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Hi everyone,

We are reading Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen this October. I know I'm starting this thread a little earlier than normal, but I will be away at a conference from Oct 1-3 so I won't be posting as much as I usually do those three days.

At any rate, the thread is open and this book has a lot to say so let's dive in.

Cheers
Heather

Thanks brainiac. I'll be taking P and P with me on the trip. I think that's all I'll have time for. It's a packed schedule so I don't think there will be much down time.

Thanks for the link. I must say that while I love the period dresses I sure am grateful I don't have to wear corsets.

In an attempt to start the discussion and to keep it going while I'm away, I'm posting the first reading guide question.

Charlotte Brontë did not appreciate Pride and Prejudice. She felt that Jane Austen didn't write about her characters' hearts. Do you think Brontë's criticism is accurate? Is Austen's treatment of her characters' feelings superficial? Do they feel and/or express deep emotion?

Thoughts?

What always strikes deep with me is the bit (again in Emma) where Jane Fairfax is escaping from the strawberry party and runs into Emma, who asks if she can help. I don't have the book to hand, but Jane  says something like: "We all know what it is to be exhausted in spirit as well as body. The greatest kindness you can do me is to let me go, and when asked, say I was required at home." 
But the fact it has made such a deep impression on me may (and I';m surprised to see myself writing this) support Heather's (or Charlotte Bronte's) argument - if this is so exceptional, does it mean that Jane Austen didn't - generally speaking - show the depth of her characters' feelings?

I think your Romantic/Classical comment is truly valid, and it goes along with a distaste for pretence.

Elizabeth's reaction to Charlotte Lucas's comment on Jane and Bingley is, I take it, pretty much JA's own. Charlotte says of Jane, at the beginning of the Jane and Bingley's attachment, that Jane would be wiser to show more feeling for B than she feels, in order to fix him. E is rather shocked at the thought of such calculating behaviour - many commentators have pointed out that candour in human relationships is what JA values above all. In circumstances where to marry was the only reasonable career for a woman, there must always have been a temptation for them to act a little, to pretend a little, to more feelings than they actually had.

I think JA is a little harsh on Charlotte - but her treatment does demonstrate pretty well the effect of the pressures on a plain woman, not particularly well-off, who aspires to a 'good' marriage. C is a realist; she weighs up the advantages and disadvantages of marriage to Mr Collins, and positions herself accordingly; she gains in not becoming an old maid looking after her parents, she clears the way for her younger sisters and is in a position to help them, her brothers will not be ashamed of her, she has a respectable position in society, and the reversion of Mr Bennett's estate to look forward to, and will have her own household and children; the great drawback is Mr Collins - but she makes her dispoaitions to minimise that by seeing as little as possible of him by her choice of sitting-room and encouraging him to spend much time in the garden. In its own way, this is, I think, admirable, but far too calculating for the actions of an Austen heroine.

The umpteenth sequel to P & P has just hit the bookshops, written this time by Colleen McCullough.