"Pride and Prejudice" is a great book and a classic because it's fucking hilarious. Ok, maybe not hilarious, but Austen makes biting social commentary AND skewers genre conventions. Her book "northanger abbey" is basically a parody of Gothic Romances.
The essential plot is:
Mr Bennet has decent property that is "entailed." That is, unless he has a male heir the property will pass on his death to a cousin. Which means that when he dies his wife and kids will be homeless and penniless, which really sucks, and it's why he and his wife had five (female) kids. They were really hoping for a boy. Mr Bennet doesn't hate his family, he just is kind of a dick who isn't super involved.
Mrs Bennet is a flighty moron. However, she DOES realize that the only way she will not starve to death in the streets upon her husband's death is to marry her daughters off well, or marry one of them to the entailed cousin. When a rich dude moves into the neighborhood, her match making radar goes off. Rich Dude's friend Darcy (and I totally don't get the "OOOOOOOH MR DARCY" shit. He's not that romantic, he's pretty much an uptight ass, and I'm figuring the emotion is based upon the hotty actors who've played him in movies) realizes that rich dude is pretty feckless and that ladies will want to marry him solely for his money and rich dude won't notice that at all, and so runs interference.
A comedy of romantic errors then ensues.
I really like Austen's stuff not because oooooh ROMANCE. I wish I could dance at balls and find true love and marry for money because as a woman I can achieve no status on my own but must rely solely and entirely upon my husband for all things! Rather, I like her stuff because she points out how ridiculous her society is.
ANYWAY! I keep hearing about this book and want to read it, but will probably get it from the library. Most of the Austen remakes I've seen were crap that deviated entirely from Austen's tone and the whole point of her work. This looks fun and interesting.
Thanks for the rundown - at some point, I figured that the original might be tolerable if I approached it as satire, but I still found myself dozing off during the less-zombified sections of the book. I don't think I would be able to get through the original without losing interest.... Plus, I have no patience for romance. Which should really come as no aurprise.... *smile*
Most of the "romance" is people acting kind of like morons. Austen is aware that they're acting like morons about stuff, and pokes gentle fun at them, but yeah. It is romance heavy because that's the genre and that's what women were expected to write.
I have a lot of (mostly male) friends who are always surprised that I read and enjoy Austen because I am NOT a fan of romance, and they are used to people reading Austen because SIIIIIIGH SWOOOOOOON SOOOOO ROMANTIC. So I'm a little defensive of what is actually quality literature that opens a nice historical window on a specific time and place and society and social class.
The essential plot is:
Mr Bennet has decent property that is "entailed." That is, unless he has a male heir the property will pass on his death to a cousin. Which means that when he dies his wife and kids will be homeless and penniless, which really sucks, and it's why he and his wife had five (female) kids. They were really hoping for a boy. Mr Bennet doesn't hate his family, he just is kind of a dick who isn't super involved.
Mrs Bennet is a flighty moron. However, she DOES realize that the only way she will not starve to death in the streets upon her husband's death is to marry her daughters off well, or marry one of them to the entailed cousin. When a rich dude moves into the neighborhood, her match making radar goes off. Rich Dude's friend Darcy (and I totally don't get the "OOOOOOOH MR DARCY" shit. He's not that romantic, he's pretty much an uptight ass, and I'm figuring the emotion is based upon the hotty actors who've played him in movies) realizes that rich dude is pretty feckless and that ladies will want to marry him solely for his money and rich dude won't notice that at all, and so runs interference.
A comedy of romantic errors then ensues.
I really like Austen's stuff not because oooooh ROMANCE. I wish I could dance at balls and find true love and marry for money because as a woman I can achieve no status on my own but must rely solely and entirely upon my husband for all things! Rather, I like her stuff because she points out how ridiculous her society is.
ANYWAY! I keep hearing about this book and want to read it, but will probably get it from the library. Most of the Austen remakes I've seen were crap that deviated entirely from Austen's tone and the whole point of her work. This looks fun and interesting.
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I have a lot of (mostly male) friends who are always surprised that I read and enjoy Austen because I am NOT a fan of romance, and they are used to people reading Austen because SIIIIIIGH SWOOOOOOON SOOOOO ROMANTIC. So I'm a little defensive of what is actually quality literature that opens a nice historical window on a specific time and place and society and social class.
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