Jane Austen

[Emmy]

Do we have any other Jane Austen fans here? I never had a chance - my mother wanted to call me Elizabeth after Elizabeth Bennet, but dod put his foot down (our surname is quite long and he said no more than 2 syllables/5 letters) so I got Emma instead :)

Pride and Prejudice and Mansfield Park would have to be my favourites, although I like them all.

[Rho]

Could they not have called you Lizzie?

I love Jane Austen too, especially Pride and Prejudice and Sense and Sensibilty.

[AnnMarie]

Glad to know I'm not the only one! I cut my teeth reading Austen and the Brontes. Favorite Austen has to be Pride and Prejudice

[Marie-Eile]

Oooh, I love Jane Austen! I first read Pride and Prejudice in college and fell in love with her style with that first line about being in need of a wife whether he knew it or not! Such smooth wit just grabs me right off! My favourites so far are Sense and Sensibility and Pride and Prejudice.

[stebbi]

Oh yes! Read them all and loved them all. :applause: Also a big fan of the Brontes and Thomas Hardy. :ok: I even named my dog "Mr. Rochester" in recognition of both Jane Eyre and the Austin family books by Madeline L'Engle.

[Royalmaiden]

I got hooked on Jane Austen about 2 years ago. I was home sick with bronchitis & was fliping through the channels & Emma was on. I loved it :) When I got to go back to work I checked it out and then went on with the other ones when I finished. I havent read Persuasion or Sandition but I would have to say that my favourites are Pride and Prejudice and Northanger Abbey. I thought that Love and Friendship was rather funny too :)

[Lara]

Oh yes, I'm a passionate Austenite; her wit, humour, tough-mindedness, utter lack of sentimentality and acute observation of human nature make her one of the giants, as far as I'm concerned. I know that some people, who only read "for the story", think of her as "romantic", as she writes mainly about domestic situations and often love and marriage. But what, pray tell me, is romantic about the following remark:

"The Musgroves had had the misfortune to have a very troublesome, hopeless son, and the good fortune to lose him before he was twenty."
from Persuasion

and this:

"A family of ten children will always be called a fine family, so long as there are heads and arms and legs enough for them all."
from Northanger Abbey

and how she does satirise Mr. Colins in P & P:

"You ought certainly to forgive them as a Christian, but never to speak to them or allow them to enter your house..."

(I apologise if the quotations are not exact, I'm quoting from memory.)

My favourites? It varies, but I think I return most often to Emma, Persuasion and Mansfield Park. Of course I love the others as well, though I find Northanger Abbey a bit patchy compared with the others-

Oh yes, I always find some new delight, or remark that jolts me into thinking, when I re-read Jane Austen!

[Marie-Eile]

I think they get the "romantic" from the fact that sometimes the most hapless individuals - Mr. Collins, for example - can find someone who can either love or atleast endure them happily enough.I find the romance in the language the men use. Like Mr. Knightley "...I rode through the rain. I'd ride through worse if only I could hear you say that I had some chance to win you." My hubby occasionally comes out with things like that, and they just melt my heart. He also watched all 5 hours of the Colin Firth Pride and Prejudice with me, which considering that nothing blows up, there are no fast car chases and no fancy electronic gadgets, is a rather romantic gesture in itself.

[jamnar]

I just got Mansfield Park and Sense & Sensibility on DVD, but Persuasion is my favourite story, so hoping to get that next. Might be able to persuade Hubby to watch that with me, as Captain Wentworth is a naval captain (he is a big fan of Hornblower).
Have dropped big hints about Pride & Prejudice on DVD, but there is a new film in production (Keira Knightley as Elizabeth Bennett), so hoping to get him to take me to that. He will do one or the other, but I would sooner have Colin Firth for five DVD hours.

[Anareth]

I'm glad I'm not the only one who likes "Persuasion" best. I think Wentworth and Anne are my favorite couple--maybe not as romantic as some of the others, but I'm also slightly biased by really liking the movie version, too. I just got a lovely hardback set from QPBC for just $29.99 of Persuasion, Pride and Prejudice, Northanger Abbey, Mansfield Park, Emma, and Sense and Sensibility. For $6 I also got the novel "The Jane Austen Book Club", which if you can deal with modern literature, is pretty good and an interesting way to view Austen.

[Dux]

Emma is my favorite of the books, it's just sooo funny. Of the various movie versions done of Jane's books I also like the Colin Firth version of Pride and Prejudice. I did like Sense and Sensibility (despite having Hugh Grant in the movie), but I love Alan Rickman, so I'm a bit prejudiced anyway :wink:.

I recently bought Northanger Abbey and Persuasion on DVD, but haven't had a chance to watch them yet.

Along the same genre, the movie version of Thackery's Vanity Fair is very good too, although I haven't read the book, so I don't know how well it sticks to the story.

[Saf]

In 1981 ABC-TV (the Aussie equivalent to the BBC) showed a televisation of Pride & Prejudice in which Elizabeth Bennet was played by an actress called Elizabeth Garvie. I judged it as being true to the book - I was able to verify this by reading the book soon after, which was most serendipitous as we had to study it for year 12 English later that year.

Assuming that P & P is typical Jane Austen (I've not read any other of her works) I found her prose very draining and yet satisfying to read.

[Tabra]

Ok, this die-hard fantasy reader has to admit to being connverted finally. I have to read Pride and Prejudice for University English this year. I started it, got into it a bit, then put it down at page 50, irritated with it.
Only then I read the choices for essay questions and discovered of 3, that 2 were on Shakespeare and the other was on P and P. Well, I can take small doses of Shakespeare, so I groaned, realising I'd have to finish P and P.
And I loved it. Now I'mm looking for the rest of her books. I bid on some on ebay already. Although, I'm sure I had a copy of Emma around somwhere already...

[Brenda]

I'm in the middle of reading Pride and Prejudice right now for my Brit Lit class! I was really having to drag through the first part, but I happened to mention it to a friend who unbeknownst to me loves Austen! She said it was really good and that Austen's books don't really get into the real story until after the first seventy pages or so. Now I'm far enough that it's not a chore - Elizabeth is currently pondering the astonishing facts revealed in Mr. Darcy's letter. This is a good edition because it has footnotes that define words like "phaeton" which I only knew because I've read Patricia Wrede's Mairelon the Magician, Magician's Ward, and Sorcery and Cecelia which are like Austen only easier to get into, and with a Royal College of Magic!

I'm still :bouncy: from having been able to use the phrase "unbeknownst to me"!!!

[murphy]

I find it amazing and very satisfying that almost 200 years after these books were written, they are still being read and enjoyed by people like us (all of the posters above and me). :2cent:

[Tabra]

And I find it amusing that after 200 years, Bingley coming to make love to the family means something so very different from what it did then. :devil:

[persephone]

I like Persuasion the best. It just makes my heart warm to know that even after having loved and given up on it, Anne is given a second chance by her jilted lover. I love complicated love stories, I guess. :heartbeat

[Brenda]

I just saw my first preview for the movie Pride and Prejudice, with Keira Knightly as Elizabeth Bennet! It looks fantastic! Judi Dench is in it as well - I think she might be Lady Catherine but I'm not sure... It's been a while since I read it...

[Royalmaiden]

Ooo!!:bouncy: :bouncy: Who plays Darcy? do you know when its suppose to come out? I will have to drag my friend to see this :) she isnt much of a reader, but once in a while a movie will get her intrested in the book. If not I'll force it on her :devil: :laugh:

[Brenda]

I just read a review, it says if you saw the BBC production in 1995 you'll be disappointed, but otherwise you'll probably enjoy it.

Credited cast:
Keira Knightley .... Elizabeth Bennet
Matthew MacFadyen .... Mr. Darcy
Brenda Blethyn .... Mrs. Bennet
Donald Sutherland .... Mr. Bennet
Tom Hollander .... Mr. Collins
Rosamund Pike .... Jane Bennet
Jena Malone .... Lydia Bennet
Judi Dench .... Lady Catherine De Bourgh

[murphy]

I just read a review, it says if you saw the BBC production in 1995 you'll be disappointed, but otherwise you'll probably enjoy it.

Credited cast:
Keira Knightley .... Elizabeth Bennet
Matthew MacFadyen .... Mr. Darcy
Brenda Blethyn .... Mrs. Bennet
Donald Sutherland .... Mr. Bennet
Tom Hollander .... Mr. Collins
Rosamund Pike .... Jane Bennet
Jena Malone .... Lydia Bennet
Judi Dench .... Lady Catherine De Bourgh

I have the 1995 version on tape and absolutely love it. While Donald Sutherland is a very good actor, I can't see him as Mr. Bennet. I saw a trailer with Matthew MacFadyen as Mr. Darcy, and he doesn't compare with Colin Firth. However, Judy Dench is such a great actress, that I would watch just to see her. From what I could see on the trailer Keira Knightley would make a good Elizabeth Bennett. She reminds me of Winona Ryder, has that same delicate look.:2cent:

[Kesal]

I just cannot see Keira Knightly as Lizzie, Lizzie does not strike me as delicate (which is why I hated the OLD BBC version which we'd had to watch at school).
But anything with Judi Dench in it is worth seeing (I was delighted to see her do some scifi in the Chronicles of Riddick).
Noone could beat Julia Swahala's Lydia - she hit just that right annoying pitch that I had envisioned myself, but I could see Donald Sutherland as Mr bennet.
Shall be interesting.


Oh, as for calling me Lizzie, mum ended up using Lisa for my youngest sister :)