PERSUASION, BY JANE AUSTEN

I started reading Austen late in life, and am at the re-reading stage now. PERSUASION is not as dramatic as PRIDE AND PREJUDICE, or EMMA, or as memorable as the parody NORTHHANGER ABBEY. PERSUASION slowly unfolds the tale of ANNE ELIOTT, the unloved daughter of a vain and stupid father, who's ignored by him and her older sister, and used by her younger, married, hypochondriac sister. Eight years before the story begins, ANNE's friend Lady Russell persuades her to give up her love for Frederick Wentworth, then a young navy officer, because she thought he couldn't provide for Anne, and so discouraged them.

When the now wealthy Captain Wentworth returns to her village, she looks for any sign that he still cares for her. There are mistaken "attachments" and much unspoken longing until the pair reunite in the last few pages. The narrator reports Anne's thoughts and feelings in third person. This and the lack of dialogue slow the pace.

PERSUASION is not so much a love story as it is a social commentary. Poor but high ranking, haughty aristocrats, wealthy, low ranking gentry, houses, carriages, parties, happy marriages versus unhappy ones, all come under the Austen microscope. She paints her society with unerring detail. A very rewarding book.

COMMENTARY: Thoughts about Emma and English, by CeeViews

Why should the word "brother-in-law" refer to three different relationships? It refers equally to brother's wife's brother or sister's husband, or sister's husband's brother. I'm re-reading Jane Austen's EMMA (okay, the Wikipedia entry) after a writer mentioned it. At the outset, I thought I remembered that EMMA was going to wind up with Mr. Knightly (do not laugh, I read all the Austens at once and have trouble keeping them straight,) but as he's introduced as her brother-in-law, I thought he was married to her sister. So then, when Harriet confesses that she admires Mr. Knightly I thought, wait, isn't he married? Austen's novels are never like this! Of course, he is John Knightly's brother, and John Knightly is married to Emma's sister Isabella. Got it.

Obviously, I must fit in Austen again between all the vamps and werewolves. Of course, I've already covered PRIDE AND PREJUDICE AND ZOMBIES, the mashup novel "by Jane Austen and Seth Grahame-Smith" in my second blog entry.

PRIDE AND PREJUDICE AND ZOMBIES, a mashup book by Jane Austen and Seth Grahame-Smith

Another book I would heartily recommend to fans of the British and weird is PRIDE AND PREJUDICE AND ZOMBIES, "by Jane Austen and Seth Grahame-Smith." This is a "mashup," a book which purports to be a collaboration between two authors, advertising itself as "the classic Regency novel now with ultraviolent zombie mayhem!" Elizabeth Bennett is a trained zombie killer, as are her sisters (she and Jane are the best, of course). The book consists of about 85% Jane Austen's words and 15% zombies, fitting better than you'd think. The later passages with Darcy slow the pace, but at other points the book exuberantly lives up to its promise.

During one of Lydia's interminable monologues about why the girls should go to the camp and get soldiers for husbands, Elizabeth fantasizes about cutting off Lydia's head with her favorite katana sword. It brightens the scene considerably.