Thread: Jane Austen

I love Jane Austen. SHe writes brilliantly. Pride & Prejudice is my favourite, and at the moment I'm reading Persuasion, which could easily become my favourite.

Emma was just brilliant. I agree that is one of the best novels in the ninteenth century - it is just so beautifully written. Plus it doesn't help when you imagine Jeremy Northam as Knightley.

Does anybody else think that for a nineenth century novel, Northanger Abbey is quite modern in terms of writing?

Originally Posted by lilacstarflower

Has anyone here read the Pamela Aiden series that begins with "An Assembly Such As This"? - it is the story of P&P from Darcy's point of view. Just wondered what your thoughts were on that

Me! me! me! I read it! I thought it was definitely one of the better spin offs of P&P, more in keeping with the sentence structure, the wit, Darcy's complex character, and (thankfully!) clean. One of the big problems I have with the modern regencies is that they fail to capture the spirit of the age, mostly in how they write. They don't try to write with the same complexity as Jane Austen did (even I find Georgette Heyer to be, as JA would have put it, insipid), and their characters are usually too modern to be believable within the historical context in which they are set. But how much can our modern regency authors be blamed? In general they cannot genuinely conceive of living in a patriarchal society.

Originally Posted by strangedaze

words cannot describe the intense dislike i have for jane, ESPECIALLY pride and prejudice i derive no pleasure whatsoever from her stuff. in fact, i was going to create a thread calling for people to share writers they dislike just so i could share my disgust with austen with the world.

peace.

I hate people who sit on the fence.

Jane Austen wrote the best opening line in the history of the novel:

It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife.

Woo hoo on crayon use--and love to all Jane Austen critics (pro or con). I'm considering joining a JA book club and we start with Persuasion in January--anyone read it yet?

Sharon L.

I've only read P&P. I wanted to read it before reading Pride and Prejudice and Zombies a few years ago. I thought it would be good to have an insight to the original before reading the spoof. I was floored by how much I enjoyed it! I was expecting a slog through confusing writing from a different time period, but I understood it. I found it funny at times and kept reading to find out what happened to the characters (they must have been well-written because I can't really figure out why I would care about them!).

After reading P&P, I had no interest to read a spoof of it. I think it's time to pick another Austen.