What I've been reading

I discovered this weekend that Amy and I have been reading some of the same books over the last few months, although we haven't had any book club communications.

So I thought maybe in lieu of meeting, we could discuss what we've been reading here, and share reccomendations and opinions.

This is what I've read in the last few months, since our last meeting:

Charlotte Bronte-- Villette, Jane Eyre, The Professor
Emily Bronte-- Wuthering Heights
Jane Austin-- Mansfield Park, Sense and Sensibility, and (in progress) Persuasion

I also read "The No 1 Ladies Detective Agency," which my mother gave me for Christmas, and a couple of other really pretty frivolous novels.

Needless to say, I've been busy! I haven't read this many novels together since highschool, I think. The thing is that I have discovered that any of these classic works can be easily found online, since they're all public domain. The Charlotte Brontes and Mansfield Park I already owned, but the others I have read entirely on the computer. Not as comfortable as curling up with a book, but beats having to buy them!

Amy and I were discussing Villette, which she hated and I just moderately liked. Be warned, any prospective readers! It is long and slow and generally kind of depressing. Bronte wrote it in a period after she had lost three of her siblings to sickness, and it reflects that melancholy. The Professor, however, is an enjoyable read, not so good as Jane Eyre, but very worthwhile, I thought.

Wuthering Heights is--well, Wuthering Heights. It is particularly grim, and not particularly moral, but it is a riveting story.

Jane Austin, on the other hand, is always a cheerful read. I found Sense and Sensibility and (thus far) Persuasion to be thoroughly enjoyable, and always entertaining. I must say, though, I'm a little put off by the picture of my advanced age conjured up by these books. In Persuasion the heroine is an entire 27, and "past the bloom of youth," as well as being considered a definite old maid. Yikes! Of course, I guess that becomes more understandable when you consider their evidently short life expectancy. In Sense and Sensibility, there is mention that the 40 year old Mrs. Dashwood might live another 15 years, and the 35 year old Colonel Brandon might live another 20! (Of course, both people making such comments do so spitefully, so cannot be take to be reliable, but still....)

Mansfield Park is a little different from the other Austens. I find from reading that it is the most controversial of her novels, and the heroine the least liked. I did like her, although I also found myself wishing she would buck up and grow a back bone some of the time. It is a more serious book, and a deeply moral one. The heroine, Fanny Price, is almost as opposite to Elizabeth Bennett as you could get--she's timid, humble and serious. She's quiet, smart but not witty, insecure and desirous of nothing more than being overlooked. But she has very strong moral principles and convictions, and on them alone she will not be moved, however much it distresses her to be pressured to do so. This has led to many critics calling her "priggish." I can not agree, since I certainly don't believe that moral principles should ever be compromised, but she does seem to lack in personality sometimes. At one point there's a worldly man-about-town who falls passionately in love with her, and you can't help but wonder why. Ahh well. Still a good book though.

I'm reading Persuasion right now, and it bids fair to become my favorite Jane Austen yet. I'll post about it later.

So: what have you been reading, and what did you like or dislike? Have you read any of the books I have? Come, let's talk!