Enjoying Austen

I have now a very nice little collection of DVDs of various Jane Austen stories, as well as most of her novels downloaded on my iPad for frequent reading. I never really read Austen until I was in my MSc programme, although I think I’d watched a bit of the Firth/Elhe Pride and Prejudice. It was my professor (who supervised my thesis work) who, in my mind, introduced me to the delights of Jane Austen.

Dr. Nenadic assigned Persuasion as one of the readings for the week we talked about shopping, specifically for the scenes where Anne and her family are shopping in Bath. Persuasion is now my very favourite of Austen’s novels. What’s more, through the course I understood why it was so dreadful that Mr. Darcy refused to dance, why the Bennet’s behaviour was so dreadful, and that visiting the country homes of wealthy gentlemen when they were away wasn’t a quirk but rather an accepted practice. The joy I feel in reading or watching Jane Austen lies in the fact that I first met her as a source of historical information, of the ins and outs of the daily life of her era. It is a brief visit to the era I study.

(I wrote this as I was watching one of the Pride and Prejudice adaptations, which would be why all the examples are from that story)

1 comment

  1. I’ve been reading Emma on my iPad during my train commute recently. I, too, love Austen’s work. Haven’t yet read Persuasion but I’ll bump it up my list.

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