over the last year, i have started reading historical books.. several of them set anywhere from the 14th century to the 19th century.. set in istanbul, italy, scotland, england and india.. i love them all.. there is always this sense that the world has not changed much at all - it's still all about war, women and wealth!
but i just picked up the book "pride and prejudice".. i have never read jane austen.. no patience to read classics as a rule.. but my god! i have barely read 10 pages, but i had to praise her.. there are many many versions of poor girl meets rich boy, they hate each other on sight and then through the course of their acquaintance fall in love.. but it's not so simple.. anyone abridging her book, or making it into a movie can only do her enormous injustice.. because there is poetry and thoughtfulness and wit in each line.. so much so that you have to take time and read it slowly and ruminate about it.. like you would a holy book! the elegance of her writing has impressed me so much that now I am thinking about setting a higher bar for my own writing..
anyways - reading it now and loving every second of it.. makes me feel lucky just to be alive and to be able to enjoy her wit in leisure.. can't think of anything that I rather do!
Chapter 37
Okay, I am still reading Jane austen.. and as I was reading I tried to pin-point what it was about her writing that made it so special? two things stood up..
- she was acutely aware of how selfish people really are.. i have read "the death of ivan illych", where leo tolstoy attempts the same at the death of a person, but that is almost an extreme event. And jane austen explores the same thing in the everyday occurances.. and this awareness is not something that everybody is aware of .. and even if they are, they might not be able to articulate it the way she does.. so to that extent, her writing is i daresay even superior to tolstoy..
- sentence structuring... she frames the idea in 30 words what a lesser writer would in 300.. this beautiful command over the language and the perseverance to be super efficient in her writing makes it so powerful.
still reading..
Book done!
Okay, so now I am done with the book and am feeling that vague sadness/disappointment that comes at the end of indulging my senses! but i am also very contemplative.. the biggest disappointment of the book was the ending - it was like the author didn't know what to do with happy endings.. having been single herself in her life! but that said, there were so many tiny pearls of truth in her book.. it is so beautiful.. that as loathsome as it is going to be to you my friends, i am going to probably do quick re-read of this book and note all the best sentences in this post.. so watch out.. i daresay that it is something that you will enjoy reading when you chance to experience a dull moment in your life!
- It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife. (first line - the line which kindles the interest in me to read this book, even though i knew the story pretty well)
- A lady's imagination is very rapid; it jumps from admiration to love, from love to matrimony, in a moment (Darcy - true true - the way the society works, you hand over your life to the man.. so the imagination showcases a different life with each man by making you a part of his world set-up - so pathetic.. but so true!)
- "There is, I believe, in every disposition a tendency to some particular evil— a natural defect, which not even the best education can overcome."
"And your defect is a propensity to hate everybody."
"And yours," he replied with a smile, "is willfully to misunderstand them." (Darcy and Elizabeth - one of the cutest exchanges between them - the smile showing his vulnerability to her playfulness!) - That the Miss Lucases and Miss Bennets should meet to talk over a ball was absolutely necessary (gossip is like air to human beings.. still is)
- The business of her life was to get her daughters married, its solace was visiting and news (Of Mrs. Bennett - so much like the indian mammas of today)
- They solaced their wretchedness, however, by duets after supper (Miss Bingley when Jane is ill - speaks to the true lack of care from people)
- I have no pretensions whatever to that kind of elegance which consists in tormenting a respectable man!
- - of exposing one to the censure of the world for caprice and instability and the other to its derision of disappointed hopes and involving them both in misery of the acutest kind. (Lizzy scolding Darcy when he proposes, about separating Jane and Bingley)
- But the wife of Mr. Darcy must have such extraordinary sources of happiness necessarily attached to her situation that she could, upon the whole, have no cause to repine (So cute - lizzy's words to Lady catherine)
- Allow me to say, Lady Catherine, that the arguments with which you have supported this extra-ordinary application is as frivolous as the application is ill-judged.
- The happiness which this reply produced was such as he had probably never felt before and he expressed himself on the occasion as sensibly and as warmly as a man violently in love can be supposed to do.(sometimes not describing things is better than attempting to.. that's why books are better than movies and music better than videos.. leaves some to the individual imagination)
- You showed me how insufficient were all my pretensions to please a woman worthy of being pleased! (so so cute!!)
- To be sure - you know no actual good of me - but nobody thinks of that when they fall in love (lizzy to darcy - towards the end.. so true.. how things of goodness of character.. wisdom by necessity is hindsight it seems!)
more to come - as i read and re-read..
m
(the only tragedy of this book is the repeated reference to lizzy's expressive eyes which renewed my sadness over my own tiny ones all over again!)
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