notes on Jane Austen

[kaberett]

Lo these many years ago, I had Pride and Prejudice as a GCSE set text, and I loved it. I think it was the following summer, between secondary school and sixth form, that I decided to read the rest of them, though it might very well also have been between sixth form and university, or 2012 after the antidepressants had kicked in but before the start of the academic year had rolled back around. Regardless, my mother had remarked upon my reading to a friend, or colleague, or friendly colleague, who responded, wistfully, that I was awfully lucky to be reading so much of Austen for the first time.

I was distinctly unimpressed with all of them.

I spent them going "ah, this is this book's Mr Collins", or "ah, this is this book's Wickham", and so on and so forth, with impatience and no small degree of disappointment, and while I've reread P&P many times since and got more out of it every time, I didn't return to any of the others until Thursday, when I picked Persuasion back up.

It transpires that one of the advantages of (relative) age is a much greater appreciation of Austen's terribly dry and wonderfully crisp snark about absolutely everything, which I'm enjoying a very great deal if a touch ruefully; and as a bonus, I remember very little of any of the text or plots except for faint glimmers of... a walk? through a park? perhaps in Sense and Sensibility? -- so I'm getting to experience them anew again.

All of which is to say that I'm very much enjoying reading Jane Austen for the "first" time, and also, seeing "innoxious" written down made me realise that "innocuous" is from Latin nocere (to harm or hurt), so that's some extra entertainment for me and I am well pleased by it.

Comments

[recessional]

I honestly bounced on all except P&P and S&S but that's not because Austen's not good, it's because the others are so much angrier/sharper in their undertones that I tend not to enjoy them.

(Hell, even S&S is . . . angrier/sharper than P&P. Also everyone is Wrong about Edward and Elinor from S&S and it makes me angry HE'S THE THOUGHTFUL CONSIDERATE CHILD OF AN EMOTIONALLY ABUSIVE MOTHER AND THERE IS NOTHING WRONG WITH HIM DECIDING TO SPECIFICALLY FIND THINGS TO SAY AND ENJOY ABOUT ELINOR'S CHOSEN HOBBY THAT IS THOUGHTFUL AND CONSIDERATE he is slightly autistic I am not taking criticism leave him alone.)

Yay!

[brainwane]

I tried reading an Austen (I think it was P&P) when I was a teen and put it down after a few chapters -- didn't get it at all. Then about 5 years ago I read it on a bit of a bet, and it was great! Looking forward to trying the others and appreciating them too.

[taimatsu]

Persuasion is my favourite! I like that the love story has characters who have known each other a long time, who aren’t like 17, and who have to apologise for things. And I adore the note at the end. (Trying not to give spoilers!) The one I really bounced off was Emma. Not enough really likeable characters for me.

[haggis]

*nods* I also like that Anne Elliot is not the one who needs to change in order to be worthy of Wentworth.

P&P is my favourite - it just sparkles and my first experience of Austen was a massive crush on Elizabeth/Jennifer Ehle in the BBC production. I really like that Darcy asks Elizabeth's consent before the second proposal - it's such a good contrast to Mr Collins' proposals.

I bounced off Emma too. I think to enjoy the book, you have to be charmed by her despite her flaws and I just wasn't.

[highlyeccentric]

Yesterday I realised that 'foil' and 'folio' are basically the same word (one from French and one straight from the Latin root) and I am ?? !! about it.

[lunabee34]

I'm happy you're enjoying Austen. I didn't care for her on first read either.

[sfred]

Hurray. I have enjoyed Emma several times.

[katzenfabrik]

Thanks for this—it's reminded me how much I want to read more Austen. I also loved Pride and Prejudice (I've read it twice now, I think) and adored Northanger Abbey, because Austen's wit applied to Gothic fiction just has my name written all over it. Somehow, though, I've not ventured out into her other novels. (I'm currently hung up on the gay Ancient Chinese wizards, of course, and after that I have no small number of other books to read, but Persuasion is going onto my kindle so it's there the next time I'm searching for something new.)