Pride and Prejudice and Flippers

Towards the end of the year I get so bogged down with events that I end up missing a book discussion! Last year it was the Halloween discussion, and this year, it was the Pride and Prejudice discussion, which, incidentally, was also originally scheduled in October (moved to November, due to the storms).

The task was to read Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen and read an offshoot book based on the classic for the discussion that our resident Austen fan, Honey, was moderating at the Raul Roco garden and library in Antipolo.

I made sure to finish the books (Pride and Prejudice, Darcy’s Story by Janet Aylmer and Lost in Austen, a create your own Jane Austen adventure, by Emma Campbell Webster — books 167-169 for 2009) for the discussion, and was all set to go when plans went awry. Sigh. So there, that photo on the cover (taken by Jeeves de Veyra) is from the discussion slash tea party, which looked mighty fun (waah!). I hope they post a recap soon, as I’m dying to hear about what happened.

I’m posting a review of the books I read for the discussion here, anyway, to make up for missing it (waah again!).

I have always wanted to read Pride and Prejudice but never got a chance to — unlike most people I know, none of the classes I took in high school or college required me to read it. Consequently, I avoided the films because I wanted to read the book first.

Everyone probably knows the story — rich Mr. Darcy and middle-class Eliza Bennett clash upon their first encounter, with his pride and her prejudice getting in the way, but eventually they overcome these obstacles (and then some more) and love wins out.

I must say that reading it was harder for me than I thought.  I’m not sure why. It wasn’t that the language was particularly hard to understand. It wasn’t the themes either — it has themes of love and social classes similar to my all-time favorite classic, E.M. Forster’s A Room With A View, and both are equally gossipy, too.

For the most part, it wasn’t moving fast enough for me. I mean, I wasn’t expecting a thrilling plot, but I was plodding through the book, save for the key scenes — the first proposal, Lizzy’s visit to Pemberley, Lydia eloping, and the ending. It kills me how Austen is so verbose for most of the novel and yet frustratingly economical in the parts I really want to savor.

I still found a lot to like in the book though. My favorite passages in the book :

“I am perfectly convinced by it that Mr. Darcy has no defect. He owns it himself without disguise.”
“No,” said Darcy, “I have made no such pretension. I have faults enough, but they are not, I hope, of understanding. My temper I dare not vouch for. It is, I believe, too little yielding— certainly too little for the convenience of the world. I cannot forget the follies and vices of other so soon as I ought, nor their offenses against myself. My feelings are not puffed about with every attempt to move them. My temper would perhaps be called resentful. My good opinion once lost is lost forever.”
“That is a failing indeed!” cried Elizabeth. “Implacable resentment is a shade in a character. But you have chosen your fault well. I really cannot laugh at it. You are safe from me.”
“There is, I believe, in every disposition a tendency to some particular evil— a natural defect, which not even the best education can overcome.”
“And your defect is a propensity to hate everybody.”
“And yours,” he replied with a smile, “is willfully to misunderstand them.”

and this part:

“You are then resolved to have him?”
“I have said no such thing. I am only resolved to act in that manner, which will, in my own opinion, constitute my happiness, without reference to you, or to any person so wholly unconnected with me.”
“It is well. You refuse, then, to oblige me. You refuse to obey the claims of duty, honour, and gratitude. You are determined to ruin him in the opinion of all his friends, and make him the contempt of the world.”
“Neither duty, nor honour, nor gratitude,” replied Elizabeth, “have any possible claim on me, in the present instance. No principle of either would be violated by my marriage with Mr. Darcy. And with regard to the resentment of his family, or the indignation of the world, if the former were excited by his marrying me, it would not give me one moment’s concern— and the world in general would have too much sense to join in the scorn.”

And this:

“You are too generous to trifle with me. If your feelings are still what they were last April, tell me so at once. My affections and wishes are unchanged, but one word from you will silence me on this subject for ever.“

And of course:

“You are too generous to trifle with me. If your feelings are still what they were last April, tell me so at once. My affections and wishes are unchanged, but one word from you will silence me on this subject for ever.“

On the whole I enjoyed reading the book, but I guess I’m just not taking to Austen as well as I expected, considering some of my closest friends are big Austen fans. Now I want to read Austen’s other works to see if they make a fan out of me. I think Northanger Abbey would be more my speed; perhaps I shall read that one next.

The Austen offshoot I read was Darcy’s Story by Janet Aylmer, which is in essence Pride and Prejudice, from Darcy’s point of view.

Because the author (erm, co-author?) intended to remain faithful to Pride and Prejudice, it was like reading the novel a second time, heavily borrowing text and quotations from the former, except for a few devices that meant to explain the shift in Darcy’s behavior towards Lizzy.

It starts with the Wickham-Georgiana backstory, taking place before the events from Pride and Prejudice unfold. It also explains what led to Darcy meeting Lizzy in Kent; how Darcy helped save the Bennetts from scandal; and the final meeting in Hertfordshire.

I guess, since practically half the book was already written by Austen, it does make it easier for Aylmer to remain faithful to the text and its characters.

I think, however, Aylmer could have pushed the bar some more, as it does feel like a rereading of Pride and Prejudice with a few additions, and I think she didn’t need to borrow so much from Austen to create a novel that stays faithful to the original. I think that adding a bit more of herself and her writing to this novel would have made it less dry and redundant.

I also managed to read a second offshoot (see, I was prepared!), this time, a choose-your-own Jane Austen adventure. I was delighted to have found this book while randomly going through the local listings on BookMooch, and just in time for the discussion, too.

There’s a bit of praise from one of my favorite authors, Jasper Fforde, on the frontispiece, proclaiming it as a must-read for Austen fans everywhere.

The book is based prominently on Pride and Prejudice: the reader takes on the role of Eliza Bennett and the general story arc follows that of P&P.

As Eliza, the reader’s mission is to ”marry both prudently and for love, eluding undesirable suitors and avoiding family scandals which would almost certainly ruin any hope of a financially advantageous marriage for you or any of your sisters.”

Like the choose your own adventure books, the book is not read from beginning to end, and depends on the choices you make along the way. Some are obvious choices (e.g. what would Eliza do in the situation) and some are totally random (e.g. take the left path or take the right path) and there is a scoring system for Intelligence, Confidence, Fortune, Accomplishments and Connections. You can choose to keep track of the scores, or you can invent your score along the way (which is what I did).

The language is modern that is pretending to be old-fashioned, but the tone is totally chick lit-ish, giving it the feel of one of those quizzes you find in fluffy magazines.

Webster mixes up the P&P plot by incorporating characters and situations from other Austen books (which I found out after reading the notes section at the back of the book) — Henry Crawford from Mansfield Park, Jane Fairfax’s mortification at becoming a governess; the ”white attic” and the ”East Room” from Mansfield park, and many more.

I think though, that by the time I got to this book I’d read too much Pride and Prejudice in succession (it felt like a third reading) and I wish I’d chosen a contemporary offshoot that was more loosely based on the original.

In any case, the readings were a good exercise for me, and while I’m not exactly a fan of Austen at this point, I look forward to reading more Austen in the future.

Oh, and it looks like my bookmark-making has caught on, check out what Honey’s hubby prepared for our book discussion:

Aww, I just hate missing FFP discussions!

***

My copies: Pride and Prejudice, mass market paperback, also one in an Austen compilation in trade paperback; Darcy’s Story, trade paperback; Lost in Austen, trade paperback

My ratings: Pride and Prejudice,4/5 stars; Darcy’s story, 3/5 stars; Lost in Austen, 3/5 stars