Thursday, June 19, 2008

Sense & Sensibility


Seeing the newest movie edition of Sense and Sensibility inspired me to reread S&S again. Much to my dismay I realized I didn't actually own a copy of this book and remedied that immediately. I ran to the local B&N and grabbed a B&N edition of the book.

First, let's take a look at the cover. I was about half way through the book when I stopped and stared at the cover for a moment. Do the women on the cover look like women from Regency England? They look a bit more like women from another time, maybe more Marie Antoinette like than anything else. This discrepancy bothers me. It will forever taint my copy of S&S now. Apparently, I am purist when it comes to things like this. Get it right people!

I did, however, enjoy reading S&S again. What struck me this time through, was that JA's sentence structure needed some help and vastly improved throughout her writing. S&S was the first published novel, and I felt like I could tell. Some of the sentences were lone paragraphs in and of themselves. And they were hard to discern. I had to read some of them outloud at times. I don't remember having such a problem with P&P or Persuasion or any other JA work for that matter. Does that mean her writing style changed or improved some? I don't know. Just food for thought.

Otherwise, it was an enjoyable reading of S&S. Elinor just as level headed as ever. Marianne just as emotional as ever. But one more question: Would Elinor really have forgiven Edward Ferrars so willingly and easily? I mean, he deceived her and she still things the world of him and finds no fault in him. In fact, he is more honorable because he chose to stick by Lucy. But he was not honest with his friends and with Elinor and shouldn't she have been upset with him?

Anyhoo. Just some thoughts.
5 Bonnets. :)

Confessions of A Jane Austen Addict (the book, not me)

First, let's set the record straight. I wasn't trying to copy this book title when I created my blog. I really hadn't heard of it yet. I was just trying to be clever in the creation of said blog. And yet, it seems someone has beaten me to the punch. So much for creativity...

Second, I finally read an honest to goodness book. Along with a blogging hiatus it seems I took a reading hiatus as well. I opening admit that this is the first book I'd read in (ACK! Dare I say it?)--3 or so months! Anyhoo, 23 Things has finished and I got caught up in the end of the school year and the need for sleep. A lot of sleep. This peanut inside me is kicking my behind.

But alas, back to books and dear Jane....

Book: Confessions of a Jane Austen Addict by Laurie Viera Rigler.
This book tells the story of Courtney Stone, a love scorned LA woman, who wakes up to find herself in Regency England and in another's body. She finds herself, or rather her new persona, Jane to be an unmarried 30 year old like actual LA self. Courtney struggles to understand how to behave in her new life and how to get back to her old. All the while, trying to figure out if Jane's love interest, Mr. Edgeworth is really worth it.

This book was fun and entertaining until the end. I was a bit miffed--it just kind of ended for me. It felt like there was not much of a resolution and sort of like the author wasn't sure how to end it and just tried to tidy up the ending but didn't succeed. It was unclear what really happened to Courtney. Jane's life was nice and neat but it was confusing and let the reader wanting more for Courtney. She just faded into the background of the story as Jane's story took over.

That said, it was fun and I read the whole thing in a afternoon/evening, so it must have been reasonably entertaining.

3 Bonnets!

Monday, June 16, 2008