Thursday, March 31, 2011

book for march

Well, March holds only one book, so I question whether this qualifies as a list.  The book was incredibly long and time for reading was incredibly short. Alas...


1. Emma by Jane Austen
{Ex Libris}

Overall, I must admit that I was not very impressed, but I will give Pride and Prejudice and some of her other works a try before I write her off altogether. 

The character, Emma, is quite irritating as well as many of others who fill the pages (Mrs. Elton, Mr. John Knightley- Isabella's husband, Mr. Woodhouse, and Miss Bates- though she might be the most loving and humble of them all). 

Many of the characters, especially Emma, are incredibly classist, which irritates further.  Sexism permeates as well, though I must give Austen credit for being above some of this in writing a female lead character who is known in her community for her cleverness and wit (though not seen where her assessments of people are concerned) and a lead male character who would leave his home and property to settle in the home of his wife instead of assume/demand she leave her father to come to him. 

Overall, I found that it was difficult to care very much because hardly anything these characters do with their lives seems to mean much of anything to anyone or to the world.  It truly does nothing to entice me towards wealth.  One of the only truly commendable acts seen, is when Mr. George Knightely gives all his baking apples (every last one) to the Bateses, who are less fortunate than himself.  And yet, most everyone else considers it excessive.

And so, Mr. George Knightely is the most likeable character, but some of his sexist comments bothered me and his affection for Emma shows lack of taste.  I enjoyed when he challenged Emma's actions that harmed others, but he is always so quick to forgive her even though she continues to be self-righteous and judgemental.

Nearly all of the characters talk in long, paragraphical streams and use the word, "scruple" and its variants very frequently, which I wonder- Is due to the time period or the author?

Strangely enough, I still found some enjoyment reading Emma, merely in taking note of Austen's writing style and the vocabularly of the time period.  However, it is definitely not something I would open again unless I were looking to be irritated.

Thus, I cross number twelve off of The List!  And the photograph above, taken last year during a day trip to Hungtington Gardens for my daddy's birthday, seemed to accompany Jane Austen and Hartfield and Donwell. 


{canon 30d:  a day of celebratory roses}
© kimberly k taylor, all rights reserved

0 comments: