Is there ever not a good time for Jane Austen??
So I know I posted just last week how I'm reading the book about Billy Graham...I haven't given it up I promise. I just needed some more relaxed reading (the kind that you sit with a blanket and a cup of tea to enjoy). Last weekend my friend Taryn came down and while her husband, Matthew, and Nathan went to watch the Seahawks play the Saints, she and I kicked back to watch the 6 hour Pride & Predjudice. Steven was the best napper ever that day. Taryn is a P&P first-timer, & hadn't read the book (and therefore didn't know the plot), so it was a delight to introduce her to it! I'm pretty sure I created a new Jane Austen fan.
It truly is the best movie version of the book ever made. Don't even try to argue it...no one even comes close to Colin Firth's Mr. Darcy.
This got me thinking of one of my other favorite movies based off a Jane Austen book - Sense & Sensibility.
I own this one, on VHS no less (I need to upgrade, don't know how long that good ole' VCR is going to hold on). I cry every time I watch it. Emma Thompson is amazing, and while I generally can't stand Hugh Grant, he does a great job playing the shy, romantically awkward, Edward Farrars. It is just a matter of time before I introduce Taryn to this one as well.
Now, I've read my share of Jane Austen. Persuasion, Emma, Mansfield Park...to name a few. It suddenly occured to me that while I know this story oh so well from the movie, I have gasp(!) never read the book. So ashamed am I, but, this is soon to be remedied!
A few years ago, PBS was doing Jane Austen stories for their Masterpiece Theater segment and as part of the promotion you could enter to win this:
I never win anything. So, I was thoroughly shocked when this arrived in my mail a few weeks after the end of the promotion. Yippee! I am now the proud owner of Jane Austen: The Complete Novels. (And I'm still sticking with the "already on my bookshelf" goal).
This morning, after Nathan kindly went to Starbucks and picked up a London Fog and a donut (after my begging and pleading), I cozied up in bed (Steven was napping) and began to read Sense & Sensibility for the very first time. I am excited. So far what I have discovered is that Emma Thompson makes a very poor 19 yr. old Eleanor Dashwood...I get that they were going for the "spinster" image, but really? She had to have been at least in her late 30's when the movie was made. But then, maybe I'm a poor judge of wrinkles.
Well, to bed go I and to more reading as well!
This got me thinking of one of my other favorite movies based off a Jane Austen book - Sense & Sensibility.
Now, I've read my share of Jane Austen. Persuasion, Emma, Mansfield Park...to name a few. It suddenly occured to me that while I know this story oh so well from the movie, I have gasp(!) never read the book. So ashamed am I, but, this is soon to be remedied!
A few years ago, PBS was doing Jane Austen stories for their Masterpiece Theater segment and as part of the promotion you could enter to win this:
This morning, after Nathan kindly went to Starbucks and picked up a London Fog and a donut (after my begging and pleading), I cozied up in bed (Steven was napping) and began to read Sense & Sensibility for the very first time. I am excited. So far what I have discovered is that Emma Thompson makes a very poor 19 yr. old Eleanor Dashwood...I get that they were going for the "spinster" image, but really? She had to have been at least in her late 30's when the movie was made. But then, maybe I'm a poor judge of wrinkles.
Well, to bed go I and to more reading as well!
You've officially piqued my interest in reading Jane Austen novels. Rumor has it my Valentine's Day present is already en route, and it is a Nook, so I think I may make Sense and Sensibility my first Nook read!
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