Is it alright for men to read Jane Austen?

[Ian Fortytwo]

I've just started reading Emma.

 

[hitmouse]

I've just started reading Emma.

I really like Emma. Completely brilliant character.

 

[Heathermf3]

Well I finally managed to finish Pride and Prejudice, its a book that I will never read again. It was a comfortable read, but I was soon losing characters and getting them mixed up. Overall I wasn't impressed with Mr Darcy, to me he wasn't a likeable character. And the female characters I definitely mixed up all the time.

At sometime in the future I will read Emma, but I will leave that for at least six months or so.

Thank you your advice, it has been an interesting conversation.

You should watch Pride and Prejudice with Keira Knightly to help round out the book. Most movies/shows don't go well or help with the written word but a few do and that movie is a good companion to the book. It helps to see the characters have a "face to name" so to speak which helps with the names and confusion that comes with reading about them.

 

[Montero]

If you do watch a TV production of the book, I'd go with the BBC series from years back mentioned earlier in the thread - apart from anything else it uses a lot of the dialogue from the book and takes its time and doesn't trim things. And for Persuasion the BBC series with Amanda Root.

Incidentally, if anyone is interested, Stella Riley wrote a sequel and homage to Pride and Prejudice, called Expectations. Not quite as good as Pride and Prejudice but does a very good and credible job of "what comes next" for the characters. Not the only one that has been done, but I think it is the closest in tone. There was one by a noted murder mystery writer - Death Comes to Pemberly - which was clever but I felt a murder mystery and Jane Austin weren't a good mix.

 

[psikeyhackr]

Maybe we should have tags that men a required to wear if they have read Jane Austen.

 

[Randy M.]

Maybe we should have tags that men a required to wear if they have read Jane Austen.

Maybe with a bright, scarlet A?

 

[Ian Fortytwo]

As I am settling down to read non violent books I may read some more Jane Austen.

 

[Fiberglass Cyborg]

On Pride and Prejudice: I always find it a bit wierd when adaptations portray Darcy as a husky-voiced dreamboat in a poet shirt. The whole point of the guy is that he is NOT charming or romantic. He's supposed to come across as an uptight, ill-mannered prig who turns out to have some redeeming strength of character once you get to know him better.

 

[soulsinging]

I would say totally fine. You never know what you'll learn.

Like many here in the US, I used the lockdown/current events last year as an opportunity to read authors from backgrounds different than my own in the hope of learning a thing or two. One unexpected thing I did learn is that I found it easier to read and identify with stories from a gay black man (James Baldwin) than a white SFF woman (Ursula Le Guin). Why? I don't know, but it's made me curious about my own blind spots and provided a wonderful excuse to seek out more authors that can push me to see the world in new ways.

That said, I still don't like Pride and Prejudice and have Agatha Christie and Dorothy Sayers lined up next instead!

 

[hitmouse]

On Pride and Prejudice: I always find it a bit wierd when adaptations portray Darcy as a husky-voiced dreamboat in a poet shirt. The whole point of the guy is that he is NOT charming or romantic. He's supposed to come across as an uptight, ill-mannered prig who turns out to have some redeeming strength of character once you get to know him better.

Which adaptations pass your test?

 

[Bick]

One unexpected thing I did learn is that I found it easier to read and identify with stories from a gay black man (James Baldwin) than a white SFF woman (Ursula Le Guin). Why? I don't know, but it's made me curious about my own blind spots…

That’s interesting, but I’m not sure ‘blind spots’ is quite the right term. I too appreciate being shown things in a different light by good literature, but that’s not to say I had a blind spot about it before, only that I hadn’t necessarily looked at something in a particular way before. Rather than having a blind spot, I would say it argues the opposite, that you are open to different perspectives and enjoy the opportunity. This is a positive not a negative. By labelling a previous lack of perspective a blind spot perhaps plays into the current popular narrative of introspective self-criticism, as though we all have to acknowledge we need improving.

I realise it was only an off-hand comment so I don’t mean to bark, it just struck me that we all seem to spend so much time apologising, when I’m not sure most of us need to. It’s a general point really, not aimed at anyone.

 

[Fiberglass Cyborg]

Which adaptations pass your test?

None I've seen, though I haven't seen all that many. I just think it's odd when stiff-and-starchy Fitzwilliam Darcy does a literal wet-t-shirt scene....

 

[Mon0Zer0]

Men should never read Jane Austin. Or eat anything other than red meat and rocks, drink fresh snake blood and bourbon or cry over anything other than football.

Vegetables are right out - if it hasn't had a soul then just a single bite is a one way ticket to flamesville.

And forget television! A real man derives his entertainment from the swish of an axe, the twang of a bow and the joy of slamming a fresh carcass onto the dining table.

 

[Mon0Zer0]

@Ian Fortytwo - was hoping the sarcasm was obvious there!

 

[Ian Fortytwo]

You should watch Pride and Prejudice with Keira Knightly to help round out the book. Most movies/shows don't go well or help with the written word but a few do and that movie is a good companion to the book. It helps to see the characters have a "face to name" so to speak which helps with the names and confusion that comes with reading about them.

I have watched this film and when I reread Pride and Prejudice, it will make more sense. Thank you.

 

[Ian Fortytwo]

I will be reading more Jane Austen in the near future. I have also some Elizabeth Gaskell to read as well.

 

[psikeyhackr]

@Ian Fortytwo - was hoping the sarcasm was obvious there!

Had to spend half an hour reading between the lines.

 

[Ian Fortytwo]

I still occasionally dip into Jane Austen. They are very good reading.

 

[psikeyhackr]

Pride and Prejudice and Zombies
(Pride and Prejudice and Zombies #1)
by Seth Grahame-Smith (Goodreads Author)

3.31stars 134,982 ratings 13,345 reviews

Pride and Prejudice and Zombies (Pride and Prejudice an…

“It is a truth universally acknowledged that a zombie i…

www.goodreads.com

It is REAL!

3.31 stars is a not worth reading rating in my book, but 135,000 ratings is pretty high. So this seems to be the literary version of click-bait. A title to attract Jane Austen fans but a story so bad that it fails to impress zombie fans.

 

[The Big Peat]

Men should never read Jane Austin. Or eat anything other than red meat and rocks, drink fresh snake blood and bourbon or cry over anything other than football.

Vegetables are right out - if it hasn't had a soul then just a single bite is a one way ticket to flamesville.

And forget television! A real man derives his entertainment from the swish of an axe, the twang of a bow and the joy of slamming a fresh carcass onto the dining table.

"You are only allowed to say you love God, and babies, and horses that win. Anything else is softness in the head."