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Saturday, January 13, 2007

book recommendation

This morning I, somewhat hurriedly, finished Pride and Prejudice, and it was wonderful. I've never read any Austen before, and ironically because in my school's advanced placement English classes...we never read what we were suppposed to read. I picked it up to read because I actually highly enjoyed the latest film version with Kiera Knightly. Even knowing the ending, you're just agonizing about the process of getting there. Not in the writing, but just the story. How it seems like...missed opportunities. I'm trying not to say anything in case someone reading this hasn't read it, seen it, or seen Bridget Jones' Diary.

Maybe it's also because secretly we want someone tall, dark and handsome...and brooding to say they "ardently" love us (at least the ladies anyway). And that's also a word I think people should start using again: ardently.

Before seeing the movie, I was always hesitant to read Austen because I thought of her alongside the Bronte sisters, and I have to admit that I very much disliked Wuthering Heights, as much as I wanted to like it. I just couldn't stand Catherine and though she really needed to stand up for herself. It took a lot of effort to get through those pages.

I wish I could say more, but I'm afraid I'll give the story away. I highly recommend reading it, because then I think you'll like the characters in the films even more. Judi Dench does an incredible job of putting Lady Catherine together even though she's only in the film for ten minutes, maximum. Same with Donald Sutherland. He's in the film, but I almost wouldn't say very active, and yet...it's a wonderful performance. Seeing as how it looks like it's finally going to stay cold for some time now, this might be a good time to pick it up and stay inside and read something.

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