PB’s Comments (group member since Jul 29, 2015)

PB’s comments from the 100 Classics and beyond... group.

3/28/2016:

I created a Facebook Page for our group.
https://www.facebook.com/100classicsa...

So for those of you who are not very active on Goodreads, you can still join discussions through Facebook. It is also linked through the Goodreads app (click on the Goodreads tab), so you can easily access our Goodreads polls, discussions, books, from the FB page.

Also, I will be posting some extras on there that are relevant to whatever we're reading.

Let me know if you have any questions/comments/suggestions.

HAPPY POSTING!

CONTEXT (from SparkNotes, emphasis added)

Jane Austen was born in Steventon, England, in 1775, where she lived for the first twenty-five years of her life. Her father, George Austen, was the rector of the local parish and taught her largely at home. She began to write while in her teens and completed the original manuscript of Pride and Prejudice, titled First Impressions, between 1796 and 1797. A publisher rejected the manuscript, and it was not until 1809 that Austen began the revisions that would bring it to its final form. Pride and Prejudice was published in January 1813, two years after Sense and Sensibility, her first novel, and it achieved a popularity that has endured to this day. Austen published four more novels: Mansfield Park, Emma, Northanger Abbey, and Persuasion. The last two were published in 1818, a year after her death.

During Austen’s life, however, only her immediate family knew of her authorship of these novels. At one point, she wrote behind a door that creaked when visitors approached; this warning allowed her to hide manuscripts before anyone could enter. Though publishing anonymously prevented her from acquiring an authorial reputation, it also enabled her to preserve her privacy at a time when English society associated a female’s entrance into the public sphere with a reprehensible loss of femininity . Additionally, Austen may have sought anonymity because of the more general atmosphere of repression pervading her era. As the Napoleonic Wars (1800–1815) threatened the safety of monarchies throughout Europe, government censorship of literature proliferated.

The social milieu of Austen’s Regency England was particularly stratified, and class divisions were rooted in family connections and wealth. In her work, Austen is often critical of the assumptions and prejudices of upper-class England. She distinguishes between internal merit (goodness of person) and external merit (rank and possessions) . Though she frequently satirizes snobs, she also pokes fun at the poor breeding and misbehavior of those lower on the social scale. Nevertheless, Austen was in many ways a realist, and the England she depicts is one in which social mobility is limited and class-consciousness is strong.

Socially regimented ideas of appropriate behavior for each gender factored into Austen’s work as well. While social advancement for young men lay in the military, church, or law, the chief method of self-improvement for women was the acquisition of wealth. Women could only accomplish this goal through successful marriage, which explains the ubiquity of matrimony as a goal and topic of conversation in Austen’s writing. Though young women of Austen’s day had more freedom to choose their husbands than in the early eighteenth century, practical considerations continued to limit their options.

Even so, critics often accuse Austen of portraying a limited world. As a clergyman’s daughter, Austen would have done parish work and was certainly aware of the poor around her. However, she wrote about her own world, not theirs. The critiques she makes of class structure seem to include only the middle class and upper class; the lower classes, if they appear at all, are generally servants who seem perfectly pleased with their lot. This lack of interest in the lives of the poor may be a failure on Austen’s part, but it should be understood as a failure shared by almost all of English society at the time.

In general, Austen occupies a curious position between the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Her favorite writer, whom she often quotes in her novels, was Dr. Samuel Johnson, the great model of eighteenth-century classicism and reason. Her plots, which often feature characters forging their respective ways through an established and rigid social hierarchy, bear similarities to such works of Johnson’s contemporaries as Pamela, written by Samuel Richardson. Austen’s novels also display an ambiguity about emotion and an appreciation for intelligence and natural beauty that aligns them with Romanticism. In their awareness of the conditions of modernity and city life and the consequences for family structure and individual characters, they prefigure much Victorian literature (as does her usage of such elements as frequent formal social gatherings, sketchy characters, and scandal).

Here goes... sorry it took so long! I've been so busy.

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:

1. Do you agree that Darcy and Elizabeth are a great match? How about Jane and Bingley? Do you think their marriages would last long?

2. Share some of your favorite quotes/dialogues from the book.

Off the top of my head, I chose an interesting and a hilarious one (for me, at least) by Elizabeth:
"What are men to rocks and mountains?"
She said this when she got invited by the Gardiners to go on vacation and see nature.

Of course my favorite dialogues are those of Darcy and Elizabeth's witty banters. Too many to list, though. You all know what I'm talking about.

3. There are countless books and movies/series based or loosely adapted or inspired by P&P (and in fact, a lot of Austen's works), which ones are your favorites worth mentioning and recommending! I definitely am excited to read your responses on this one.

Mine are of course those that I posted on our VIDEOS page. As for books... Actually, while I was reading P&P for the third time (at least) I wanted to add a little more excitement and read it with Amanda Grange's Mr. Darcy's Diary - a great complementary read. It is astonishingly accurate with regards to timeline and events. I recommend it very much!
Some more that I've read and enjoyed:
-Mr. Darcy's Decision by Juliette Shapiro
-Mr. Darcy Goes Overboard by Belinda Roberts
-Mr. Darcy Takes a Wife by Linda Berdoll
-The Perfect Bride for Mr. Darcy by Mary Lyndon Simonsen
-Mr. Darcy's Diary by Maya Slater

4. On a different note, which adaptations do you find repulsive?
I would have to say Pride and Prejudice and Zombies.
It's an interesting notion, just not my style. But hey, some people might enjoy it.

Brianna, how did you like it when you read it ?

Victoria, yes, admittedly, the movie was a masterpiece, and the book is better (just imagine more scenes to visualize) if you like details (it makes war and history interesting), so I definitely recommend for you to read it!!!! i love having been able to visualize clark gable -i just heard he plays rhett before i read the book- when i was reading the book, and vivien leigh just made the perfect scarlett. she's so beautiful! i'm disappointed in the guy who played Ashley though, because I had such fantasies on how Ashley should look because of the book.

This week, I started reading Gone with the Wind, and I got so engrossed with the story that I finished it last night.
It was such a beautiful story... and I still haven't recovered from it.
Has anyone read it and remember it well ?

no, I didn't ! thank you for bringing it to my attention. that's actually the only work of Austen I haven't read. I better read it soon!

Film/series adaptation trailers available on our VIDEOS page:
https://www.goodreads.com/videos/9962...
https://www.goodreads.com/videos/9962...
https://www.goodreads.com/videos/9963...

wonderful! welcome to the club, Laura!

Yellow Eccentricity wrote: "Hello, my name is Fred (I'm a girl) and I'm in middle school. I'd love to get started on the classics now, to gain that general knowledge."

Great! Welcome to the club, Fred. I think that the earlier you get to enjoy the classics, the better too :) I wish that I started a lot earlier too

HAPPY POSTING!

John wrote: "This month I've read:
Another Country by James Baldwin
Goodbye, Columbus by Philip Roth
Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck
The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
Beloved by Toni Morrison
Lord of th..."

That's awesome John. I wish I could read that much classics in a month. How did you like them? Which are your favorites?

I personally have read Of Mice and Men, The Great Gatsby, Lord of the Flies, and A Christmas Carol (I'm surprised you waited until January for this one!)

:) Thanks for sharing.

Victoria wrote: "1. We have read Wuthering Heights previously. Which of the Bronte sisters' writing styles did you find more compelling?

As much as I like Wuthering Heights, I found Jane Eyre a much easier read. ..."

Like you, I immensely enjoyed the dialogues between Mr. Rochester and Jane Eyre. And similarly, I do believe that trust is by definition "blind." Trust is not needed when you are certain about everything about the other person.

I have seen the 2011 adaptation too, and although it was pretty entertaining, it didn't convince me to read Jane Eyre. I thought that they did a pretty good job making Michael Fassbender unattractive as Mr. Rochester.

I just checked the Challenge Page and it shows that you are now participating. Message me if you're still having problems adding books read.

Are you creating the shelf within the challenge itself? when you join the challenge there are two blank spaces, the first one for the number of books and the second for your chosen shelf name. try again, and maybe use a different shelf name, that you dont have yet...

it's a book club challenge, but sure, you can do that too!!

and what kind of problem are you running into when you try to join?

HAPPY POSTING!

1. We have read Wuthering Heights previously. Which of the Bronte sisters' writing styles did you find more compelling?

Personally, I really liked Charlotte Bronte better, just basing it off of Jane Eyre vs Emily's only novel, Wuthering Heights. Jane Eyre was made alive through Charlotte Bronte's words. Unlike the characters in Wuthering Heights, the characters in Jane Eyre didn't feel distanced or that they only existed within the pages.

2. Is this your first time reading Jane Eyre? If not, have your views changed about it?

This is my first time reading Jane Eyre, and frankly, I was very much ashamed of waiting just till now. I have heard it recommended so many times, but I am guilty of having been prejudiced against reading it after watching the film (I believe I watched the most known adaptation, although I can't remember any of the actors' actual names). I've heard it compared so many times with Austen works and so I was completely unmoved to read it after seeing the movie, Austen being my favorite author. But alas, it is fortunate that we have this book club! Jane Eyre will now stand as one of my most favorite classics, and now I realized that the movie did not even do justice to 1/100th of the novel's greatness.

3. There are numerous themes present in the novel, and thus will take too long for me to mention all of them here. I think it will be more efficient to cite your favorite quotations from the novel and then discuss your interpretations. Of course, you can also feel free to discuss themes sans quotations.

Here are some of my favorites:


Such is the imperfect nature of man—such spots are there on the disk of the clearest planet; and eyes like Miss Scatcherd's can only see those minute defects, and are blind to the full brightness of the orb.
Here Jane Eyre points out human beings' tendency to be overly judgmental and our tendency to focus on the negative attributes of other people and ignore everything else.

It is thoughtless to condemn them, or laugh at them, if they seek to do more or learn more than custom has pronounced necessary for their sex.
This is only one of the many feminist remarks within the novel - one of the reasons why Jane Eyre is one of the most revered classics.

...no, I was not heroic enough to purchase liberty at the price of caste.
Although the novel is filled with honest remarks, this I thought, was one of the most honest of all. Here, Jane Eyre admits her weakness against society (in youth, and perhaps extended till adulthood). Although she sought freedom from her aunt, Mrs. Reed, she acknowledges that poverty (if she was sent to her other relatives) is not a way to freedom, but as yet another form of shackle.

Please feel free to post your thoughts about Jane Eyre whenever.

I am almost halfway through the book, and will soon be posting some discussion prompts.

I hope you all enjoy Jane Eyre :)