I’ve been away from blogging for a long time now and I think its time to restart now. My blog will mainly consist of book reviews with the occasional recipe or any other good find I stumble across that should be shared.
One of the more recent books I’ve read was Lady Vernon and Her Daughter by Jane Rubino and Caitlen Rubino-Bradway. This is a novel about Jane Austen’s Lady Susan. So first I have to admit that I’m probably one of the few people left that hasn’t read any Jane Austen novels before. As such, maybe I’m not the best judge of this novel but I just wasn’t really too impressed. Don’t get me wrong the writing is detailed but I just did not like the plot very much. It just seemed to go on for a while about things that didn’t seem to matter all that much. I also couldn’t really relate to the characters or their worries. Overall I’d give the novel 3 out of 5 stars.
As a personal comment i think it is a shame that you have never read Jane Austen but even if you hadnt said so it would be clear from your comments. Actually - 'Lady Susan' was written by Austen when she was about your age!
ReplyDeleteI read this book months ago and loved it for the reasons that you didnt seem to get it - i love Jane Austen and of all the Austen books that have been published in the past few years this one did the best job of authenticity in its plot and dialogue. In Austens day how a woman was to live if she was single, widowed or poor mattered very much - it was the difference between living a decent respectable life and being desperately poor which are themes in this book and in all of Austens books. Personally i dont think we need to 'relate' to characters BUT imho of all the 19th century writers Austen is one of the most 'relatable'.
I thought it was a shame too so this weekend I went and picked up Pride and Prejudice. I've been trying to get into it but for some reason I just can't. I'm about a hundred pages in or so and I just can't seem to relate. After reading as far as I have I now understand why I didn't like this novel, if I don't like an original why would I like a remake? I don't necessarily feel like I have to relate to characters to like a novel but in this case it seemed to matter to me. I think my issue is that I'm looking at it from a 21st century perspective where those issues just aren't as relevant, where women can not only survive without a husband but thrive without one.
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