Jane Austen: Pride and Prejudice

Regency story of Much Ado About Nothing
This is one of the most famous and memorable historical romantic novels ever written. In essence it is a story of Much Ado about Nothing set in the slow moving world of intricate manners in eighteenth century Regency-Georgian society.  Jane Austen's superb clear prose gives you a ringside seat of that society and how "a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife."

I have seen multiple movie and TV versions of this story but have never read the book. Austen's prose brings alive a range of fascinating characters notably Mrs Bennett, a pea brain whose main aim in life is to get her five daughters well married and Mr Bennett, who retreats to his Library to avoid excessive contact with his irascible wife. I especially loved the character of Mr Collins, an obsequious and greasy clergyman under the influence of the powerful and manipulative Lady Catherine de Bourgh, who also happened to be Mr Darcy's Aunt. Then there are the various "lovers". Mr Bingley and lovely Jane Bennett and the scoundrel Mr Wickham and headstrong Lydia Bennett.

The main protagonists are Elizabeth Bennett and Mr Darcy. While Darcy is one of the richest and most eligible men in the kingdom, at first Elizabeth finds him arrogant and rude and builds up an intense dislike of him. The story is about how these initial reactions change as both of them get to know more about the other. Of course, to the surprise of everyone, including the couple themselves, the romance has the inevitable happy ending.

Throughout the book I constantly thought about how the various relationships would have developed in a modern environment. Most certainly Elizabeth would have told Darcy directly that she found him arrogant and boring and they wouldn't have had any further contact.

In this case I didn't read the book but had it read to me as an audiobook by a professional narrator, English actress Carolyn Seymour, who used her acting skills to bring the book to life with a range of different voices for the key characters in appropriate English accents. This transformed what would might have been a bit of a tedious reading experience to someone used to page-turning thrillers into a brilliant historical adventure. I wonder if I would have really appreciated all the finer points of the writing and the characters without the help of this marvellous narrator.

Jane Austen: Northanger Abbey

A delightful but somewhat disappointing debut to Regency Romance
This is the first time I have read any of Jane Austen's romantic novels that have such a worldwide following. It is also Austen's first novel which wasn't published until after her death. Although I don't yet have a yardstick of reading her other books to measure this one, it is clear to me that while it contains many elements of her later work, the quality still needs to be polished. Nevertheless I found this to be a compelling introduction to her work and to the manners and customs of her time.

This is not my normal genre (heavy crime/police/espionage) and I chose to start with an audiobook - which was a great choice as the narrator, Juliet Stevenson, brought the period and the manners of that time to life.  I found her portrayal of the heroine, Catherine, to be somewhat shallow at times, but at the age of 18 she was still a very immature person.

This is a coming-of-age story about Catherine Moreland, a daughter of a moderately rich family, let loose at the age of 18 in Bath to the meet-and-mate society of Regency England. Until then Catherine had led a very sheltered life, with her greatest and most imaginative adventures being through reading Gothic novels. She stumbles into friendships without really understanding what they are all about. Her first friendship with the dominating and featherbrained Isabella was typical of modern teenage friendships. Isabella's insensitive and self-centred brother John doesn't make her stay in Bath any better.

In Bath she also meets Henry Tilney, a mature and gentlemanly 26 year old clergyman who is a younger son of wealthy General Tilney, and his sister Eleanor. General Tilney invites Catherine to stay with Eleanor at Northanger Abbey where Catherine is able to builds up strong and meaningful relationships with all of the Tilneys

Delightful things - the exquisite prose; the wonderful descriptions of Regency life and the manners and ways of genteel society at that time.

Disappointing things - Catherine's imaginative conversion of the Abbey into the scene of a gothic novel; the impossible relationship between Isabella and Catherine's brother and then with Henry's brother; General Tilney's reaction to his conflicting conversations with unreliable John Thorpe.

The most disappointing thing was the ending where everything was wrapped up in the last chapter as if Jane Austen wanted to finish things quickly to get on with other things.

All in all I really enjoyed my first encounter with Jane Austen's writing (of course I have been exposed to many film and TV presentations of her work). I really enjoyed the narration and plan to listen to some of her more popular works during my morning walks and in the car sometime soon.