tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4779259220257272689.post4364337190176360090..comments2023-06-24T04:22:28.276-04:00Comments on Go like water.: Jane Austen't.Stevenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03893392324561217969noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4779259220257272689.post-50110605052741013352011-06-02T22:41:48.477-04:002011-06-02T22:41:48.477-04:00It's funny that you've been reading Austen...It's funny that you've been reading Austen now -- I just came off a Pride and Prejudice kick. Netflix had an old BBC 5-part version that I saw as a teenager, and that has my still-favorite Darcy and Elizabeth [http://movies.netflix.com/WiMovie/Pride_and_Prejudice/70011178]. And I enjoyed it so much that I read the book again, which I've done many times over the years, and have read everything else of hers as well, even the horrible juvenilia. Since your post I've been wondering why it is that she's so fascinating. I've got a bunch of reasons.<br /><br />Her women are so constrained by what's right and what's necessary and what's not possible; no matter my situation, I can feel that I am at least more free to take action than the Austen ladies were. And her so-civilized snarky humor still makes me smile, plus I especially love how the poverty-stricken women are forced to retire with only three servants and a small country house. And Darcy is exactly the kind of approval-withholding perfect man to tap into my own mental damage. And finally, every one of the books has a happy ending, so you know good is rewarded in the end, though you may have to suffer in silence a long time first.<br /><br />All that said, after I finished P&P I started reading Sense and Sensibility again, and got bored a quarter of the way through. I like George Eliot better too -- Adam Bede might be my second-favorite book (after Nabokov's Ada).Liz Bhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16745592130327873706noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4779259220257272689.post-34440806807688341132011-06-02T07:14:58.591-04:002011-06-02T07:14:58.591-04:00George is better than Jane. It's just the trut...George is better than Jane. It's just the truth. Sentence for sentence, sentiment for sentiment, insight for insight, book for book, Eliot is the best of the 19th century. Middlemarch is the perfect novel. Austen after Eliot is "howling after music."<br />David W.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com