Favorite Book #2

Now, let’s see if I can make this blog better. I was not as please with my post about My Hero Academia as I was when writing it, and my last post was more for the sake of writing every week then about anything. The next three weeks I am going to talk about my book. I could wait for December since it’s a Christmas story, but I’m going with November so if anyone wants to buy it after reading what I have to say, they can get it for the whole Christmas season. :)

Well this week, I’m going to talk about Jane Austen’s work. I could talk about each book by its self but for the time being I will talk about her work collectively. Now you may think “who wants to read stuff written over 200 year ago about a time and place that has nothing to do with me.” (Presuming your not English.) What’s more I would say her book start slow. Yes, in Sense and Sensibility the father dies right at the beginning, but you don’t know this family yet, so why should you care? There are no big action sequences. There was war, fighting, and even the French Revelation happening when she wrote, but Austen never even mentions it. There are plenty of mentions of the military and navy but no talk of battles. Even in Persuasion, when war has just ended, and the implication that sea battles happened, the sailors never go into detail. In short it’s very different from most books and movies today. But I would argue that’s the beauty of it. Jane Austen wrote about a world and things she knew intimate and live in. She had never been in a battle, even if she heard about a few. The customs and manners are different from today, but you never feel lost or confused. Because she wrote about every day life, and not high action or over dramatized events, I think it is more relatable.

The reason I think her work has become classics and is still read today is because she wrote about people. Places and costumes can change or be different, but human nature remains the same. We have all experienced joy and disappointments. We’ve had difficult decisions to make, and people who have disappointed us. Also, personalities have not change over the years. How do I know? Well the personality types you find in her books, you still find today. I heard that she would receive letters in her day saying they know who she had based so and so off of and how she got them just right, but likely she had not based them off of anyone. She must have been a people watcher and used what she saw to create her own characters, and they are very real. You have a moody, teenage girl who can’t seem to think beyond herself. She in turn has a sister who puts everyone before herself. She internalizes everything and nearly watches her happiness pass her by. You have a talkative, air head, who is lead by the noise by a wealthy, self conceited b***. Austen can take a meddling, arrogant girl and make you care about her. And more than ones, take a handsome, seemingly perfect man, and show you that he’s a slim ball.

Because her characters have real personality types they feel very real and are relatable. What is more none of her characters are perfect. And their flaws fit their personality types. If someone has a certain personality they are likely to have certain strength and weakness and her characters hold true to that. And all her main characters grow. They came to see their weakness and don’t stay the same.

Now I won’t say that her writing is perfect, no one is. Whither this is a true flow or not, I think we might have Austen to blame for thinking moody, English men are sexy. :)

I said earlier that her books start out slow, but I do not consider that a flow. I rather think it a very good thing. There is a lot of info, you as the reader, need to learn and it’s not good to just dump it on the reader. (I might need to work on that.) Rather she feeds it to you slowly and within the story. Then, ones you know everything the story picks up, but you can keep up. Little important details are not lost to you.

I read my first my first Jane Austen book freshmen year of high school. I think it was after college when I read the rest. Pride and Prejudice is my first love, but Persuasion is close behind, with Sense and Sensibility and Emma fighting in there too. North Anger Abby is fun. Mansfield Park is good, but it is my least favorite. Funny enough, the main character, Fanny, is who I am not like I think. Eleanor is my favorite heroine likely because I can relate to her a lot. Mr. Tilney is my favorite hero/male character. Maybe because he is about the only one who is not moody with a brooding personality. He’s fun, lively, and closer to my ideal man. (Not that he IS my ideal man.)

Now I have to mention Lady Susan. This is her seventh, completed work, that not as many know about. It does have a movie adaptation (Love and Friendship) that’s not bad. Lady Susan is on a playing field all its own. Everything about it is so very different from her other work. Most obvious is the writing still. It’s written in letters to characters by other characters. But also the main character is more of a villainess then a heroine. There are times you hate her as a terrible person (she is horrid mother), and there are other times you can’t help but love her. It’s much shorter then her other book, if you don’t want to tackle one of her other novels first. But be warned it will not give you a taste of her other writing.

Now I know that she (Jane Austen) has two books that she never finished. I have not read those. I know one has recently been made into a TV series. (Not sure if it done or not.) I may end up watching that yet, but I don’t know how true to the source material it is.

As to other movie adaptation of other books of her’s, some are good, some are not. Personally I tend to like the BBC mini TV series version best, mostly because they can take the time that is needed to tell the full story with all the details. These stories take place over a length of time. (There not a Romeo and Juliet type story that everything goes down in less than a week.)

I am inspired to try and be a better writer from Jane Austen’s books, mostly to try and make my characters more real. If I can ever make my characters have real personalities like her’s do, I will be pleased with myself. Her main characters all have different personally types. Mine tend to be like me, because I understand and know myself best. I think I can honestly say I have yet to find an author who makes their characters quite as real and relatable as Jane Austen. So my looking up to her in this is well founded, I think. Not surprisingly, I highly recommend all her works. If you don’t want to take the time to read a book of her’s you can find them on YouTube as audio books for free. Go have a listen.