Tag: jane austen

A Really Good Day

Posted on by Dana

GateFirst, I received an e-mail from HarperCollins informing me that I won The Map of True Places Sweepstakes. I enter contests like this all the time, but I never have any expectation of winning. My prize is a weekend in Salem, Massachusetts, a place I have always wanted to visit (especially as an English teacher). I am so incredibly excited. I hardly know how it happened. Like I said, I enter these contests whenever one strikes my fancy, but how exciting!

Second, I am slowly catching up with my Instructional Technology coursework. I read and took quizzes on three chapters of Educational Research yesterday. I didn’t too badly on the quizzes either, especially considering the difficulty of the quizzes. Today I wrote a short paper critiquing a journal article for the same course. I am virtually caught up in this course based on the schedule I set for myself. What I would like to do this week is get a little ahead in both this course and Multimedia Authoring so that I can be sure to finish both courses by the end of the semester. Once again, I find myself wishing we didn’t use grades to evaluate. I would much rather receive the feedback and a pass/fail. Grades stress me out. I hate giving them to my students, and as a student I hate worrying about them.

Finally, I noticed a small crack in the back case of my iPhone about half an inch long originating at the center of the docking port. I have scheduled Genius Bar appointments twice, but canceled them so I could continue working or not feel pressed for time completing other activities. Finally, I decided it bothered me enough to bring in and see what would happen. The Genius at the Apple Store examined the phone, determined somehow that I didn’t cause the damage by dropping it (not sure how he figured it out; I didn’t cause the damage that way, but I admit to having dropped it, although not hard—maybe it was the location of the crack), checked on my warranty (glad I got AppleCare), and replaced the phone. I’ve had it since December 2008, so it wasn’t new. It was in good shape, though the corners were chipped (I didn’t used to have a case for it; now I do), and a tiny scratch marred the otherwise perfect screen. I bought some crystal film protectors to prevent damage to the new phone’s screen and immediately put it in the case. I hope I can keep this one in pristine shape with some extra care.

So all in all, a really, really good day. Plus it’s spring break! Bonus!

In book news, I’m still reading The Annotated Pride and Prejudice and keeping up with Crime and Punishment as best as my schedule and interest will allow (I’ll be glad to finish that one and begin Gulliver’s Travels). I am thoroughly enjoying the audio version of Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell. I am planning to read about the Once Upon a Time Challenge to see if I can participate.

photo credit: Svenstorm

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Living the Literary Life

Posted on by Dana

NovelWhore tweeted a good question: “What book most represents what you want your life to be like?”

This is a tough questions to answer. I would love to be able to go to Hogwarts and do magic like the characters in J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter series, but Harry and Company go through some very rough times. They lose their loved ones, they’re tortured and outcast for their beliefs, and they experience a great deal of pain and suffering. Not even magic can eradicate these types of problems.

Una Spenser of Sena Jeter Naslund’s novel Ahab’s Wife is one of the strong female protagonists I most admire. She touches so much history, and she’s truly a remarkable woman. However, she also is forced into cannibalism to survive a shipwreck, an experience that drives her husband insane. I certainly wouldn’t want to have some aspects of Una’s life, but others sound truly amazing.

While I admire the passion and windswept beauty of the landscape in both Wuthering Heights and Jane Eyre, the characters again must live through such ordeals, much of it at the hands of other people who are cruel for reasons that are difficult to fathom. Wuthering Heights, Thrushcross Grange, and Thornfield Manor might be interesting to visit, but I can’t honestly say I’d want to live there.

Manderley seems like a great house to explore. I love Daphne DuMaurier’s descriptions of her unnamed narrator in Rebecca. However, if Mrs. Danvers must come with the house, I have to decline.

No, if I had one choice, one book in which I could live, one book that represents what I wish my life could be like, it would be Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice. Here are my reasons:

  1. Empire waists are flattering. The clothes are simply gorgeous.
  2. Despite the supposed repression of the time, Lizzie manages to express her true thoughts quite well, especially when she’s been insulted. She does not accept Mr. Collins’s proposal: she knows she will be miserable. When Mr. Darcy insults her with his first proposal, she lets him know in no uncertain terms, exactly where he can stick that proposal.
  3. England. You will not meet a bigger Anglophile. If I could live anywhere in the world and money/job were no object, I’d pack my bags for the U.K. this red hot minute.
  4. Austen’s economy of description evokes just enough of the setting to give the reader an idea without becoming bogged down in detail. Even so, I can see all of it, and it’s so beautiful.

In Jasper Fforde’s Thursday Next series, characters are able to jump inside books, and Thursday even lives inside one for a time. If anyone ever works out how to visit books, I want to book a trip inside Pride and Prejudice.

In which book would you like to live? Blog about it and tag others (we can make this a meme) or leave your answer in the comments.

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Reading Updates

Posted on by Dana

I have three books going at the moment. I am listening to The Help whenever I’m in the car, and sometimes I have to sit in the car a little longer so I can finish a particularly good part. I am absolutely loving this book, and I can’t wait to discuss it with my faculty’s book club.

I’m also re-reading Pride and Prejudice. This annotated version is helping me understand nuances I’m not sure I picked up the first time I read it years ago. The only problem I have with the annotations is that they give away much of the plot. I would like to use this edition with students, but some of the annotations should be read as they are reading, and some will give away the plot a great deal, which I think some students may find frustrating.

Finally, I am still working through Crime and Punishment on DailyLit. I am just not enjoying it at all. I found the murder of Alyona Ivanovna and her sister Lizaveta chilling and compelling to read, but for a few scenes since that time, the book never grabbed me. I am close enough to the end to stick it out, but I’m not inclined to read any more Dostoyevsky. I don’t know whether I should feel stupid that I’m not getting something that so many people in the past have clearly enjoyed and esteemed, or just accepting that it’s OK to feel the way I feel about this book.

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Reading Update

Posted on by Dana

perfect place to readI am within 80 pages of finishing Thursday Next: First Among Sequels. I should be able to share a review soon.

I am about 70% in on Crime and Punishment, and I have to say that I am just not into it. I will finish it because I’ve gone too far to turn back. My judgment at this stage is that there are really interesting parts leavened by parts I either can’t understand or am just not interested in. It’s running on two stars at the moment.

I am also slowly moving through Mansfield Park, and not because I don’t enjoy it, but because my reading focus is on finishing Thursday Next at the moment.

Following Thursday Next I plan to pick up Pride and Prejudice again, which will serve as the third of my four selections for the Typically British Reading Challenge. In terms of my other challenges, the All About the Brontës Challenge and the Bibliophilic Books Challenge, I’m still thinking about what to read next. My scores stand thusly:

  • Typically British Challenge: 2 of 4 (3 of 4 once I’ve finished Thursday Next)
  • All About the Brontës Challenge: 2 of 3
  • Bibliophilic Books Challenge: 1 of 3 (2 of 3 once I’ve finished Thursday Next)

photo credit: Dawn Ashley

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HarperTeen’s Appeal to Twilight Fans

Posted on by Dana

The Wall Street Journal blog Speakeasy reports that the covers of the new HarperTeen editions of classics Pride and Prejudice, Wuthering Heights, and Romeo and Juliet are designed to appeal to the Twilight audience. It’s easy to see why:

The books resemble Twilight right down to the fonts, as the WSJ blog notes. My husband was aghast, but I say, hey, if it gets Twilight fans to pick up these books, I’m all for it. I do think it’s a little misleading, though. These books are not exactly Twilight. They’re so much better, but not as easy a read.

Amazon is selling the books for $8.99 each, or you can purchase all three for $26.97 (as of this writing). If you’re interested, click on the books or the links above.

What do you think of the new covers?

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Confessions of a Jane Austen Addict

Posted on by Dana

Laurie Viera Rigler’s novel Confessions of a Jane Austen Addict begins with an interesting premise for any Jane Austen fan: what if you woke up one morning and found yourself in the middle of the Regency, with folks who act and look like characters right out a Jane Austen novel? Courtney Stone, Rigler’s protagonist, is a huge Jane Austen fan. Her love life is unfulfilled. She has recently broken up with her fiancé Frank after catching him with another woman, and she has severed ties with her best friend Wes after discovering he has been complicit in helping Frank hide his dalliance. All of a sudden, she is Jane Mansfield, she’s apparently suffered a bad fall, and a doctor wants to bleed her in the hopes it will cure her.

Confessions of a Jane Austen Addict explores the question of how a women with 21st century attitudes might fare in early nineteenth century England. Courtney makes several missteps and finds it difficult to accept her more constrained position in Regency society. It’s a fun, light read. It’s clear Rigler has read and enjoyed Austen’s novels. The danger in associating oneself so closely with Austen is that one cannot possibly compare, and Rigler’s prose certainly suffers from the comparison. However, there are passages to admire. Rigler manages to capture Bath and London well. I found Rigler’s heroine wearing and perhaps not as sympathetic as Rigler intended. The characters in general do not sparkle with life in the same way that Austen’s characters do. Few of us, however, are up to Aunt Jane’s standard.

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All Austen, All the Time

Posted on by Dana

Grace has a contest at her blog. You might be lucky enough to win copies of two Pride and Prejudice sequels by Marsha Altman: The Darcys and the Bingleys and The Plight of the Darcy Brothers.

Meanwhile, I watched a friend’s copy of Pride and Prejudice with Keira Knightley finally, and while I didn’t like it as much as the version with Colin Firth and Jennifer Ehle, I did enjoy it. I thought Donald Sutherland as Mr. Bennet was particularly good.

I had a gift card for Amazon burning a hole in my pocket, and after that movie, I wanted some more Austen. These were my purchases:

OK, so I did sneak some Brontë in there. I do enjoy some of the “For Dummies” series, and this particular book has received some good ratings on Amazon. The others all look very interesting. I have particularly been wanting to read Confessions of a Jane Austen Addict for a while because I love time-travel stories. I tried to win a copy, but I wasn’t lucky. Mansfield Park is the only Jane Austen novel I’ve not yet read, and I can’t be a proper Janeite until I do.

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Persuasion

Posted on by Dana

I need to begin this review by stating that I love Jane Austen. I had tried to read Persuasion twice before this final successful attempt. I think perhaps some books are suited to digesting in small bites. I admit when I feel I’m not making progress in a book, I sometimes put it aside for books that I think I might tear through. It doesn’t necessarily mean I am not enjoying the book so much as that I feel I’m not reading it quickly enough. This problem may be unique to me, but the solution has been to read the types of books I need to read slowly either in DailyLit or my iPhone.

I had stalled in Persuasion yet again some months back right about chapter 19. I liked it, and I really wanted to finish it. I recently decided to download it to my iPhone and read it in Stanza. Being able to read it in the dark and in bits on my iPhone enabled me to finish this book at last. I had already seen the movie, so I knew how things would end for Anne and Captain Wentworth. I enjoyed the penultimate chapter in which Captain Wentworth gives Anne the famous letter. The scene as acted in the 1995 production of Persuasion is what influenced me to pick up the book in the first place.

Anne is an excellent heroine: smart, kind, and thoughtful. I liked her much better than Emma or even Catherine Morland. I also liked the book’s message that true love lasts, and we can have second chances at happiness. I liked the other characters, too. Jane Austen is a deft skewer of social pretentiousness, and her Sir Walter Elliot was an excellent example of that sort who lives above his means and thinks he’s more important than he is.

This novel also highlights options available to women in the early nineteenth century. If Anne had remained unmarried, she would have been bound to spend the rest her of life with her family, who didn’t value her and whose company she tolerated rather than enjoyed. Certainly women who remained unmarried during this time had few options. Austen even insinuates that Anne might not have much choice but to marry her cousin, William Elliot, should her family wish it.  Anne struggles to say apart from William Elliot towards the end of the novel in order to avoid a marriage with him.

One thing I’ve always admired about Jane Austen novels is that she gives the reader a satisfying ending, making her characters happy. It feels good to close a Jane Austen novel because one can rest in the knowledge that the characters lived on and were happy. I suppose some might believe that’s unrealistic or trite, but it feels wonderful to escape into that world, which ultimately is one of the reasons I read books.

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Free Audio Book: Persuasion

Posted on by Dana

Through the Internet Archive’s audio offerings, I found LibriVox has a free audio version of Jane Austen’s Persuasion, which some of you might remember I’m currently reading.  The reader is Moira Fogarty.

Visit the site to download the book, or check out this embedded version:

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Breaking Dawn: I Need Junk Food

Posted on by Dana

The subtitle of my post refers to my current need to read something light and fun that I don’t have to think about too hard.  And Breaking Dawn has just been released.  One of my students has been after me to read it already, so I’m running out right now and buying it.  I still want to finish Persuasion and Who Murdered Chaucer? However, as I inferred, my brain is fried, and I need to take a break from the serious reading.

Speaking of Persuasion, it strikes me as I read that my favorite parts of Austen’s books often involve her most annoying characters: Mr. Collins, Mrs. Bennet, Miss Bates, the Thorpes, and now Mary (Anne Elliot’s whiny sister).  She just cracks me up.

I have had good response to a query about a book club at work, so perhaps my quest to find grown up with whom I can discuss literature may be fulfilled soon.

See you on the other side of the latest vampire romance.  Oh, and as usual, blogging will be light due to the fact that I return for my Master’s degree on Monday, and I’m already so busy with work that I’m wondering how that will work out.  Wish me luck and send good time management vibes in my direction.

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