Where the hell is Mansfield Park?

[kaffy_r]

This Had Better Be Good.
     Failing that, I had better be patient. Or perhaps we can have both "good" and "patient" in the same place - good literature and a patient reader..
     I hasten to explain myself by informing you, my friends, of a precipitous and most unsensible purchase which I made lately of a local bookseller. I've picked up a rather hefty (but exceedingly well appointed, I again hasten to inform you) volume, entitled "Jane Austen: The Complete Novels."
   Just why have I done this thing, you ask? Because in my more than five decades of life I have never - no, not once - read an Austen novel. Not one. Not one chapter of one, nor one paragraph of one chapter, nor even the slightest, slenderest, most trifling of sentences in one paragraph.
   I have, however, watched a couple of BBC Austen adaptations, snickered my way through Lost in Austen, (ITV, right?) and decided that I should take a running jump at the lot of 'em.
   Because if I am anything, it is precipitous. I am, it seems, more of a hasty Marianne than a level-headed Elinor. The entire collection of novels in one shopping bag. Foolish. Simply foolish - particularly when I remember that I cut my reading eye-teeth on fairytales, Sturgeon and Edgar Rice Burroughs. No, I don't read him now. But my literary palette still seems to overflow with the very bright colors. Purple amongst them.
   I may retreat to my bedroom now, and read a chapter or two of something Austenish.

Comments

[mack-the-spoon.livejournal.com]

First of all, your icon is hilarious.

Second of all, YAY! I hope you enjoy them.

[minnehaha.livejournal.com]

I have a difficult, and difficult to describe, relationship with Jane Austen. I'll be interested in your perceptions, if you decide to publish them.

K.

[kerravonsen]

My two favourite Austens are Pride & Prejudice and Persuasion. But I expect it will be rather odd to come to Austen having seen adaptions first; you might find the prose a bit stilted or slow-moving, I'm not sure.

[namarie24.livejournal.com]

Aw yay! Glad you're reading 'em. So much goodness to look forward to!

I saw the BBC P&P before I ever read any Austen, and it only increased my enjoyment of the book.

[apostle-of-eris.livejournal.com]

One of my better all-time $/pound used book finds was the Modern Library Giant Complete Jane Austin for $6.
I've read a couple, but don't really see the lure. Personally, it's a little creepy that the ribbons on a new hat are so consequential that there's no internal evidence whatsoever that this is the middle of the Napoleonic wars, with the Luddites for lagniappe.

[heatherbelles.livejournal.com]

Oooh enjoy. I have a complete set, some of which I've read, others I've still not got round to reading, but the ones I have read, I've enjoyed.

And Pride and Prejudice I re-read most years - I had it as a separate (old) book before I got the set, and the texture of paper, the wovenish cover, all add to the experience.

Under a duvet, with a hot drink is a great way to read it.

I've come to the conclusion I need more Austenish icons - both of the ones I have loaded are Hugh Laurie. But I shall use one of them in tribute to the subject...

[kaffy_r]

Thanks! And thanks for the icon notice - I'll probably use it sparingly, but it does make me grin. (It's a pic of the "Buddy Christ" action figure that gets mentioned prominently in the movie Dogma.)

[kaffy_r]

I'm dipping into Pride and Prejudice for my first assay. Eventually, of course, I intend to read Pride and Prejudice and Zombies to get the full flavor (ahem) of the other side of Meryton.

[kaffy_r]

Actually, I think the adaptations prepared me for both the prose and the speech, since (as the preface to the volume mentions) most of the adaptations make generous use of Austen's actual dialogue. And, hey, I have loved other almost-as-stately books; "The Shipping News" and the entire LotR trilogy, plus the Silmarillion and Tolkien's original drafts of both. By the way, I love your icon; from where is that quote taken?

[kaffy_r]

Glad to hear that!

[kaffy_r]

Heh. There's many a story out there focusing on the intensely personal and leaving the great events of whatever world generated it to others. Shakespeare, too, left those realities to others, for the most part.

By the way, the icon refers to me, not you.

[kaffy_r]

Now there's a heartfelt endorsement! I think I should toddle off now and read more Austen ....

[kerravonsen]

most of the adaptations make generous use of Austen's actual dialogue.
True. Having just finished watching "Lost in Austen", the juxtaposition of the stately mode of speech with modern speech patterns really highlighted how alien they are to each other. Which was part of the fun.

By the way, I love your icon;
Thank you!

from where is that quote taken?
Probably from the Oxford Book of Quotations...

[kaffy_r]

Aha! Per Thinkexist.com, it is a quote by Amy Lowell (American critic, lecturer, and a leading poet of the Imagist school, 1874-1925.) I love the internet.