to give Pride and Prejudice a try, and I actually quite enjoyed it. It even had some laugh-out-loud moments. However, I did find it quite hard going and it has not encouraged me to read any more of her work. Yes, she is a very clever author but she's not really my cup of tea. :)
 
Halo said:
Anyway, after the BBC adaptation, which I saw most of, I decided to give Pride and Prejudice a try, and I actually quite enjoyed it. It even had some laugh-out-loud moments. However, I did find it quite hard going and it has not encouraged me to read any more of her work. Yes, she is a very clever author but she's not really my cup of tea. :)
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I just watched that again today, and I'm convinced I must get over myself and read some Austen.

BTW- they're making a new P&P, with Keira Knightley -of all people!- as Elizabeth Bennet.
 
What I find most fascinating about Austen and one of the things I think keeps her going after 15 or so generations of readers is the sly way she expertly slips and slides her storyline through basic human emotions. Non-fiction is about information and fiction is about emotion, and she is a master of that. Even when I tend to gag a little on some of the over the top stuff (I find some of her men agonizing idiots), I got to admire the way she keeps pulling me in, scene after scene. She's like a magician and I can see how she's pulling the rabbit out of the hat and I still go wow.

Anyone read her Persuasion? It's a little darker and less fun than her earlier works (it's her last completed novel), but she's really showing her stuff.
 
Freya said:
Showing your age, Halo :D
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I had to read Animal Farm in high school, and from what I gather they're still reading it, so I don't think it goes to show our age.

On Pride and Prejudice, I agree with baddichter's comments. But to fully appreciate the book, I think we need to consider the era in which it was written—the (male) pride and prejudice prevailing at that time and in that place. When it hit the streets, anonymously attributed to "a lady," it was roundly condemned by the literary establishment. Altogether too radical for them. But the reading public loved it, and so the self-proclaimed experts had to do a quick re-think. "Oh, it's not really so bad," they said. And then: "It's really quite good," and then "It's really really good." Bloody idiots, those experts, then as now.

Austen's clever insight, the elegance of the language she uses, her word-play, are timeless. But all it can be to us now is a quaintly old-fashioned pleasure to read. In its day, it was much more than that.
 
Has anyone read 'Letters to Alice; on First Reading Jane Austen'?

It's by Fay Weldon, and it's about an author (Fay) writing to her neice Alice who isn't impressed with Jane Austen and she is trying to convince her otherwise ...

I've read quite a few of Jane Austens books but in LtA it gives quite a lot of really interesting background information about the era she was living in ... just a suggestion if anyone is really interesting in that sort of thing (like me :rolleyes: )
Alice
 
I'm not a die-hard fan, I'm more an admirer of the way she tells a story. One of the best books I got "The Friendly Jane Austen" by Natalie Tyler, it explained a lot of why her books are the way they are. I'm ashamed at my age that it never occurred to me before to realize that her characters are simply observing the social mores of the period. Before that I was disgusted with characters like Fanny Price for being so milquetoast.
 
I'm a Jane Austen fan.
I love her language and use of words. That is definately why I keep going back.
Pride and Prejudice is on the top of my list. I agree with most of the remarks about Sense and Sensibility.

I thought it was a bit rushed at the end to make sure everyone was paired off-since that's how the books are suppose to end. I didn't like either of them.

It definately helps to get the background of the stories and settings. There are a bunch of different norms and everyday occurences in the book that just don't happen anymore. By knowing a bit more it helps the story become a bit more fuller.


As for the new P&P movie..Do we really need yet another adaptation? I wonder about their Elizabeth pick too!
 
callatiger said:
As for the new P&P movie..Do we really need yet another adaptation so soon? I wonder about their Elizabeth pick too!
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It's probably financial-someone saw how popular the A&E series was. Isn't Kiera Knightley supposed to play Lizzy in the upcoming one? I really don't think that P&P can be movie-ized in a two-hour show. That takes too much away.

I really, really hated the latest movie of Mansfield Park, it just didn't ring true to the book. I recommend the BBC version of MP, and the BBC version of P&P for an interesting comparison to the A&E series, also the BBC version of "Emma". (I hated Gwyneth Paltrow's portrayal). I can't find any fault with Emma Thompson's "Sense & Sensibility"-loved that one!
 
Sun-SSS said:
I had to read Animal Farm in high school, and from what I gather they're still reading it, so I don't think it goes to show our age.
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Bit of a late response to this, but I was referring to the fact that Halo said she studied O Levels. They were replaced by GCSEs some years ago, thus I can infer that Halo must be over a certain age :p
 
Ooh, Miss Poirot! :p I think you'll find that I have previously posted my age as being 79. ;)
 
LIES! O Levels weren't invented when you were a kiddy if you were 79. You'd have been working down the mine anyway. Or was it the mills. You're definitely lying. Can't trick me Halo!
 
Maybe there was an O level pilot scheme in Yorkshire before anyone else got them - we're very progressive here you know. ;) I shall say no more on the matter. :)
 
Persuasion - well it's my favourite after P & P. Anne Elliot is a wonderful heroine, quite different from Lizzy Bennet, but sympathetic and very modern in many ways. I find Fanny Price in Mansfield Park too meek and irritating, Emma I've never particularly enjoyed and Northanger Abbey reads like a piece of jeuvanilia (I think that's how you spell it) which it was. Sense & Sensibility is great too but perhaps is too like P & P to read back to back.
 
I've finished Sense & Sensibility, which I loved. I bought the collected works of Jane Austen a few months back, and have been slowly working my way through them all. So far so good.
 
Bird54 said:
I read Pride and Prejudice, and I liked it. Several years ago, I decided to read some of the classics, and this was one of them. Little Women I had some problems with because some of it did not make sense to me. Maybe the time period when it was written should be taken into consideration, and I read it a long time ago.
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I agree! I couldn't really get into Little Women - I think it is too remote
 
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