The Pride & Prejudice You Haven't Seen...

As you're probably well aware I've been rereading Pride & Prejudice as part of The Book Rat's Jane in June read-a-long. Well, last week my roommate and I got to talking - what versions of Pride & Prejudice need to happen. I mean, of course the A&E Colin Firth miniseries is a favorite, and I'm also a huge fan of the more resent Kiera Knightly film, so what other versions would become instant favorites?

We decided the best way to do this was to take directors who have favorite actors use in most of their films, as well as a specific style of filmmaking. The first cast's we came up with were for a Wes Anderson and a Judd Apatow.  If you have other suggestions for directors/styles/teams let me know!

My awesome roommate Jasmyn made the charts since I'm terrible with Photoshop. In case you're interested we also posted about our casting project on Camp or Crap (our bad movie blog).

Is this what normal people in their 20's do with their nights? Wait, maybe I don't want the answer to that.

One last thing: Wes, Judd, If you're reading this you should totally make these movies. I'd see them a bazillion times. 

Pride & Prejudice Read-a-Long Part 3

This is the summer I'm perpetually behind. Late for lunches, group outings, picking my brother up from school - so it only stands to reason that I'd chronically be posting my read-a-long updates a few days late.  I decided to go back to Misty's questions, since without them I ramble like a big ol' rambling...thing...yeah.

How could you not love him?

1. Discuss the whole of Lizzie's stay at Hunsford.  There are many great, famous moments in this stay, as well as memorable characters.  Discuss your highlights and low points (if any), your thoughts on characters like Lady Catherine and Col. Fitzwilliam, etc., as well as the new facets we see of the familiar characters
   
   I think Elizabeth's stay at Hunsford is my favorite part of the book. I may have said that about the ball in my last post, but I was wrong, this is totally my favorite. All of the characters in these chapters are really strong and memorable. Mr. Collins goes out of his way to be as proper (read:foolish) as possible around Lady Catherine, and since Elizabeth spends a lot of time observing Charlotte and sort of avoiding talking to Collin's his ridiculousness is easier to handle. Which brings me to the infamous Lady Catherine. To me, Lady Catherine is one of the funnier characters in Pride & Prejudice. Not in a haha funny way, but in a real life way. You know when you're sitting with someone who obviously thinks they know everything there is to know about life and more importantly, they know you're doing everything wrong? That's Lady Catherine, and she's hilarious to talk about behind her back. Sure, she's a witch with a capital B when you're with her, but she every encounter with her means you have a great story to tell at dinner parties!
   
2. Discuss Darcy's proposal.  Prompts: What are your feelings on this scene; what do you think of the behavior of both Darcy and Lizzie.  Contrast this to Lizzie's first proposal from Collins.  Is Lizzie's complete surprise believable, especially in light of Charlotte's prolonged insistence that Darcy feels something for Lizzie, and the slight hints Darcy drops prior to the proposal?
   
   First off, I love this proposal, even if I think it's really flawed and is not what I'd want to hear. I get it, Darcy knows Elizabeth is below him and that's why he's "Struggling" and fighting his own emotions and everything but THAT'S NOT WHAT YOU SAY WHEN YOU ARE PROFESSING YOUR UNDYING LOVE FOR SOMETHING. You say things like "you're perfect" and "I'd catch a grenade for you" ...okay, scratch that, it's just as bad, but still you don't tell the object of your affection that you could do better but you'll settle for her. Especially since Darcy's pretty garuded about his feelings. I totally buy that Elizabeth didn't realize how he felt. She'a already formed her opinion of him by this point and despite the fact that Charlotte thinks that he might like her she has no reason to believe his feelings would be strong enough to come over and sneak propose to her.
   
3. Lizzie has to this point turned down two proposals.  Share your thoughts on this from the perspective of the modern woman (presumably) you are, and from the perspective of a Regency gentlewoman.  Consider the reactions of the people in her life, especially Mrs Bennet, if they were to find out.  Also, consider her rejections from the males' perspectives.  Is Darcy (or even Collins) justified in being shocked to be rejected?
   
   I discussed this in my last post. I think it's very interesting that Austen chose to have Elizabeth turn down two socially acceptable proposals. As a modern woman I'm all for Elizabeth's independent streak, and if it happened today it really wouldn't be a huge deal (especially since Mr. Collin's is a buffoon)  but in the 1800's that would be a huge deal. Mrs. Bennet would have gone crazy if she found out Elizabeth turned down a second proposal, and she'd probably become the subject of town gossip.
   
   
4. Discuss Darcy's infamous letter.  Does/did it change your opinion of Darcy?  Lizzie feels she has acted "despicably" and regrets much of what she said; do you have reservations about any parts of it, things you still think Elizabeth should hold against him?  If you could question him or react to him, what would you say.  Consider writing your own response letter.
   
   I know when I first read Pride & Prejudice I had a really hard time liking Mr. Darcy until I read his letter and started to understand the man that is Darcy. He was right about the character of most of the Bennet family and his story of Wickham is very heartfelt and honest. True, if I had gotten that letter and he was telling me how he'd ruined my sisters life and how silly my family was I'd probably be pretty mad for a bit, but as an innocent bystander who has watched the Bennents be silly the entire book it's perfectly acceptable and makes Darcy more human.
   
   
5. In the first response post, we asked ourselves about our opinions of Darcy and Wickham.  Give your opinions of the two now.    Also, reevaluate your opinions of Collins and Bingley, our other 2 "eligible" men.
   
   My opinions of the four men are pretty straight forward. Darcy's cool, Wickham's irritating, Collin's is a buffoon and Bingley is a pretty boy.

I'm running out of time so I'll leave you with with that. Hope everyone's enjoying their reading!

Pride & Prejudice Read-a-Long Part 1

So I'm doing the Pride & Prejudice read-a-long as part of Book Rat's Jane in June event. I'm a little behind though, so my post is a little late. Regardless, I'm crazy  happy to be rereading Pride & Prejudice for the first time and spreading the Jane Austen love.

This is me with my beaten up copy of P&P. I'm not entirely sure it will survive the reread. 

Tell us a little about your experience with Jane: is this your first time reading Pride and Prejudice/Austen? If so, What were you expecting going in? If this is not your first Jane, what makes you want to read this again?

For me I've always felt I like Jane Austen more in theory than in practice. I read Pride & Prejudice for the first time a few years ago and was really happy to have loved it, but my next few attempts with Sense and Sensibility and Emma (which I didn't finish) left sometime to be desired from my Jane Austen experience. When I started this reread I was really looking forward to rediscovering the things I loved about Austen from my first experience with her so maybe I could be motivated to finish her other novels.

Share your first impression of the book so far. What have the highlights been for you? Any favorite parts so far? Least favorite parts? Things you found confusing?

I remember the first time I read Pride & Prejudice thinking "Where's Lizzy?" for the first two chapters. Having seen parts of the movie and, you know, just existing in a literate world I knew she was the protagonist of the story, yet she isn't really important in the beginning of the book. Now that I know to expect all this Jane business everything read much smoother, and I was generally surprised at how fast P&P reads.

Jane Austen is known for her memorable characters. What do you think so far of the characterization? Do any stand out to you? If this is a reread for you, do you notice new things in the characters with each reread? Do your favorite characters change with each reread?

I use to really love Elizabeth. She was like the everygirl:  smart, funny, easily misguided but with her heart in the right place. During this read I'm loving her less. She's still smart and witty, but she just isn't sparkling for me right now. However I am really enjoying Mr. Darcy in the beginnings of the novel. He's sweeter than I remember and it seems obvious now that he only had the best (if slightly misguided) intentions at heart.

What do you make of the principle characters so far? Do you relate to any particular one?

i feel like there is a lot of set up in these first 80 something pages. We're just learning the basic traits of each of the characters. Lizzy's smart and sassy, Jane's calm and sweet, Mrs Bennet is a crazy person (not really crazy just crazy irritating) and Mr. Darcy's kind of proud.


Discuss the eligible men of Pride & Prejudice: Impressiosn of Mr Bingley, Mr Darcy, Wickham and Mr Colins.

As far as eligible men go, the only two I think are worthy of my attention are Mr. Bingley and Mr. Darcy. Bingley's terribly sweet, and recognizes his own faults and is just all kinds of adorable. And Darcy's just Darcy. He's that men guy in class you had a crush on because he said stuff like "Hey Stupid! You're holding up the line!" and  you laughed and laughed because he was cute and if he was cute he obviously deserved your attention...That's probably a really bad way to think about Darcy. Oh well.

Also. I hate Mr. Collins with a passion.

Discuss the Bennet girls stay at Netherfield.

Elizabeth and Jane's time at Netherfield is one of my favorite parts of the book. We learn so much about the Bingley's and Darcy while there. Plus it's really funny. Living in the 21st century intstead of the beginning of the 19th it's easily to see Elizabeth as a sensible and normal modern girl, but in reality she's kind of odd for her own time period. The time at Netherfield really plays off that.  Caroline is irritating, but really kind of funny and it's interesting to see the Bennet's from someone else's perspective.

Discuss Wickham's revelation of Darcy's character: Judging solely on the text so far do you believe the things Wickham tells Lizzie? what impressions do you have of Wickham, Lizzie and Darcy after this?

Jane really got this part right. Wickham's Darcy tale is, in my opinion, completely believable. He's nonchalant about it and doesn't spend very much time dwelling on Darcy's "wrong doings". More so he convinces Lizzie that Darcy could actually be the type of man that would disregard his fathers wishes, and so far Lizzies opinions have been fairly accurate. I still don't particularly like Wickham as a character, but that could just be because I think he's kind of dull.

Discuss the humor in the book so far: There are a lot of different types of humor on display throughout the book, from Mr. Bennet's dry indifference, Lizzie's witty banter, Mr Collins ridiculousness, etc.

My thing with Pride & Prejudice is that it's funny, but it's not really HaHa funny. I really love Mr. Bennet's dry humor though. During my reread I've found several of his passages underlined with little "lol"s next to them. He's the insider that realizes his world is pretty trivial and kind of insane. Lydia's blatant disregard for manners makes me laugh too. She's just so, so silly. The one person who is probably suppose to be comic relief that I don't find funny is Mr. Collins. He just irritates me so much and It's all I can do to not picture to disgusting man that plays him in the movie whenever I see his name. It's like his words are nails on a chalkboard. They're not funny, they're irritating.