Pajiba

Read Austen! She has little in common with the Brontes, aside from the vagina thing. They're depressing. She is hilarious. And come on, you can't have that strong a grudge against her - you've seen movie adaptations of her work, AND you just read a book about reading her books. That's actually what got me to start reading her, too, because I had some an image of mushy romance crap until I read Reading Lolita in Tehran, which also involves book club members discussing Austen. I sucked it up and read Emma, and it was amazing. Then I bought pretty much everything she's ever written.

Just watched Lost in Austen on streaming netflix and god damn that was an amusing diversion. Seriously. Any fan of the BBC Pride & Prejudice who has a sense of humor should watch it. Its nearly three hour run time meant I almost missed a dinner engagement, so lost was I in rapt attention.

SaBrina, Reading Lolita in Tehran is what inspired me to read Lolita - didn't like that one too much, though. And yes, I much prefer Austen to the Brontes.

Linda, I agree, Persuasion is probably my favorite Austen novel.

I seriously hate the Brontes so much it fringes on unhealthy. Blame my terrible eighth-grade literature teacher for that.

These comments are encouraging though, and I really need to mentally detach Jane Austen from the bummer sisters.

Ang Lee's S&S FTW!

Read Austen. Read some right now. Northanger Abbey is my fave, since it's short and funny. It could even be a prescient critique of Twihards - young girl is too obsessed with gothic romance, learns lessons from real world. Plus Mr. Tilney is adorably nerdy and witty.

I'll throw in my two cents that P&P is my favorite Austen book. S&S was fine and good but god damn the movie annoyed the ever loving crap out of me. Personally I'd love to see someone tackle P&P from Darcy's perspective.
But don't get me started on Emma...

I've always avoided Jane Austen because of the male/female thing (I'm a male, and only females seem to love reading her). And the comments here back that up. What's a guy to do?

Partly it's because I have a huge list of books to read so any reason not to add more is fine by me (like spelling mistakes on job applications), but I'm starting to wonder if I'm missing out on an integral part of literature.

Any guys out there that love Austen? Any women that have compelling non-gender based reasons for me to reject my limited view of Jane Austen and pick up one of her books?

@ Empress: Catherine would SO be a Twihard! She'd totally swoon and squee over Edward and his brooding. And meanwhile Mr Tilney would snarky and poke fun at the books and at her.

@ Stella: try Mr Darcy's Diary, by Amanda Grange. It's exactly what it says on the tin: Mr Darcy's diary, so P&P from his point of view. Amanda Grange has also written 'diaries' from the other Jane Austen heroes. AFAIK, Mr Darcy's Diary is considered pretty good among Austenites.

@ Brenton: main reason to read Jane Austen for anyone: she's such an incredible writer. She's so funny (people claim that Dickens is funny but imo he has nothing on Austen!) and such an astute observer of people. All of her novels could easily be put in modern times (as with the Twilight/Northanger Abbey example above, or Clueless, which is a modern adaptation of Austen's Emma, or even the Mormon adaptation of P&P!) because the characters are so relatable. Yes, the plots are about finding a romantic partner. But they are ALSO about growth, about finding yourself, and growing up. All of the main characters have grown (up) by the end of the book and have learned something important: to not be blinded by prejudice, to not give in to wild emotions, to not try and rule everybody else's life, etc. The men, too, learn and grow as persons. The fact that they do this in period clothing and with concern over social mores and codes is just because that's the time Austen wrote them in.
And the characters are so relatable, exactly because they're so well-written and -observed. You totally get why Elizabeth is so embarrassed in P&P when her family collectively tries to make an ass of themselves as much as they can because it's so easy to imagine happening to yourself (especially during the holidays!).
People always focus on the mushy romance stuff, and alright, that's one of the appeals, but I read them for the snarkiness and the humor and the well-rounded characters. As Austen herself wrote to her sister: "Pictures of perfection, as you know, make me sick and wicked" Her characters are imperfect, and they are all the better for it!

Her letters are quite fun, too, actually. :)

Oh, and yadda yadda yadda reading Jane Austen as a man will make you more appealing to women yadda yadda sexist talk yadda.

@ Brenton:

Jane Austen is mean. She's mean in the way your favorite bitchy aunt is mean around the holidays, whispering into your ear which cousin is back off the wagon and what a mess your brother made of his second marriage -- by which I mean, she's mostly awesome.

Jane Austen isn't as concerned with romance as she is concerned about human beings. And that kind of concern should be cross-genderal (if you allow "genderal" to be a word; and I've seen the way most people type on the internet and this shouldn't be a problem). You know, either intimately or peripherally, all of the people Austen is writing about: the priggish girl who never tires of flaunting her priggishness in quietly passive aggressive ways (Fanny Price -- who is also awesome, though it takes a couple of reads of Mansfield Park to get that. You'll be hard-pressed to find someone in the Austen canon with as much strength of will as Fanny has); the rakish guy who values himself by his ride rather than by anything of actual value (John Thorpe -- who would have been a better match for Catherine Morland; or, at least, he needs Catherine more than Catherine needs the fabric-loving Henry Tilney); the woman left behind by love, dealing quietly with heartache (Anne Elliot).

You may end up not liking the novels anyway. There's no accounting for taste, nor should you be bullied into loving something just because all the smart, cool, hot kids do. But you should at least try Austen. If you're a careful reader, and if you consider yourself bitchy, and if you want to both hold the world tight and slap it, then you'll probably like Austen just fine.

Don't start with Pride and Prejudice; it's like looking at the Mona Lisa in that it can feel like you've already read it too much because everyone else has read it too much. Emma is a nice start; Northanger Abbey, too. (Plus, NA is short.) But if you think you've got the cajones for it, and if you feel you're up for a challenge, and if you want something not overtly romantic, while also sort of achingly sexy, then I think you might be the kind of reader who should read Mansfield Park. Fanny Price will teach you about moral fortitude; Mary Crawford will let you feel her up behind the rectory.

But do read Austen. She'll repay the attention.

And it looks like Linda and Jen K. beat me to it, and much betterly.

Thanks for the review! I'll definitely put this one on my list.

D-Day! Leave Kevin Zegers alone!

@ Mike B: excellent call on Jane Austen as the mean aunt! Hee, she totally is. Her letters are SO mean sometimes, it's hilarious. And yes, John Thorpe is absolutely the kind of man who values himself by his ride. He'd be an excellent used-car salesman - just don't trust everything he says. :p

@ Extemporanea: not only do Pajibans love Jane Austen, I have a suspicion that she'd have loved Pajiba. Scathing and bitchy? Oh yes!

Mary Scott O'Connor is obviously a big fan of caffeinated beverages. And capitalization. And the use of strong punctuation marks.

Four years ago... No, it was yesterday. Today I... No, that wasn't me. Sometimes I... No, I don't.