About a week and a half ago during a shopping excursion to the Tyler, Texas, Target (don’t ask me how I ended up in East Texas!!!), I stumbled across the best find of my Target shopping career (far surpassing the time I bought three pairs of shoes for under $12). In fact, I squealed so much with excitement that a few people stared, and then I had to call my BFF to relay the news – a woman in England managed to tap her inner Jane Austen and write, “Mr. Darcy’s Diary” – a day by day account of how and why Mr. Darcy fell in love with Elizabeth Bennett in the literary classic, Pride and Prejudice.
While I think the author was writing at a fourth grade reading level, I didn’t care. And while I believe that the author mixed up Mr. Philips and Mr. Gardiner’s professions (I think she had Mr. Gardiner as an attorney, not in the trade business), I didn’t care. That was the best airplane, poolside reading I’ve had in years. If you want to borrow it, let me know, but I must warn you, I’ve already got a waiting list!
The Friday after we returned from our vacation to Las Vegas, I stayed up until 2 a.m. re-reading Pride and Prejudice. And the next day, I watched the A&E five-hour version of the book. AND THEN I went to Target again to purchase Sense and Sensibility, along with the semi-biographical movie, Becoming Jane. Due to a promise to my BFF, I’m not to watch that movie without her. So on Sunday evening, I watched Sense and Sensibility and Emma. Apparently that night, a redo of Sense and Sensibility was also on Masterpiece Theatre, but it didn’t come on until 10 p.m. The review of that version in Friday’s USA Today was quite glowing and I can wait to watch it when they show a repeat!
As I’m typing this, I’m re-reading Sense and Sensibility on the airplane to Seattle (well, not typing and reading at the same time… I’m taking a break) and I’m coming to a conclusion, a mission of sorts. I’ve got to read all of Jane Austen’s novels and watch all of the movie adaptations before the end of April. Why? Well, why not! But seriously, there are a few reasons – well, not as much reasons as they are an explanation as to why I like Austen’s writing (I don’t have reasons for being obsessive compulsive):
- Austen’s novels are an acceptable form of reading romance novels, without the dirty, white trash looks from strangers on planes and/or husbands. It’s like a modern day romance story, just without the “his rough, muscular hand gently caressed her porcelain smooth, apple-shaped buttocks” bull crap that makes me either cringe or laugh out loud (assuming I read that filth… yes…)
- Her prose is simple and flowing, yet I usually have to read the paragraph a few times to get the full meaning of a character’s witty remarks. And even then it doesn’t hit me until a few pages later.
- I enjoy reading about 18th century society women being utterly consumed with the concept of money first, and love second. It’s treated as if marrying up wasn’t a vanity issue, but more of a quality of life (food, shelter, rich husband) frame of mind. Was the idea of marrying for love alone (even if he was a poor farmer) so abhorrent to all of these women? As much as I love Elizabeth Bennett (Elinor Dashwood a close second), even she was the first to admit she fell in love with Mr. Darcy the second she saw his property (or failed to recognize that her witty banter in previous meetings with Darcy was a sign of unconscious love not acknowledged by my heroine…). The whole concept makes me wonder if I had lived back then, what I would have done.
- To piss Justin off. Haha. I don’t think he understands my love for fiction literature. He constantly is amazed at my ability to quickly read and comprehend books (i.e. my Friday read of Pride and Prejudice). He just wishes I applied that ability to something that would make me knowledgeable and smarter (i.e. to be like him). While my part of the bookshelf in the study is filled with literary classics and contemporary fiction novels, his is filled with history- or economic-based non-fiction novels, with more than the occasional conspiracy theory and poker strategy book. I guess the difference between our reading styles is he chooses to read to make himself smarter, and I read as a form of entertainment, to escape from reality into the lives of richly developed characters.
So there you have it. At some point I want to take a class on Jane Austen, but for the time being, I’m content with my own exploration into her literary works.
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