Pride and Prejudice

"It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife."  One of the most famous first lines in literary history.  Thus we begin our final Jane Austen book, Pride and Prejudice.  The book is simply a delight.  Is it my favorite Jane Austen novel?  I can hardly tell.  I suppose  my favorite might possibly change with my mood or the season of life I happen to be in.   It is certainly one of the easiest Austen novels to pick up and read.  So much wit and irony!  So much Mr. Darcy!  The beautiful grounds of Pemberley.  The shelves in the closet at Hunsford.  I could go on and on.  Pride and Prejudice is not only filled with love and romance, but with humor.  Humor that makes one smile to oneself or even to laugh out loud!  Mr. Bennet himself provides ample to smile at, especially when he is provoking his wife.  And who could not give a little snort of laughter over Mrs. Bennet proclaiming, "Those who do not complain are never pitied."  I believe I could come up with a quote for every character that best suits their personality!  I love what Jane Austen wrote about Elizabeth Bennet...


"I must confess that I think her as delightful a creature as ever appeared in print, & how I shall be able to tolerate those who do not like her at least, I do not know."  Jane Austen in a letter to Cassandra, on Pride and Prejudice's Elizabeth Bennet, January 29, 1813


Yes, Jane, we do like Lizzy.  


We had much to talk about during our Conversations with Jane meeting.  My own book looked like one big sticky flag.  There were favorite quotes, new discoveries, and even some talk of why Seth Grahame-Smith might have made the choices he did in the ridiculous (and repulsive) Pride and Prejudice and Zombies.  I don't know if Sharon is ever going to forgive me for making her read that, she is still offended that Mr. Grahame-Smith took such liberties :)  We all found it funny that the notes in the Insight Edition of Pride and Prejudice mentioned the only failing of the book to be the absence of the scene where Darcy gets out of the pond dripping wet LOL!  For myself, I tried to flag things that I had missed before or quotes other than the ones we say all the time.   I found that Lydia Bennet was taller than her sisters and Mr. Darcy smiles much more in the book than the movies portray.  Then there was Mr. Bennet.  His character has to be one of my favorites.  Many times I found myself marking his quotes.  One of my favorites, "If my children are silly, I must hope to be always sensible of it."  Another quote of Mr. Bennet's is one that I told the girls I hope they all hear from their Daddy's on their wedding day, "I could not have parted with you, my Lizzy, to anyone less worthy."  Mr. Bennet is awesome!


We just managed to squeeze in the Pride and Prejudice crossword puzzle from this site here.  The girls found it easier than the Sense and Sensibility one we did in the fall.  They were also slightly less competitive.  Please check back for their favorite quotes and blog projects. The girls' creativity is just delightful!

~Angel

The Making of a Gown

I had planned many activities for our Conversations with Jane study this year.  Some of them worked out very well, some certainly didn't turn out like I had envisioned.  The grand finale, the mother of all activities, is  attending a Regency ball.  What greater way, other than traveling to England itself and touring all the Jane Austen locales which would be absolutely AMAZING (but unfortunately not feasible), to end our year-long study of Jane.  Of course if one is attending a Regency ball, one must be dressed appropriately.  I am sure that Mrs. Allen of Northanger Abbey would know just the thing, probably a nice muslin, to outfit them with.  Our "Mrs. Allen" is Beverly.  Last year in co-op Beverly taught the girls how to sew.  This year she had planned on them sewing a formal gown.  Since she is incredibly amazing (and patient to work with all those girls), she agreed that the formal gown could be their Regency ball gown.  The girls have been diligently working on their gowns since September.  They were originally working toward an August date for the ball, but due to some misinformation on my part, they will need to wait till next spring.   The gowns are nearing various stages of completion and I thought that now would be a good time to update their progress and show off what they have accomplished thus far.  

Tori giving me a smile, that means all is going well...for now.

Elizabeth, the first to have her dress sewn together.

Calleigh concentrating on her work.

An oops!  Calleigh made some progress on her sleeves only to find out that one sleeve was sewed on the wrong way.  She was not the first to have something like this happen!  Just the only "lucky" one to get it caught on camera :) 

Tori has a skirt!  

Working on Elizabeth's hem  

Tori's skirt before it was gathered and sewed.  It fit them both!

Skyeler's dress, pinned and ready to be hemmed.

Skyeler and Elizabeth modeling their dresses before hemming.

Tori has a dress!

We are so thankful that Beverly has had the time to continue teaching them at co-op.  This is such a big accomplishment and we are so very proud of them all!  

~Angel

Movie Day

When I was first planning our Jane Austen study, I envisioned reading the novel, discussing it, doing a project, and watching the related movie.  The study has gone so well with the girls having so much to talk about with each novel that we haven't had time to watch any of the movies during a Conversations with Jane meeting. Mid-year the girls decided we needed to plan a day to take in some of the movies.  Many of them are quite lengthy so we could not watch all of them in one day.  A vote was taken and it was settled we would watch the 2009 Emma, the 2007 Northanger Abbey, and the 1995 Persuasion.  Emma was a huge hit!  Many of us had not seen this version and we found it very well done.  I, personally, loved it, though my favorite Miss Bates is in the 1996 Emma.  After watching this version of Persuasion, I realized that I have yet to see a Persuasion that I liked.  I have one more to try and hopefully the third try will be the charm.  

We all got comfy and had a great day.  I was glad that my mom was able to join us for the day as she is very fond of Jane Austen movies.  It was decided that we would need to have one more movie day after our Conversations with Jane year is over.  I can't wait!
  

My Pride and Prejudice and Zombie's Book Review

A review of Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, by Calleigh W.

                When I first started reading Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, I found it rather funny, then as I progressed I was highly disappointed.  The random battle scenes, and mentions of temples, were alright enough, but then I was shocked by how graphic some of the scenes became.

                All in all, I thought the book was stupid, not to mention it completely ruined Jane Austen’s masterpiece.   It was gross, not to mention crude, to the point where, when Mrs. Angel said we didn’t have to finish it, I readily took her up on her offer. I would not ever recommend this book to anyone, not necessarily because the content is so bad that it should not be read, but because it is a complete waste of time.

~ Calleigh

Skyeler's Pride and Prejudice and Zombies book review

My review of Pride and Prejudice and Zombies is, unfortunately, rather short. Upon starting this book I found it rather amusing that the author had taken Jane Austen's words and altered them to fit his plot, and then later extended entire scenes in order to include the killing, crushing, marriage, maiming, squishing, stabbing, burning, bruising, plunders, and the plagues of the zombies. The writing did not continue with the same well known (to us, anyway) style of Austen's writing. In short, this is something Jane would never have done. I found it rather ridiculous to find that people actually bought this book, and more still enjoyed it as its own story, not as a mere amusement to those Janeites who were laughing and scoffing at the execution of someone who obviously new nothing of the beauty of Pride and Prejudice in its original form. Granted, the idea was an interesting one, but for a serious reading? I was absolutely mystified that it would be an honest enjoyment as a book of its own.

After my beginning amusement and curiosity was over, I found the book very gross. In the end, I did not finish the book, finding it far to disturbing to continue through. When Elizabeth Bennet ripped the heart out of Lady Catherine's ninja I was cringing, and my stomach was churning as she actually took a bite out of it. Needless to say, I was rather queasy through a few scenes and, to put all eloquence aside, will say that it Freaked Me Out.

So yes...this book is not recommended for those of you with sensitive stomaches.

Skyeler

Elizabeth's Pride and Prejudice and Zombie's Book Review

Surprise and amusement were my first two emotions when Mrs. Angel told us we were going to be reading Pride and Prejudice and Zombies. Throughout the book, my emotions varied from being totally disgusted, excessively diverted, and surprised at some of the crudeness that Seth Grahame-Smith decided to include. Overall, I had a fun time reading this book. Some in our group were disgusted, and others were enraged at the changes of their adored characters. I did not feel such deep feelings; I tried to think of it like a teenage guy would. Recently I read one of my guy friend’s favorite quotes on Facebook it was “any of the world's problems can be solved with the proper application of high explosives.” That idea is what I thought of when reading this, guys are extremely different from girls, and that includes their writing style and subject matter. Grahame-Smith is not a great reader of Jane Austen, I believe he simply wanted to write a book that would horrify and peak the curiosity of Austen fans, and one that the zombie lovers would read just to see the Bennett sisters in the pentagon of death. I believe it was written to be a fun, comical, non-serious read, that that is just how I read it.

Elizabeth

Victoria's Pride & Prejudice & Zombies Review

“Pride and Prejudice and Zombies” by Jane Austen and Seth Grahame-Smith
A Review

When my teacher told us the next book we would be reading was “Pride and Prejudice and Zombies,” I was both apprehensive and intrigued. I love all of Jane Austen’s works, and especially “Pride and Prejudice” so I was slightly worried about what Seth Grahame-Smith was going to do to my beloved novel. However, I also tend to have a personality that, similar to Elizabeth Bennett herself, delights “in anything ridiculous.” And ridiculous was exactly what this book promised to be.

What I dislike most about “Pride and Prejudice and Zombies” was how Seth Grahame-Smith seemed unqualified for the job he took on and how ill he performed it. The introduction he provided at the beginning of the audio version admitted him to be no avid reader of Jane Austen, and his writing was affected by that fact. He was not familiar enough with all of Austen’s works to be qualified to imitate her style and language, and thus it was easy to detect his counterfeit. Seth Grahame-Smith also degenerated the language by changing or simply omitting words or phrases that are less in use today. His style and the frequency of the addition of zombies seemed inconsistent, and he seemed ignorant as to the customs and manners of Jane Austen’s day.

Seth Grahame-Smith also performed his task inadequately. He obviously had to adjust the personalities of Austen’s original characters (the original Jane Bennet is not exactly the zombie-slaying type). These kinds of changes were necessary and could be very humorous. However, his unnecessary and character-warping innuendos and crudeness showed his immaturity and disrespect for the original author and novel. Adding zombies was funny and interesting, but an unrespectable and promiscuous Mrs. Gardner and a Mr. Darcy who constantly breaks the rules of gentlemen-like behavior strays dangerously away from the original novel. The book’s humor is supposed to originate from the adding of zombies to regency era England, not from destroying and simplifying already perfectly developed characters.

Even with these serious negatives, the book was a very humorous read. I believe that it would not be nearly as funny if the reader were not already familiar with “Pride and Prejudice,” as it would simply be a zombie novel set in a strange time period. However, I must offer a word of caution to those who have made friends with the heroes and heroines of the original. Attempt to make a mental separation of the characters known and loved from these altered versions, or else you may feel Seth Grahame-Smith is slandering the integrity of your beloved Darcy and Elizabeth. Remember, this book was not written to be taken very seriously.

All in all, I believe that the idea for this novel was a good one, and that there are several very amusing sections. However, Seth Grahame-Smith was unqualified to execute the idea properly.

-Victoria