Jane Austen is teh r0xx0r omg

[dreamer_easy]

Just up to the chapter in Pride and Prejudice where Mr Darcy SPOILERs Elizabeth and she gives him a hefty piece of her mind. This is thrilling stuff!!!

Comments

[rainbowjehan.livejournal.com]

Hee! ^___^ Isn't it a fun book?

[kateorman.livejournal.com]

It's hard to put down my neat little hardback and make myself read the shortly-due library books instead!

I've studied Persuasion, failed to complete Northanger Abbey, and just re-watched the film of Sense and Sensibility (the book is on my pile o' book to read).

[rainbowjehan.livejournal.com]

Hee, I've experienced that. ^__^

Oooh. I've read Pride and Prejudice, attempted to start Emma, and watched Sense and Sensibility, Persuasion, Mansfield Park, and Pride and Prejudice. All v. pretty, except for Mansfield Park, which was dangerously uninteresting.

[kateorman.livejournal.com]

I forgot Emma! I have seen the movie (and Clueless too), but haven't read the book (yet).

[rainbowjehan.livejournal.com]

What is Clueless?

[kateorman.livejournal.com]

An amusing movie based on Emma, but set in a modern American high school.

[rainbowjehan.livejournal.com]

Ist good?

[kateorman.livejournal.com]

Yeah, enjoyable. Right now I'm watching the Laurence Olivier P&P (only a few minutes in tho).

[rainbowjehan.livejournal.com]

^_^ Okay. I am just generally oblivious about this sort of thing.

[kateorman.livejournal.com]

I'm not hugely impressed by the 1940 P&P so far - it seems too dumbed down. I think it's based on a stage adaptation, which might explain why everything seems to be designed to hit the back. Adapting it straight to TV or film they could leave in more subtleties.

[rainbowjehan.livejournal.com]

Oh, okay. >_> That's rather annoying.

[murasaki-1966.livejournal.com]

Hello Kate,

This is Lynne Triffitt, you met me at Kyla and David's (I was the non-horror flick person at the pick-the-horror-film-night. I had my head under a pillow most of the night).

I'v just finished reading P&P and I have to admit it hooks me everytime (I think this was the 9th or 10th time). This time I was struck by the level of sarcasm and bite in the book. Austen is not nice to any of her characters. Even Elizabeth (obviously Austen's favourite character in this book) gets a serve. If this is the first time for you, then you're yet to get to it. No more said.

Elizabeth's speech is a brillant bit of writing. It's hard to see how ANY man would be willing to forgive her, and continue to love her after that. However, as Darcy himself admits, he goes about telling her his feelings in entirely the wrong way. He expects her to fall at his feet. He expects her to be grateful that a man of his consequence denines to love her. He is so proud, and she knocks him of his pedestal with her rejection of his offer. She has her pride, and it is the match of his. Later, when they resolve their differences, he has a lovely line about it.

Mind you, he'd be a pain to live with. I don't understand why anyone would find him sexy (unless he's played by Colin Firth).

Have you read Masefield Park? I'd be interested in what you thought of Fanny Price. If you want to start a fight with a pack of Austenites, ask for their opinions of Fanny Price.

This site is a lot of fun for anyone interested in Austen
http://www.pemberley.com/janeinfo/janeinfo.html



Emma Tennett has also written two sequels Pemberley and An Unequal Marriage. Good, but not Austen.

[kateorman.livejournal.com]

Hiya Lynne!

Elizabeth and Mr D'Arcy both need a swift kick in their respective blind spots. They were obviously made for each other. :-)

I have to confess that reading D'Arcy's impassioned proposal gave me the girly squees. He's dreadful, but he can't *help* himself. There's a great deadpan line in there about her not being insensible of the compliment of the attentions of such a man. And then she gets to turn him away! Hee hee hee! I wouldn't kick Mr Firth out of bed for eating crackers, but that chapter worked on paper as well.

It's Mansefield Park I failed to finish, not Northanger Abbey. I think. Which is the one where they're putting on the play?

[murasaki-1966.livejournal.com]

HEllo Kate,

Darcy believes (because that his experience so far), that any woman is going to fall at his feet. Elizabeth's failure to do so intrigues him. His speech gave me the hibby-gibbies as well. Not the best way to convince someone to marry you, telling them how inferior they are to you (bad case of the King Cophetua's)(http://www.mainlesson.com/display.php?author=scudder&book=legends&story=cophetua)(In case you're wondering)

Masefield Park is the one with the play. This is the one that gives all the Austenites problems. It's the most serious and least funny of Austen's novels. And Fanny Price is sooooo good, and so self-sacrificing, that to modern standards she's unbelievable. Don't feel too bad about finishing it. It's basically Austen's problem novel, and the Austenites are divided about it.

The Friendly Jane Austen (by Natalie Tyler) has a great section on this. It's a great book, gives background, and explores the books in an non-precious way. Also talks about the various types of Austenites (The Romantics, The Satirists, The Femenists, etc).

Lynne

[kateorman.livejournal.com]

Lynne, your blood's worth bottling!