Up next: Mansfield Park (after the holidays)

I am looking forward to reading an Austen classic I am not familiar with (and have never seen a movie about!) so I can have my own initial reactions and opinions.
Let's plan on reading through Ch. 11 by January 6th.
Have a great Christmas and New Years!

The finish to P & P

Fantastic! I just love this book....

I very much enjoyed these last several chapters.
A few highlights: I love how Elizabeth stood up to Lady Catherine, not giving her the satisfaction of a clear-cut answer. And then I can just imagine when Lady Catherine relays to Darcy their conversation and I can just see his face lighting up with a new hope that not all hope is lost to gain Elizabeth's love.
And I think it is very interesting that on two separate occasions by separate people, both Elizabeth and Darcy are described by one word: obstinate. This isn't a word I use frequently (if ever), so I looked it up, and according to Webster's obstinate means "perversely adhering to an opinion, purpose, or course in spite of reason, arguments, or persuasion.......implies usually an unreasonable persistence". So true of both of them in many aspects of their lives!

I also cannot believe Wickham just continues to lie to Elizabeth's face because he doesn't know she knows the whole truth when he talks to her about running into Darcy in London. What an ass!

I do love Mr. Bennett's speech to Elizabeth to be assured of her love for Darcy, which he cannot imagine is possible: "I now give it to you, if you are resolved on having him. But let me advise you to think better of it. I know your disposition, Lizzy. I know that you could be neither happy nor respectable, unless you truly esteemed your husband; unless you looked up to him as a superior. Your lively talents would place you in the greatest danger in an unequal marriage. You could scarcely escape discredit and misery. My child, let me not have the grief of seeing you unable to respect your partner in life. You know not what you are about" And then after Elizabeth's explanation for her change of heart, Mr. Bennett concludes with "Well, my dear, I have no more to say. If this be the case, he deserves you. I could not have parted with you, my Lizzy, to any one less worthy." Ahhh.....lovely.

And I like Darcy's answer to Elizabeth's question of when he fell in love with her: "I cannot fix on the hour, or the spot, or the look, or the words, which laid the foundation. It is too long ago. I was in the middle before I knew that I had begun." True love. Beautiful.

Elizabeth (& everyone) getting the real truth...(thru Vol 3 Ch. 6)

I can just imagine Elizabeth's jaw dropping one paragraph after another as she read Mr. Darcy's letter. I love after she meets up with him again at his place in Pemberly and she is trying to sort out her feelings towards him, and here are her thoughts: "the evening...was not long enough to determine her feelings towards one in that mansion....she certainly did not hate him.....But above all, above respect and esteem, there was a motive within her of good will which could not be overlooked. It was gratitude.--Gratitude, not merely for having once loved her, but for loving her still well enough, to forgive all the petulance and acrimony of her manner in rejecting him, and all the unjust accusations accompanying her rejection.....Such a change in a man of so much pride, excited not only astonishment but gratitude--for to love, ardent love, it must be attributed.....She respected, she esteemed, she was grateful to him, she felt a real interest in his welfare...." What a man! Where's my Darcy? ha! Loving her after all she accused him of...

And as for Wickham and Lydia, goodness! She is just a child! And Mrs. Bennett being ridicously dramatic, thinking Mr. Bennett may even be killed, and then Mr. Collins throwing them out, just one crazy thought building upon another...I can't imagine having a mother like that.

Well, I am so looking forward to the next chapters, especially Elizabeth being able to see Darcy again.

We will finish out the book this week and then take a break until New Year's.

Part 3: Read through Vol. 3, Ch. 6

The Proposal

Well, the story is getting exceedingly more interesting with each turn of the page. Mr. Darcy has professed his love and Elizabeth has dashed his hopes to the ground with witty and pointed prose. I especially was fond of her questioning his approach..."I might as well enquire,' replied she, 'why with so evident a design of offending and insulting me, you chose to tell me that you liked me against your will, against your reason, and even against your character? Was not this some excue for incivility, if I was uncivil? But I have other provocations. You know I have. Had not my own feelings decided against you, had they been indifferent, or had they even been favourable, do you think that any consideration would tempt me to accept the man, who has been the means of ruining, perhaps forever, the happiness of a most beloved sister?"

Now, on this point, I would have probably stopped...but she kept going and brought up Wickam, which she does not have the full story on that one so she should have left it alone.

All in all, I am a bit ashamed by the way Mr. Darcy approached this whole proposal...it was undoubtedly on the offensive side. But, I still like this character perhaps more than any other. He is complex, whereas most of the characters in the story are one dimensional and disinteresting. And as far as the men in the story go, he is the only one I am interested to learn more about. Jane Austen has created a very captivating personality in him (in my opinion anyway).

Taking 2 weeks for the next posting/reading...

With Thanksgiving and all, I thought we'd give ourselves 2 weeks until the next post. We will read through Volume 2 Ch. 11 to post next by next Sunday, Dec. 2nd. Okay? okay.... :-)
Happy Thanksgiving!!!

Part One (thru Ch. 17) of P & P...

Again we see Austen's theme of money and it's importance over all else in relationships during this time period and culture. I think money/class (at least in Darcy's case) is something you have that can not allow to you have feelings for someone in another class, as if it is just not an option. Darcy is intentionally trying to distance himself from Elizabeth because he does have feelings for her, but somehow knows it could never work out. Or it's just his pride battling it out with his heart.... because Bingley also has plenty of wealth but continues to show interest in Jane... And what do you think about Charlotte's comment to Eliza about Jane needing to secure Bingley before falling in love with him: "Jane should therefore make the most of every half hour in which she can command his attention. When she is secure of him, there will be leisure for falling in love as jch as she chuses." ha!
And good grief, another weaker male/father in Mr. Bennett who lets his wife practically control everything! (at least so far... :-) Speak up man! I do enjoy his comments about disagreeing with his wife about their two youngest daughters being foolish (while she says they are sensible).
And then the new guy...Mr. Wickham...he must be a looker, but also must have something intriguing enough to capture the interest of Elizabeth who earlier stated the importance of knowing one's character...

Next up...Pride and Prejudice

Moving on to the next Austen classic! I loved this one in high school and I remember Melissa and I renting every movie rendition available, but none of them quite measured up to the book! (That was before the most recent movie release a couple years ago, which I did quite enjoy) This one is about the same length as Sense and Sensibility, so 4 weeks at about the same pace should work out.

Let's plan on reading through Ch. 17 by next Sunday.

The final chapters of Sense & Sensibility...

Ahhh....lovely, everything resolved.
What a turn of events for Miss Lucy Steele and the Ferrar's brothers?! And no matter how hard Mrs. Ferrars wanted to disown her sons on account of Lucy, she of course allowed Robert back into her circle of wealth. And they say parents don't have their favorite children... I say they deserve each other.

I cannot, like the Dashwood women (especially Elinor), conclude by saying "poor" Willoughby. He still was in the wrong! And yes, they may see him in a little better light after his explanation of things, but it seems to me that they are blaming his faults on how the world brought him up. Similar to today, we are in a world of blame, it is always someone else's fault. Elinor's thoughts on what happened to Willoughby, "The world had made him extravagant and vain--Extravagance and vanity had made him cold-hearted and selfish. Vanity, while seeking its own gulity trimph at the expence of another, had involved him in a real attachment [to Marianne], which extravagance, or at least its offspring necessity, had required to be sacrificed. Each faulty propensity in leading him to evil, had led him likewise to punishment. The attachment, from which against honour, against feeling, against every better interest he had outwardly torn himself, now, when no longer allowable, governed every thought; and the misery, was likely to prove a source of unhappiness to himself of a far more incurable nature." Yes, the pressures of society and wealth in that time period were extreme, but it was still up to Willoughby to make his own actions!

I do love how they concluded that Marianne entirely gave her heart over to Colonel Brandon because she "could never love by halves". She finally saw in him what everyone else saw all along.

Final Reading!

I am assuming for next week we will finish up the book!