Jane Austen for life lessons
Finished Mansfield Park at last.
It was my second try. It's not like Austen is as dark and suffocating like Dickens, no , (this deriving from my experience with the first half of "The Tale of Two Cities"), so that's not why i dropped the first time. I think it was early for me to read Austen back then. Or had too much of Pride and Prejudice, or Emma. Those two, i've read at least two times, and enjoyed every time. So maybe Fanny Price sounded a lot more boring in comparison and i lost interest in her. But not this time.
I haven't made of post if, but i've read Jane Austen Book Club by Karen Joy Fowler. That book has long been collecting dust on my shelf, i'm ashamed to admit, but i took it off on a whim, to give it a try. I won't deny that i found it quite boring with all the flashbacks, but boy... was i wrong.
It was a perfect sum of Austen, from what i could tell.
So, i said to myself, you should get better versed in Austen. Thus, i decided to read this book once i've finished Austen. Quite a job, ain't it? And enlightening too, i hope. Might take a long time, longer than i plan, but isn't that good too? Have a goal? Something waiting for you at the finish?
When i finished, i naturally googled the author to see if there was more, and then i found out that there a movie of it too. Imagine my surprise. I had to watch this, and thankfully i did. As in every book-turned-into-movie, it's changed, a bit mangled at parts, but still enjoyable. While the book is purely for those familiar with Austen, the movie is not, so i guess it's well thought. Hopefully, a few more picked an Austen book on the way home.
There are so many lines, both from the book and from the movie that are part Austen's words and part Fowler's, that should be framed and put on walls and bus stops, heck,everywhere. Life mottos, simple but so very true. So very Austen. All this made me want for a reading club, and realizing that it's impossible for me to find or found one in my current surroundings, made me all the more sad. How i wish i had friends who read with a passion. I am not even asking for friends reading Austen. God!
So, if i may go back to Jane Austen, the more i read her books, the more i adore her intellect, her stance at the face of all the stupid, demeaning attitude of the society in her days, which is not so very different to what we have now. And for the record, and i realized this once more when i finished Mansfield Park, Austen's works are not romance novels. They should never be categorized, nor read solely on that term. Romance is always involved, because that's life, but there are other matters at hand too. Deceiving appearances for one. And assumptions that turn out to be wrong, and come back to bite you.
Now i'm taking a little break from Austen to have it all sink in thoroughly. Afterwards, i think i'll read either Sense and Sensibility, or Northanger Abbey.
It was my second try. It's not like Austen is as dark and suffocating like Dickens, no , (this deriving from my experience with the first half of "The Tale of Two Cities"), so that's not why i dropped the first time. I think it was early for me to read Austen back then. Or had too much of Pride and Prejudice, or Emma. Those two, i've read at least two times, and enjoyed every time. So maybe Fanny Price sounded a lot more boring in comparison and i lost interest in her. But not this time.
I haven't made of post if, but i've read Jane Austen Book Club by Karen Joy Fowler. That book has long been collecting dust on my shelf, i'm ashamed to admit, but i took it off on a whim, to give it a try. I won't deny that i found it quite boring with all the flashbacks, but boy... was i wrong.
It was a perfect sum of Austen, from what i could tell.
So, i said to myself, you should get better versed in Austen. Thus, i decided to read this book once i've finished Austen. Quite a job, ain't it? And enlightening too, i hope. Might take a long time, longer than i plan, but isn't that good too? Have a goal? Something waiting for you at the finish?
When i finished, i naturally googled the author to see if there was more, and then i found out that there a movie of it too. Imagine my surprise. I had to watch this, and thankfully i did. As in every book-turned-into-movie, it's changed, a bit mangled at parts, but still enjoyable. While the book is purely for those familiar with Austen, the movie is not, so i guess it's well thought. Hopefully, a few more picked an Austen book on the way home.
There are so many lines, both from the book and from the movie that are part Austen's words and part Fowler's, that should be framed and put on walls and bus stops, heck,everywhere. Life mottos, simple but so very true. So very Austen. All this made me want for a reading club, and realizing that it's impossible for me to find or found one in my current surroundings, made me all the more sad. How i wish i had friends who read with a passion. I am not even asking for friends reading Austen. God!
So, if i may go back to Jane Austen, the more i read her books, the more i adore her intellect, her stance at the face of all the stupid, demeaning attitude of the society in her days, which is not so very different to what we have now. And for the record, and i realized this once more when i finished Mansfield Park, Austen's works are not romance novels. They should never be categorized, nor read solely on that term. Romance is always involved, because that's life, but there are other matters at hand too. Deceiving appearances for one. And assumptions that turn out to be wrong, and come back to bite you.
Now i'm taking a little break from Austen to have it all sink in thoroughly. Afterwards, i think i'll read either Sense and Sensibility, or Northanger Abbey.