Jane Austen

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Ok, I was reading another thread and saw a very negative reply to Jane Austen and was really shocked. I’ve only recently read her books (and I loved Pride and Prejudice), and don’t understand what anyone would have against them?

Perhaps someone could enlighten me to what is offensive in her books. Or, if no one does, we can just have a conversation about how much we loved them. 👍
 
This is odd…only two people have looked at this post and yet four have voted… :confused:

ah well - so far it appears unanimous 😛
 
Lady Cygnus:
This is odd…only two people have looked at this post and yet four have voted… :confused:

ah well - so far it appears unanimous 😛
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Not everyone posts…they just like the anonymity of the poll.😉
 
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Annunciata:
Not everyone posts…they just like the anonymity of the poll.😉
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Ah but initially there were only two Views (howmany actually looked at the threads) and there were four votes in the poll. Now it says four views, I think perhaps it’s just a delay.

oh well 😃
 
I am having trouble with my computer working slow, that is why I just voted. Also, although I love Pride and Prejudice it has been a long time since I read Austin’s work.

I know the thread that you are referring to that criticized Austin’s work as gender bending?(I believe that was the term?) I don’t think that the man actually read the work. It would have been nice if he had posted the review that he had gotten such a weird impression of the book from.
 
I just read all of Austen’s works this summer for the first time. I loved them.

My husband wasn’t interested in them though :hmmm:, any ideas on why men don’t seem to likt her books?
 
I love her work; actually I had just finished Mansfield Park earlier this week and am currently re-reading Persuasion. Pride and Prejudice is absolutely charming! Northanger Abbey is pure Gothic satire, Emma a great character study, and even Sense and Sensibility, which is my least favorite, has enough bits of “Austen-isms” to make it worthwhile. Lady Susan, the Juvenalia, even the fragments of The Watsons and Sanditon, are enjoyable for the light that they cast not just on Jane but on her family and peripherally on Jane’s change from eager ingenue to a “real” paid author.

As for why men don’t like her books–quite a few do, actually, but men aren’t readers of fiction so much as women are (this is borne out in educational studies that reveal that men are more likely to read non fiction). I’m glad that more younger women are rediscovering Jane Austen although (sigh) these movies that are made lately really do not do the books justice. (Though I liked the A&E series on P&P). The Gynneth Paltrow “Emma”, the total reworking of Fanny in “Mansfield Park”, the Thompson-Winslet-Grant “Sense and Sensibility”, even the indie “Persuasion” just were not nuanced, varied, or true to the novels themselves IMO.
 
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deb1:
I am having trouble with my computer working slow, that is why I just voted. Also, although I love Pride and Prejudice it has been a long time since I read Austin’s work.

I know the thread that you are referring to that criticized Austin’s work as gender bending?(I believe that was the term?) I don’t think that the man actually read the work. It would have been nice if he had posted the review that he had gotten such a weird impression of the book from.
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Yes, this thread post #5

I know he just read the review for a movie, but then someone else agreed with him in post #18. I’m still very confused on where he got the idea that there was “gender bending” in her work (although it would be more suspect of a movie).

Honestly, for me, her work helped me to understand what a woman was supposed to act like! It was like the secular counterpart to Theology of the Body. Ok, maybe that is stretching it a bit, but it did start in my mind the idea that love wasn’t about sex but about a mutual understanding and growth.

I love her books :o
 
If you all like Austen, then you might like Fanny Burney. She was a novelist who was a major influence on Austen. I don’t know if she ever became Catholic but she was married to a French man in both a Catholic and a Protestant ceremony. I would post a link on amazon for some of her books but my computer seems to be having some problems.
 
here is the link that I read. I know nothing about this book and from what I read I don’t want to.

victorianweb.org/previctorian/austen/lqae.html
"
the changing conceptions of family and partnership that are central to Austen’s text.
"

gender bending.

"
Throughout Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen plays with people’s roles and ideas of rank. She often challenges society’s assumptions and classifications, as she does in the passage above"

more stuff against church teachings.

"
8. In Pride and Predjudice Austen explores the tension between the construction of feminity and selfhood
"

An attempt at social deconstruction
 
I’ve only read one of her novels, ‘Northanger Abbey’ when I was younger, maybe 15 or so. I voted “they’re ok” because that’s what I got out of it at the time. I think I should give them another try though, now that I’m a little older and more appreciative of classic literature 😃
 
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kev7:
this is what the femanazis have to say about it.
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Enough with the “nazi” business.

People with good manners do not call others “nazis” unless they speak German and wear jackboots.
 
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kev7:
here is the link that I read. I know nothing about this book and from what I read I don’t want to.

victorianweb.org/previctorian/austen/lqae.html
"
the changing conceptions of family and partnership that are central to Austen’s text.
"

gender bending.

"
Throughout Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen plays with people’s roles and ideas of rank. She often challenges society’s assumptions and classifications, as she does in the passage above"

more stuff against church teachings.

"
8. In Pride and Predjudice Austen explores the tension between the construction of feminity and selfhood
"

An attempt at social deconstruction
Click to expand...
A feel an overpowering urge to point out that all this may be true, but it is hardly evil when taken in context.

She wrote the book in 1813…not 1993.

I can see why radical feminists might use this text to support their campagn, but in the same way they used the initial feminist movement and the right to vote. I like being able to vote, but that doesn’t mean I agree with everything that these feminists are endorcing.

One final thing, the links you posted weren’t for a review, but for a detailed question and answer sheet, something more likely to be used in a english lit class. Here is a better summary from the ebook :
First published in 1813, Pride and Prejudice has consistently been Jane Austen’s most popular novel. It portrays life in the genteel rural society of the day, and tells of the initial misunderstandings and later mutual enlightenment between Elizabeth Bennet (whose liveliness and quick wit have often attracted readers) and the haughty Darcy. The title Pride and Prejudice refers (among other things) to the ways in which Elizabeth and Darcy first view each other.
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Celia:
I’ve only read one of her novels, ‘Northanger Abbey’ when I was younger, maybe 15 or so. I voted “they’re ok” because that’s what I got out of it at the time. I think I should give them another try though, now that I’m a little older and more appreciative of classic literature 😃
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Northanger Abbey is a parady of the Gothic novel. In other words she was making rabid fun of the writers of her time, but this point is often not made clear by the english teachers. Having read no gothic novels myself I couldn’t enjoy it, but a friend of mine (who was more versed in the classics) thought it was hilarious.

Try Pride and Prejudice or Persuasion, those two are my favorites. Persuasion was the first one I read and really got me interested in her books. Well, I technically started Emma first, but I didn’t like the main character and decided to put the book down before I threw it against a wall (btw, this is no fault of the writer, she just wrote a really dislikable character 😛 ).
 
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kev7:
here is the link that I read. I know nothing about this book and from what I read I don’t want to.

victorianweb.org/previctorian/austen/lqae.html
"
the changing conceptions of family and partnership that are central to Austen’s text.
"

gender bending.

"
Throughout Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen plays with people’s roles and ideas of rank. She often challenges society’s assumptions and classifications, as she does in the passage above"

more stuff against church teachings.

"
8. In Pride and Predjudice Austen explores the tension between the construction of feminity and selfhood
"

An attempt at social deconstruction
Click to expand...
I have noticed a trend among feminist to try and take older, popular books and make them sound as if they are supporting modern feminism when the books don’t.

You mention that she played with society’s view of roles and ranks. Isn’t that what American democracy is about? IN England it was harder to escape from your background and when you did there was the likelihood that you would still be looked down on by those above you. There was a lot of classism. We have a much more fluid society now. Simply because a man is born poor does not mean that he has to stay that way. In general we now respect the self made man and look down on the heir. Not in Victorian society. A gentleman was not simply a polite person but a man who did not have to work with their hands. Gentlemen were higher up on the social scale then someone who had to work to make their money.

So, it confuses me why you would think that questioning the social rank and roles in society would be considered wrong.
 
Penny Plain:
Enough with the “nazi” business.

People with good manners do not call others “nazis” unless they speak German and wear jackboots.
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And, people with good manners do not refer to the German people as nazis, regardless of what they wear.
 
I just saw the A&E version of Pride and Prejudice last night…ur two nights ago. It was so wonderful!

Mr Darcy was perfect. They left the lines almost exactly the same as in the book. Ok, they had to add a few scenes and move some stuff around, but considering how hard it is to make a production of a narrated book it was great and very faithful!

I must find a way to add this to my meager movie collection 😃
 
On Saturday afternoon, I was flipping channels and saw that “Pride and Prejudice” was coming up on a movie channel - so, I flipped to it. All happy wrapping gifts.

WRONG - Apparently there was a “version” done in the last couple of years, an “updated modern version” - I suffered through the first half and had to turn off the TV - they butchered it and made it TRASH. Perhaps there are some uninformed young people who think this hack job movie is the actual story???
 
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