5 Comments so far
Leave a reply
Search This Site
Subscribe
Categories
Archives
- February 2012
- January 2012
- December 2011
- November 2011
- October 2011
- September 2011
- August 2011
- July 2011
- June 2011
- May 2011
- April 2011
- March 2011
- February 2011
- January 2011
- December 2010
- November 2010
- October 2010
- September 2010
- August 2010
- July 2010
- June 2010
- May 2010
- April 2010
- March 2010
- February 2010
- January 2010
- December 2009
- November 2009
- October 2009
- September 2009
- August 2009
- July 2009
- April 2009
- March 2009
- February 2009
- June 2008
- May 2008
Blogroll
Live Stats
Got the same book from Feedbooks for the same price, free. But this one shows up as Jane, 1775-1817 Austen for author rather than Jane Austen. Also, no table of contents. The Feedbook version has an author bio as well as a list of other books by this author with links to automatically download them. Now THAT’s the way you do it.
Rating: 3 / 5
Although not one of Jane Austen’s more well-read novels, I found this one enjoyable to read. I thought it was a little darker than some of her other novels. Formatting needs some help, but what do you expect when the book is free? Otherwise, a good read.
Rating: 4 / 5
I have seen numerous movies of other Jane Austen books, so this was nice to not know the story before reading it. You can tell that she wrote this earlier, becuase it didn’t have the same flow that her other books had. The end was very hurried, almost as if it was finished hastily to get it published. Other than that, it was really good and still better than most books I read. I wish there were more Jane Austen books in the world.
Rating: 5 / 5
First time reading Jane Austen….seen plenty of Jane Austen inspired movies and enjoyed them all but definitely prefer reading the books. Austen did not disappoint…this is a good read and keeps you routing for Catherine while guessing what will happen next.
Rating: 4 / 5
This was the first of Austen’s novels to be accepted for publication (although it wasn’t actually published for many years after). It’s every bit as clever, witty, and multi-layered as her other books, and if you enjoy _Pride and Prejudice_ or _Mansfield Park_ you’ll like this one, too. Austen wrote this book as a satire & parody of contemporary gothic novels and romances, and much of the humor in it comes from the heroine (a well-meaning, humble, honest, naive, and slightly silly girl) unwisely applying the conventions of gothic novels to real life. I recommend it especially to fans of Austen’s wit, as it contains some of her most sharply-pointed writing.
Like a lot of Austen’s novels, there’s an access problem; she presumes you’re a member of 18th-century upper crust british society, and thus understand perfectly her references to carriage types, dress fabrics, etc. — often, looking up precisely what different period terms refer to — for example, what a “curricle” and a “gig” are — will help explicate the jokes underlying specific passages. For similar reasons, it’s often useful to watch a film or TV version of Austen novels before reading them, to help familiarize yourself with the socio-economic environment.
Similarly, it’ll help when reading this if you’ve read a lot of contemporary Gothic fiction. The Kindle makes this easy, fortunately — it may be worthwhile to grab a Kindle version of _The Mysteries of Udolpho_ first (perhaps also _The Monk_).
Still, though, if you like Austen, this is one of her great novels, and you’ll enjoy it regardless of whether or not you’re familiar with the background she’s drawing on. But doing some spadework beforehand will be richly rewarded.
Rating: 5 / 5