New to the world of Austen

Last week I made my mind up and bought Pride and prejudice, Sense and sensibility and Emma. I started with Pride and prejudice, and I am loving it so far! Loved the humour in the first chapter, where Mrs. Bennett talks about her nerves and her husband gives a dry reply.

How wonderful sopies_choice to be reading them for the first time. I am glad you are enjoying them.

I wish I could experience reading them all for the first time again. Now I find I get anxious for my favorite parts when I reread them.

I am new to the world of JAne Austen too. I have read and watched some in the past, but I did not understand them. I read with a different view now and I am hooked.

I think that what is so great about the novels is that no matter how many times you read them there always seems to be something new and fresh to find in them.

#2 Marensr - Now I find I get anxious for my favorite parts when I reread them.

I never realized it until you mentioned it, but I do the same thing! Unfortunately I also dread my not favorite parts. *SPOILER* For example, I am currently reading Mansfield Park and they are putting on the play. I am almost to the part where they browbeat Fanny to be in it and I wish it was over :P Oh, well. Better things will be soon after it!

Oh, I definitely get nervous for the characters like when Fanny is an awkward situation. How clearly Miss Austen draws me in with her emotional display of the characters. She must have felt those feelings herself, don't you think so?

Oh yes yareader2 I think she felt things very accutely.

Compski- I find sometimes it is a delicious squimishness though like Mr. Darcy's disastrous first proposal Lizzy's family misbehaving. I cringe for them.

Marensr: I don't think there is any part of Pride and Prejudice that I dread or wish it would end. As far as "suffering through" Austen goes, there is the scene above and the one where Catherine doesn't wait for the Tilneys and gets talked into going off for a drive. As YA says above, she must have really felt those different emotions to write them so well.

mess 7

My tummy gets all in knots when Lizzy is missing Mr. Darcy and then when he shows up unexpectantly she is nervous and fumbles with her words and finally she watches him leave and wishes she could have told him her true feelings.
*swoon :)*

I have some questions for the more seasoned reader. Is there always a central group of characters, women - friends or sisters, surrounding the main character in her novels?

Yes. In the 19th century, women lived with their families or a family member until they married, or entered a convent or died. Families were larger in those days and often included relatives who were orphaned or impoverished. Also, every higher class family had live-in servants. And because traveling was dificult, visits between members of a household often lasted several weeks or more & a woman never traveled alone. Actually, a lady hardly ever left the house by herself.

Thanks MarianV. :)

I have another question. Is there always a point when the truth is spoken/revealed/enlightened? Until the "magic" words are said face-to-face the story cannot end. ya know what I mean?

Here's are two tips for new Austen readers . . . I took a class last year where we read Mansfield Park, and the techniques that the prof taught us radically changed my reading habits, and increased my enjoyment of books immeasurably.

1. Slow down. Savor the language. With writers like Austen, events that are important to the novel happen at the sentence level. (This one is really hard for me--I like to race along--enjoying the book if it's good, or looking for the good parts if it's boring)

2. If something can be taken as either funny or not funny, always take it as funny. This double-edge is part of the genius of Austen.

I started out kinda lukewarm to Mansfield Park, but as soon as I did these two things, I started loving the book. I've used this technique since (on Nancy Mitford, Charles Dickens and Elizabeth Gaskell) and it works every time.

Hi Nickelini

I always savor my books. Not a problem for me. As for the funny bits, yes, I believe I "get" them. What I wonder about is her being acutely aware of her character's feelings. Knowing how her life went I believe she created a world she wished for and never saw. When someone is deprived on something their other senses become more acute. i.e. a blind person using their other senses of hearing , smelling, touching in order to create a picture for themselves.

So, Jane Austen, being not wealthy, but struggling; plain, not a beauty had an an impairment for her time. From her love of reading she found an outlet to shower the reader with all she could not give to one treasured love.