Austen

This post will combine things recently read and things recently watched all into one post. I trust that since you have the fine taste and good breeding to be reading my blog in the first place, you will be able to handle a junction of two normally separate posts.

I've been somewhat immersed in Jane Austen for the last month. Since I graduated AP English under the reign of Orndorff and watching the movie is the same as reading the book, we'll call it a self-taught sprint class. And since it was self-taught, I won't require a well-thought out thesis for the final exam. Just a few casual notes and observations. There, did I cover myself well enough? :)

Once upon a time in high school, I read Pride and Prejudice. I don't remember if it was a class assignment, or if I just felt like it, or both. Well enough. A few years later, my friend Trish sat me down with a bunch of other people and had us watch the BBC version of Pride and Prejudice. It was more or less six hours long. From what I recall it did an excellent job of following the book - but it was six hours long. Might as well just read the book, you know?

Then a couple of years ago the new Focus Features adaptation of Pride and Prejudice came out, starring Keira Knightly among others. I didn't see it in the theatre, but my mum bought it from Sam's when it came out on dvd and I watched it with her. It was wonderful! It captured all the wit and emotion and characterization of the book and managed to fit it all into two hours. They simply pruned a couple characters here, a dinner party there. I can't say my mum was overly thrilled with it though. A half hour in she was starting to wonder if all these people did was go to balls. So she gave the dvd to me.

This past month, I've watched it at least three times. I was in the mood for that type of movie, and since there aren't enough of them I simply had to keep rewatching this one. Ah well. I also thought that since I was so interested in the movie at the time I ought to reread the book. Which I very thoroughly enjoyed for the second time. Pride and Prejudice is definitely not a book that is considered a "classic" just because a bunch of ancient college proffessors thought it should be. It's enjoyable. Once you slip into the correct mental mindset to make sense of everything they are saying, nothing could be funnier.

Having tackled Pride and Prejudice from several different angles, I thought I should read a few more of Jane Austen's works. Since a relative gave me a copy of Mansfield Park for Christmas a few years ago and I hadn't read it yet, this was fairly easily accomplished.

Well, except for the fact that Mansfield Park is kinda boring. None of the characters have the life that those of her earlier works do. The humor is far more subdued, as though Austen didn't want people to think that all she was capable of was wit. The plot was engaging while I read it, and there are some interesting comments on what is moral. It isn't a book that one would look back on with fondness and warmly suggest to all one's friends though.

The last portion of my self-study consisted of watching Sense and Sensibility, directed by Ang Lee and starring Emma Thompson, Kate Winslett, Hugh Grant, Alan Rickman, and in a small but pleasantly surprising and enjoyable role for all you House fans out there: Hugh Laurie. No, I didn't read the book, but Mr. Orndorff had us watch this movie in class instead of reading the book, so it must be the same thing, right? No, I'm kidding, it really isn't the same thing and someday I would like to read Sense and Sensibility. I suspect I would enjoy it a bit more than I did the movie. Not a bad movie, it just didn't grab me the way the way the new version of Pride and Prejudice did. I suppose that the particular way of talking and sense of humor which Elizabeth Bennet and Mr. Darcy share is what I like best.