Pride & Prejudice

I have been trying to enjoy Jane Austen for a long time now. But it's been really hard going. I had heard of her works of course, and when my friend Rosemary mentioned a couple of years ago that she was reading "Emma", I asked her if I could borrow it when she was finished. I've had that book, yes, for a couple of years now and have started over with it several times but have not been able to get through the first couple of chapters. The trouble was that all of a sudden the realization hits me that I have absolutely no idea what is going on in the book.

I've checked out the library's copy of the audio version of both Emma and Sense & Sensibility over time, and again, half the disc would go by in the car and I would realize I had no idea what the story was about. I work in Medford which gives me a half hour of car time both morning and evening and am happy to have books to listen to. Especially since the commute gives me less actual reading time during the course of a day...

I was faintly astonished and largely impressed as my teenage niece Caitlin described Pride & Prejudice and Sense & Sensibility as being her favorite movies. What?

When I was at Marji's house last fall, we began watching Pride & Prejudice and (maybe because I really do like to talk... I know, hard to believe) I found myself with the feeling that I had no idea what was going on. We didn't make it through the whole movie. We did get far enough to encounter the five daughters and I mentioned to Phil, "Hey! You guys could have three more girls and have a household like theirs!" He got quite an appalled look on his face so I'm thinking that's not going to happen. Oh well. There were four girls in our household and we didn't have quite that much drama as we were growing up, although it seems there is much more so now when we all get together at my mom and dad's. It's entertaining that way so I have a feeling we now work it on purpose.    :)

So it's not that I haven't wanted to enjoy Jane Austen. I've listened to the audio books, "The Jane Austen Book Club" and "Writing Jane Austen" both of which I enjoyed quite a lot. There are so many people that adore her works that I knew there had to be something there to like. Besides that, I've heard so much about the dashing Mr. Darcy that it stands to reason there must be some reason to pay attention there... Not to mention all times I've encountered knitting references to the Jane Austen era.

This winter when I downloaded the Nook Reader app onto my iPhone, I found it came with a couple of free books. One of which is Pride & Prejudice. (I'm pretty sure I'll be actually be able to spell prejudice by the time I finish here!)

Okay. That's it. I really need to get through this! I started with page one, and this time I looked at the first sentence and would not continue until I could rephrase it in modern terms. Okay then. Now the second sentence. Hey! It's working! I get it!

I only had to do this translating bit for the first page or so and then I was good to go...  Of course, reading takes away from knitting time whereas listening to podcasts, audio books, and movies, can all be done while knitting. For some reason, I have been getting very little actual reading done these past few months. And also, I have not made it completely through the book. I did find the audio book at the library and am listening to it in the car this week.

Last night Rich and Aidan had to go out, and since a co-worker was kind enough to lend me her movie version of Pride & Prejudice, it seemed an apt time to start watching it.

So... a glass of wine, a movie, and working on finishing up my January afghan block... sssshhhh... don't tell Marji I haven't finished mine yet. I think she finished hers on Monday which I was supposed to do too but I got caught up with stringing beads onto some black cotton for another project I just couldn't wait to dip into...