To ask you to write me a bit more Jane Austen as I have read them all

[MissTriggs]

I am sad I have run out. And becauseJA would be here if she lived now.

Thank you

Bonus for use of:
1 impertinent
2 propriety


Thank you again. I hope you are quite well.

[KatyN]

Have you read all Elizabeth Gaskell (except cranford I thought that was silly). And the brontes? And daphne du maurier (not quite the same but mostly simile period fabulousness).
There is life after Jane, it's just not quite as pleasing.

[DietChic]

And Georgette Heyer. I wish I was just discovering her.

[bluebrushes]

I must have read all JA . ( bows long shapely neck, slightly) 100 times each. I understand.

[CalebHadToSplit]

Read 'Evelina ' by Frances Burney, one of Austen's inspirations. It's Pride and Prejudice crossed with Northanger Abbey. You can see where Austen nicked some of her ideas from. Lord Orville is definitely a fore-runner for Mr Darcy!

[NannawifeofBaldr]

No, no, no, you are doing it wrong - if you finished them all you go back to the beginning again, skipping Emma because quite frankly that little madam needed a good slap.

You are after several readings allowed to go off and read some Bronte (Tennant of Wildfell Hall and Jane Eyre are the best)

[MissTriggs]

"I must have read all JA . ( bows long shapely neck, slightly) 100 times each. I understand."

"You are after several readings allowed to go off and read some Bronte (Tennant of Wildfell Hall and Jane Eyre are the best)"

Aww shucks, thanks for understanding.

I like the way the books change with me as I grow older, IYSWIM.

I like rereading Thomas Hardy too but there is the Tess issue - I avoid that one.

Re Brontes though -are they not primarily for when you are young? I read them all a lot between 14 and 26...

[CreepingDogFart]

Mr Darcy you impertinent little shit. Why canst thou conduct oneself with a higher level of propriety?

[MatildaTheCat]

Miss Triggs, < small curtesy > why it has been my greatest pleasure to have made your aquaintance these past five years. Might I be so very impertinent as to request you divulge your Christian name? Why, I am so hasty and foolish. Please do forgive my impropriety?

[TippetyTapWriter]

I know the pain. Try Fanny Burney (Evelina), Gaskell (North and South is practically Pride and Prejudice. Wives and Daughters is great too), George Eliot (Middlemarch, Adam Bede), Thackeray (Vanity Fair). I'm about to try Richardson's Pamela.

[scarednoob]

there's an amusing book called "texts from jane eyre", which has texts from jane and your other literary heroines. I am pretty sure lizzy and emma are in there.

have you read the p d james "death comes to pemberley" - that's entertaining too.

[EponasWildDaughter]

CreepingDogFart - Mr Darcy you impertinent little shit. Why canst thou conduct oneself with a higher level of propriety?

That's really tickled me

[scarednoob]

also reminds me of one of my favourite bridget jones lines - being called mr darcy and standing at a party looking moody is like being called Heathcliff and spending the party bashing your head against a tree and yelling, catheeeeeee!

on a sidenote/shameless digression, as the bridget jones books/columns rave on and on about colin firth as mr darcy... and then colin firth played mark darcy..... why didn't they make something of that? always baffled me.

[summerroses]

Society assembled for the nuptials and idled at the Wedding Breakfast and along the lawns of the light June day. Presently, after the sojourn in the chase, surrounded by settled petals of rose, with his hand secured at the small of her back, they arrived at Pemberley. Here she was introduced as mistress to the assembled staff. After a little light refreshment, to relieve the journey's parch, they were finally alone. Now that there could be no impertinence and that their understanding was clear, it was as Elizabeth had surmised and her Mr. Darcy delivered both a joyous and expedient consummation.

[AskingForAPal]

Tippetty - not Adam Bede! I've never read a book stuffed with so many insufferable goody-goodies. Middlemarch on the other hand is fabulous and should be loved.

Forget Pamela and read Tom Jones by Henry Fielding. He did a spoof of Pamela called Shamela as well, and wrote his own "improved" version of it called Joseph Andrews.

Forever Amber is Restoration smut but wonderful.

[tumbletumble]

OP, are you interested in reading JA commentary? I recently thoroughly enjoyed 'Bitch in a Bonnet' by Robert Rodi.

[RougeEtNoir]

scarednoob - they kind of did make something of it as that was the very reason he was cast, with a definite wink to the audience!

[scarednoob]

yes v true, but I was thinking of a more explicit* scene where they watch it as they do all the time in the book - maybe the bbc wouldn't give permission or something!

*not that kind of explicit

[shovetheholly]

I second the rec for Frances Burney. Her novels are brilliant and hilarious! Also, Maria Edgeworth.

And one novel by a bloke - Bage's Hermsprong. Stars a wonderfully headstrong early feminist!

[MitzyLeFrouf]

not Adam Bede! I've never read a book stuffed with so many insufferable goody-goodies.

WORD!

Self righteous prigs the lot of them.

[MitzyLeFrouf]

Have you ever read Fanny Hill OP?

That's where Lydia Bennet would have ended up if Mr Darcy hadn't saved the day.

[RougeEtNoir]

I second the Georgette Heyer recommedation. Clearly not on a par with JA but terrific reads nonetheless. I'd start with The Grand Sophy, Frederica and Faro's Daughter.

[RhiWrites]

Have you read any of Austen's Juvenilia?

^WHEN Cassandra had attained her 16th year, she was lovely & amiable, & chancing to fall in love with an elegant Bonnet her Mother had just compleated, bespoke by the Countess of ----, she placed it on her gentle Head & walked from her Mother's shop to make her Fortune.

THE first person she met, was the Viscount of ----, a young Man, no less celebrated for his Accomplishments & Virtues, than for his Elegance & Beauty. She curtseyed & walked on.

SHE then proceeded to a Pastry-cook's, where she devoured six ices, refused to pay for them, knocked down the Pastry Cook & walked away.^

[chemenger]

Not Jane Eyre. No fan of Elizabeth Bennet could read that without wishing Jane Eyre had caught consumption and died at the beginning to save us from her sanctimonious snivelling.

[WellErrr]

Read 'Evelina ' by Frances Burney, one of Austen's inspirations. It's Pride and Prejudice crossed with Northanger Abbey. You can see where Austen nicked some of her ideas from. Lord Orville is definitely a fore-runner for Mr Darcy!

YES!
Evelina is brilliant. If you like JA you'll love it. And Cecilia by the same author.

I'm about to try Richardson's Pamela

Let me save you some of the most painful hours of your life -

DON'T BOTHER.

It's the worst thing I've ever tried to read. It's truly awful. In every possible way.
Badly written, dull, misogynistic.

Just awful.

[FoggyBottom]

Also, Angela Thirkell, 1930s to 1950s. Bliss.

E F Benson isn't bad. I like Catherine Gore and the Silver Fork School, but it's niche Rare Books stuff.