I happen to have this thing for Jane Austen. I know, I know. Everybody loves Jane Austen these days, but may I just say that mine is legit? I first read Pride and Prejudice when I was in Jr. high, and it wasn't the abridged version. It was the real thing. Being in Jr. high, I'm sure the vision of Mr. Darcy is what pulled me in... as it does most women... but now that I'm older, went through college as an English major, and can appreciate Ms. Austen's writing, I find more to love than just Mr. Darcy in her books. (Like Captain Wentworth, George Knightley, Edward Ferrars....) Actually, I find myself appreciating her wit and writing style, as well as her observations about life during the early 19th century.
Needless to say, it has been a very good Jane Austen week. The movie rental store in my tiny town is going out of business, and I happened to stumble upon their copy of the BBC/A&E version of Pride and Prejudice. It's the really long one with Colin Firth that's about forty dollars any place else. I happened to get it for ten. I had a very big, happy nerd moment that day.
I've been contemplating going back to school for a few months. I graduated in 2009 with a Bachelors degree in English and writing and then went on to do a year of master's work in the same field. When I started, I planned on finishing and possibly teaching at a community college, but life had different plans. That was about the time Music Man came back into my life, and we decided to get married. Doing so required me to put my degree on pause for a bit, but it turned out I was a little burnt out on school work anyway, and I wasn't sure if I was in the right program. So here we are, in another state and I'm looking at different schools to transfer into. My main love in literature is Children's/Young Adult literature but I also hold Ms. Austen close to my heart. And since I'm not currently in school tearing literature apart for critical theory, I have been enjoying the free time and reading everything I can get my hands on. Which mostly pans out to be children's lit and Jane Austen. So I'm sort of in a dilemma about what to study when I go, especially since I've pretty much decided I would like to pursue my Doctorate after I get my Masters. I enjoy both genres of literature so much that I'm trying to see if I can weasel a connection between the two so I can delve into both!
But back to the joy at hand... not only did I stumble upon P&P but I also won a copy of the 1995 version of Sense and Sensibility! I've been reading a blog called My Jane Austen Book Club (it started as a way to chronicle her book club's journey through Jane Austen...which was modeled after Karen Joy Fowler's book, The Jane Austen Book Club but now it has progress into all things Austen) and she has fabulous authors, and interviews, and giveaways. I've never been the lucky kind of person to win anything, but I figured, commenting was worth a shot. And this time it panned out! This is my favorite version of the book on film so I cannot wait to get it in the mail. So thank you Maria!
Now, the tricky part is convincing my husband to watch both of them with me.
