For several years now, I have been hoping to read some of the classic novels that I missed (or neglected) reading when I was slogging through my years of education. The latest on the list has been Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen.
I had avoided Jane Austen like the plague, all through my formative years, assuming that she was girlie and too fussy for someone as tomboyish, and fun-loving as me. As I grew older, I just didn't have the extra time for pleasure reading during school (too busy partying, thank-you-very-much), or after wards once I entered the working world. Often, when picking up Austen's novels, I thought "I really should read those, but they are probably stuffy and dull, or dense and hard to get through with dated 'proper English'.
Charmed by watching the oh-so-witty movie "Emma", Downton Abbey, Upstairs/Downstairs, plus being entertained by my bibliophile friend Tom Otto, who always said he would be perfectly happy watching a movie about Brits having tea for several hours, I decided perhaps I had matured enough to appreciate dull and stuffy British novels too. I was game to go ahead and give them a try. I find that I am delightfully surprised at how enthralling Austen's novels have been!
I just finished "Pride and Prejudice" after spending several days, frankly, not being able to put it down. I felt like I was ready a racy pulp fiction novel, even with all repressed British pleasantries and societal restrictions and requirements. Would Mr. Darcy come back for Elizabeth? How would he manage it with all the classist restrictions put upon him? Would Elizabeth be able to overcome her pride and tell him how she feels? Would Mr. Darcy go against his family and society's expectations and ask Elizabeth to marry him? FOR GOD'S SAKE WHY CAN'T THEY JUST TELL EACH OTHER HOW THEY FEEL! What would happen?
The descriptions above sound dull and horribly repressed, but I must say, I was riveted, and pleasantly so. "Sorry kiddos - can't make you a snack right now, mommie is reading her novel!"
Perhaps for years, I have been out-and-out wrong about her novels and perhaps the whole genre of writing. So now, the questions begs me...What to read next? More novels about repressed British aristocracy, or perhaps delving into a whole other neglected genre? Is Russian literature next?
Like you, Barb avoided what she thought were girlie books, and then read "Jane Eyre." Bronte was a pretty forward thinking feminist writer, all things considered.
ReplyDeleteApparently "War and Peace" is the best novel ever written, with amazing passages about humanity. However, the first 300 pages are hard to get through, and then you can't put it down. I have yet to get through those first 300 pages....