Friday, March 13, 2009

my year of austentatiousness


It all started last June. I had recently watched Becoming Jane and the newest movie version of Pride and Prejudice and could no longer hide my shame at having never read any of Jane Austen's novels. I had tried Emma several times since highschool, but it had never taken. Someone suggested I try P&P for my first go, and so I picked up a copy from paperbackswap and took it along with me on my train ride from Santa Fe to Riverside. I started reading and within 24 hours had gluttonously finished the whole thing. I spent the next four weeks re-reading the book at a more reasonable pace and decided I was a true fan. This January I spent an entire day watching Jane Austen themed movies (P&P, Emma, and The Jane Austen Book Club) and knitting - it was pure pleasure. Then my sisters bought me the BBC version of P&P and I spent another day in January gorging on Jane Austen and knitting - more pure pleasure. I had recently been given a copy of Sense and Sensibility and so a few weeks ago I began reading that. As soon as the Dashwood sisters were happily settled I decided to try Emma for the umpteenth time and was delighted to find myself finally finishing it. I'm now ready to go pick up a new book and I cannot decide which to choose: Mansfield Park  or Persuasion. I'm putting off Northanger Abbey for a bit. Thus far P&P is my very favorite as Elizabeth is the perfect heroine, and there is no sexier Austen man than Mr. Darcy, but perhaps I will change my mind once I have read them all, which I plan to do before this June - and thus complete my year of living Austentatiously.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Read Persuasion! It is my absolute favorite :)

Erin said...

Thanks for posting this! I picked up a copy of P&P at the thrift store (most of my books come from there since Bozeman is awesome that way). I'm at the time in my life where I feel there are so many books to read and not enough time. I'm still reading The Story of Edgar Sawtelle (been reading since xmas). It's a beautiful book and a great story but very long and I haven't had much time for that...

Anonymous said...

I def second the vote for Persuasion... P&P is still my favorite, but Persuasion is a close second! :) and I'm glad you enjoyed the BBC P&P... its just too bad we couldn't watch it together, hung over... lol!

TC said...

Jane was an amazing woman. I love her work as well.
What is even more amazing is that she wrote in a time of male authors only.

FYI, try watching the movie about Beatrix Potter with the woman from Bridget Jones...why can I not remember her name? She has a great history as well.

Anonymous said...

yeah!!!! So glad to hear you're such a amazing convert!