The Divine Jane

I saw an online exhibit about Jane Austen (c/o Smart Bitches) the other day that is a companion to a real-life exibit in The Morgan Library & Museum in New York. What caught my attention was the short documentary, The Divine Jane: Reflections on Austen. It's basically a gathering of a bunch of famous people who love Jane Austen and tell us all why, and there's one thing I noticed right from the beginning:

This documentary starts off with two quotes and two interviews. What do all of the four people in the opening of this film have in common? They are all men. And the third person interviewed, a woman, describes Austen's work right off the bat as, "masculine... not dainty."

What?!? Woman, are you listening to yourself? What in the world does masculine writing even look like, pray tell? And why is it better than "womanly" writing? Here's a clue: Austen wrote books about women and the issues women cared about, for a largely female audience. Afterall, she was a woman, though some people in this documentary seem to be doing their damnedest to forget that fact. And I believe it was the same woman who called Austen, "small minded"--as in confined (does that equate to what Tennyson referred to as "her small sphere," one wonders?).

I'm not saying men can't enjoy Austen--of course not. And also, Cornell West is as cute as a button. However, the purpose of this mini-documentary seems to be to legitimize Austen as a major figure in literature (uh, duh) by subtly shoving aside the fact that her novels are essentially about finding love and security, and talking instead about how her books are a study of human nature. And some stuff from the Irish novelist about how he'd rather take an Austen book to bed than a real woman (kinky!).

Quite frankly, I don't think the filmmakers did Austen any favors with documentary. And in light of the PW Top Ten List debacle a few weeks ago, I think it's clear that women authors are still valued below men just because of their gender--even when that writer is someone incomparable like Jane Austen. She needs the approval of male writers and critics, and a masculine voice to legitimize her as a great novelist--never mind that probably more people have read her work than that of either Tennyson or Beckett. Oh, but then those are just romance novels.

I'm counting this toward the Everything Austen Challenge. Because I can. Two down, four more to go!

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Mr. & Mrs. Darcy: Two Become One

Mr. & Mrs. Fitzwilliam Darcy: Two Shall Become One by Sharon Lathan

Becky at One Literature Nut recommended this book to me (see her review here), and I'm really glad she did.  It is full of warm fuzzies.  Reading it is like sitting in field with hopping bunnies, stuffing your face with chocolate, and cuddling a puppy. 

I read a quote from one of Jane Austen's contemporaries once about Pride & Prejudice.  Actually, it was a letter where the writer was telling her sister about the book.  It went something along the lines of, "It was a really good book, but the ending sucked.  But then what else can you expect."  I do have to agree with her that the ending of P&P does kind of suck and leaves a lot of open ends.  Fortunately, this leads the field open for other writers to take up where Austen left off and to give us the "ending" they envision for romance's most beloved couple.

Mr. & Mrs. Fitzwilliam Darcy starts on Lizzie's and Darcy's wedding day.  Although the language seems a bit pedantic at first, it simply takes some getting used to.  I really loved the beginning of this book because it adds to the characters of Lizzie and Darcy and fills in things from their personal history that I had wondered about from the original book.  Then they get to Pemberly, and pretty much have sex all over the place for the rest of the novel. :D

A reviewer on Goodreads acused this book of being "basically porn."  I doubt that reviewer has ever read porn, or even erotica for that matter, because this isn't it.  The sex isn't pornographic (or even graphic), but is very sweet and an important part of Darcy and Lizzie's relationship. 

One thing this book does suffer from, though, is a lack of conflict.  While I loved the beginning and seeing how everything was working out at Pemberly for Lizzie and Darcy, the middle started to drag a bit.  Lizzie's life is way too perfect, even if this is a total fantasy (and that's what it is), and there are no major conflicts or problems to drive the development of the characters or make us discover anything new about them.  Around page 200, Lizzie and Darcy start fighting again, so that's fun; but Lizzie always comes off looking petty and immature, and Darcy is of course always nobly suffering.  I know this book takes place in Regency England, but Darcy doesn't have to be right all the freaking time.  That's annoying, and a tad anarchonistic--as if the book had been written by a '50s housewife. 

So the novel evened out to a good read for me--the beginning was fantastic, the middle got a bit boring, the ending was a bit better.  I'm still not sure if I'm sold on P&P retellings (do they ever live up to the original?), but I did enjoy reading this one.  Recommended for hopeless romantics.



I read this book as part of the Everything Austen Challenge hosted by Stephanie.  One Austen thing down, five more to go!

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Everything Austen Challenge

So I swore to myself that I would not join another challenge until I had finished the ones I'm doing now; but then this one came along and I gave in.

The Everything Austen Challenge is hosted by Stephanie at Stephanie's Written Word.  Basically you have six months (July 1st 2009-January 1st 2010) to read, watch, listen to, or do anything related to Jane Austen... which realistically, I was probably going to do anyway.

So here's my plan for the six things to do:

1. Read Mr. & Mrs. Fitzwilliam Darcy: Two Shall Become One by Sharon Lathan
2. Read Pride and Prejudice and Zombies
3. Read Tea with Jane Austen--This book is all about tea in Jane Austen's novels.  Sounds pretty awesome!
4. Read Jane and the Unpleasantness at Scargrave Manor: Being the First Jane Austen Mystery--I just remembered that I've been wanting to try this series out for years.
   
5. Watch the 1940 version of Pride and Prejudice with Greer Garson and Lawrence Olivier.  Actually, I've seen a part of this one; but it was soooooo awful I stopped.  But I will watch it for this challenge, because this may actually be a challenge. :)
6. TBD

So that's the plan.  Another challenge and hopefully I'll be able to finish it.

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