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Topic:
Modern Classics of World Literature (currently disc. "The Grapes of Wrath" by John Steinbeck)
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Esperanza_Nueva
Registered:
Feb '03
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Date Posted:
12/23/06 3:56pm
Subject:
RE: Modern Classics of World Literature (currently discussing Pride and Prejudice)
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I read Pride & Prejudice far too long ago, and I've been meaning to reread it. No one writes romance like Jane Austen and I suspect that she died without ever marrying because love proved itself far less beautiful in real life than she had been able to portray it in any of her novels. This year I read Sense & Sensibility, Persuasion, and Emma. My favorite was Emma, which I think has many of the same elements of Pride & Prejudice where the hero and the heroine spend much of the novel finding faults in each other until the "oh I have been so blind" moment where they realize they love each other. I know that's over-simplifying it (especially in the Mr. Knightley/Emma case where Mr. K is the fault finder and Emma is the blind one), but oh well. 
One of the geniuses of Austen, though, that can't be overlooked is her ability to create incredibly funny minor characters such as Mrs. Bennet in P&P and Miss Bates in Emma. Like someone else said before, her novels are very observant of different types of people and are filled with all types of caricatures. On the other hand, she also writes beautifully complex heriones that we can still relate to today. Oh, and I have taken a serious fancy to Mr. Knightley. *swoons*
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Rogue1-and-a-half
Title: Manager: Amphitheatre
Registered:
Nov '00
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Date Posted:
12/23/06 9:00pm
Subject:
RE: Modern Classics of World Literature (currently discussing Pride and Prejudice)
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Finally, one I can comment on; I've read this one twice and seen the 1940 film version, the 80s BBC version, the 1996 Colin Firth version and the Bollywood version, Bride and Prejudice.
I quite love the story, you might guess.
It's got meat on the bone, per usual for Austen. She's got a great writer's voice. From the opening sentence (and a great opening it is), you tumble to her wit and intelligence.
And the story is both a comedy of manners and a rather serious look at the difficulty of forming relationships and the dangers of first impressions (some literature seems to indicate that the working title of the book was something to do with the phrase 'first impression,' but the details slip my mind).
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darth_frared
Registered:
Jun '05
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Date Posted:
12/24/06 3:09am
Subject:
RE: Modern Classics of World Literature (currently discussing Pride and Prejudice)
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NYCitygurl posted:
darth_frared posted:
there are certain things which i cannot do, or have been proven unable to do so far: reading jane austen is one of them.
That's a shame, because it's a really great book. I like it as a love story, but also because of the dynamics in the different relationships in the book (Elizabeth and Darcy, Mr. and Mrs. Bennet, Mrs. Bennet and her daughters, Jane and Bingley, even Darcy and Georgiana). I like how all the characters react to each other 
There also is quite a bit on differences in class. It caused a strain between Bingley and Jane when Darcy mistook Jane for wanting money; Darcy's friend (can't remember her name) was snobbish toward Elizabeth because she thought that Elizabeth was below Darcy; Georgiana was taken advantage of by Wickham because he envied her station in life and her wealth; Darcy's rich aunt was mean to Elizabeth because she wanted her nephew to marry someone of a higher standing.
i know! there are a number of reasons to recommend it, i just cannot read the stuff. it seems so very irrelevant. and believe me, people have *tried*.
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Rogue1-and-a-half
Title: Manager: Amphitheatre
Registered:
Nov '00
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Date Posted:
12/24/06 7:16pm
Subject:
RE: Modern Classics of World Literature (currently discussing Pride and Prejudice)
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How do you mean 'irrelevant' exactly?
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A small bird will drop frozen dead from a bough
Without having ever felt sorry for itself.
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NYCitygurl
Title: Manager of SFFBC, C&G, and NSWFF
Registered:
Jul '02
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Date Posted:
12/25/06 5:25am
Subject:
RE: Modern Classics of World Literature (currently discussing Pride and Prejudice)
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I second that. It can be a hard read sometimes because of the language and the older style, but many of the themess (love, class difference, pride and prejudice) are still relevant today.
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Zaz
Title: Manager, The Ampitheatre
Registered:
Oct '98
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Date Posted:
12/25/06 1:46pm
Subject:
RE: Modern Classics of World Literature (currently discussing Pride and Prejudice)
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It's by no means as hard to read as High Victorian...Dickens, Thackeray, et al, which is chronologically later.
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NYCitygurl
Title: Manager of SFFBC, C&G, and NSWFF
Registered:
Jul '02
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Date Posted:
12/25/06 3:37pm
Subject:
RE: Modern Classics of World Literature (currently discussing Pride and Prejudice)
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Very true. Nonetheless, it's not exactly an airport romance.
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Rogue1-and-a-half
Title: Manager: Amphitheatre
Registered:
Nov '00
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Date Posted:
12/25/06 7:03pm
Subject:
RE: Modern Classics of World Literature (currently discussing Pride and Prejudice)
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Second time I read it was, at least partly, in a laundromat.
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A small bird will drop frozen dead from a bough
Without having ever felt sorry for itself.
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NYCitygurl
Title: Manager of SFFBC, C&G, and NSWFF
Registered:
Jul '02
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Date Posted:
12/26/06 6:47am
Subject:
RE: Modern Classics of World Literature (currently discussing Pride and Prejudice)
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'Airport romances' are those cheap little paperbacks you pick up in the airport so you can have something to do on the plane. The easy-read, lots-of-kissing, hot-guy-on-the-cover kind
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Esperanza_Nueva
Registered:
Feb '03
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Date Posted:
12/26/06 8:49am
Subject:
RE: Modern Classics of World Literature (currently discussing Pride and Prejudice)
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It's funny how Austen is 100X more romantic than that drivel and the closest physical contact is often no more than the touch of a hand. Also, Mr. Darcy is hotter than any of those cover guys...in my mind anyway.
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darth_frared
Registered:
Jun '05
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Date Posted:
12/27/06 5:49am
Subject:
RE: Modern Classics of World Literature (currently discussing Pride and Prejudice)
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Rogue1-and-a-half posted:
How do you mean 'irrelevant' exactly?
i don't know. it's all my pride and prejudice 
it just seems to exclusively concern rich and well-fed people agonizing over when and where to meet, who and so on. quite neurotic. there doesn't sem to be any immediacy involved. let's hope in the end order is restored and each has found someone to love etc etc...
really, don't mind me, i have never been able to touch any of the books, i started reading emma and it's almost like i'm physically incapable to do so. maybe when i'm older. right now i'm criticising bits of a film i remember (sense and sensilbility) and books which i have never touched. so, er, i shouldn't be posting at all.
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Rogue1-and-a-half
Title: Manager: Amphitheatre
Registered:
Nov '00
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Date Posted:
12/27/06 7:20pm
Subject:
RE: Modern Classics of World Literature (currently discussing Pride and Prejudice)
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I suppose that's a fair criticism; Austen once remarked that it was a 'narrow piece of ivory' on which she wrote, referring, I think, to the very strict setting and tempo of her works.
But I think that they still work; they're about human nature at the end of the day, not wealth. Perhaps Sense and Sensibility, which is about a family that is very much not well off, would be more to your liking. 
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I never saw a wild thing sorry for itself.
A small bird will drop frozen dead from a bough
Without having ever felt sorry for itself.
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darth_frared
Registered:
Jun '05
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Date Posted:
12/29/06 6:13am
Subject:
RE: Modern Classics of World Literature (currently discussing Pride and Prejudice)
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*sigh* i know at least two of my friends who are completely crazy about it.  i'll get back to you when i made it through.
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NYCitygurl
Title: Manager of SFFBC, C&G, and NSWFF
Registered:
Jul '02
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Date Posted:
12/29/06 8:45am
Subject:
RE: Modern Classics of World Literature (currently discussing Pride and Prejudice)
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Esperanza_Nueva posted:
It's funny how Austen is 100X more romantic than that drivel and the closest physical contact is often no more than the touch of a hand. Also, Mr. Darcy is hotter than any of those cover guys...in my mind anyway.
 Well, often those aren't even romantic, just full of sex Being romantic is something different And I think that she does manage to pull off the romance, especaly with Jane and Bingley.
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Zaz
Title: Manager, The Ampitheatre
Registered:
Oct '98
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Date Posted:
12/29/06 1:03pm
Subject:
RE: Modern Classics of World Literature (currently discussing Pride and Prejudice)
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Most characters in Austen aren't rich; Darcy is the exception.
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