Dialogue, wit, characters. The plot and descriptive prose are merely functional, true.
Legolas Send a noteboard - 27/04/2012 11:26:27 PM
I'm not trolling, and I don't want to hate on the book, but I can barely make it through a paragraph without getting bored and tired. Everyone here seems to swear by her prose, though, so I really think I'm perhaps missing something in appreciating it. Could someone explain to me why it's good? Preferably with some textual examples?
But then, few books are great in every aspect (though I won't deny there are some that certainly come closer to that ideal than Austen's).
I glanced through the first few chapters of P&P on Project Gutenberg just now, and to the extent that those can be considered representative (not very), the conclusion is that much of Austen's writing is simply dialogue, and her dialogue is good, as I'm sure you'll agree. Of the rest, a good part is taken up by witty or ironic touches (which I at least find amusing). The descriptive prose is very simple indeed, but why should that bother us? It's the characters and the dialogue that make the novels such classics, and the ironic comments like the famous "truth universally acknowledged". And of course a good part of Austen's reputation is simply that she wrote those books when she did, and that she was already a classic to the Victorians. If there are other English writers who have written novels comparable to Austen's prior to 1820, they certainly haven't stood the test of time.
Just read Pride and Prejudice again.
25/04/2012 04:21:27 PM
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honestly...I liked it better with zombies.
25/04/2012 05:15:12 PM
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Never read that.
25/04/2012 10:14:51 PM
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it has a lot of the charm of the original, and then the additional charm of zombies
25/04/2012 11:36:55 PM
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I don't know what it is about that book, but yes, I do love it.
25/04/2012 06:56:28 PM
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I love Thomas Hardy.
25/04/2012 08:33:41 PM
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Hm. I never could. Which book particularly?
25/04/2012 10:09:16 PM
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Jude the Obscure.
26/04/2012 03:10:25 AM
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Mary's still presented as better than Lydia and their mother. Kind of.
26/04/2012 08:40:40 PM
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Re: Mary's still presented as better than Lydia and their mother. Kind of.
26/04/2012 09:40:14 PM
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See, I keep thinking Jane Austen books are "chick lit" but I like them anyway.
26/04/2012 02:43:07 AM
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Oh, come on. Jane Eyre is a great book.
26/04/2012 08:42:17 PM
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Hated Wuthering Heights. (but not as much as I hate Rochester of course)
26/04/2012 09:31:13 PM
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I don't think the first adaptation is cheating
26/04/2012 10:04:14 PM
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I admit she's too good for him - but isn't that part of the point?
26/04/2012 10:08:13 PM
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Could someone explain to me why Jane Austen's prose is considered good?
27/04/2012 12:24:00 AM
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Dialogue, wit, characters. The plot and descriptive prose are merely functional, true.
27/04/2012 11:26:27 PM
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