Do you love Jane Austen or want to “dig her up and beat her over the skull with her own shin-bone”? (Phrase borrowed from Mark Twain).
- Why? (for either answer)?
- Favorite and/or least favorite Austen novel?
The answer for me is a decided LOVE! I adore Jane Austen and have read all of her full novels except Northanger Abbey. I want to read it in the fall, but every year I resist, I think because I don't want to be done. I know there are plenty of spin-offs and juvenile unfinished writings, but being done with the core six novels will be saddening.
The first Jane Austen I ever read was not Pride and Prejudice like most people, but Sense and Sensibility, and it remains my favorite. I always related to Marianne (it seems many people do, from what I see in the blogosphere) -- emotional, passionate, and a pianist. :) And as a teenager I was drawn to those stories that had a hint of tragedy in them (I was too young to see the romance of Colonel Brandon -- I get it now) (somewhat).
My least favorite that I have read is Emma, and I think the only real reason for that is that I read it when I was pretty young and never went back to it. The other day I needed a mindless distraction and decided to watch Clueless while I fed my baby, and now I am thinking I need to reread Emma.
Somewhat unrelated but also sparking a desire to reread another Jane Austen: Has anyone been watching The Lizzie Bennet Diaries? MOST EXCELLENT.
