The Genteel Reading Circle For Ladies

[EverySongbirdSays]

In which like minds will discuss Jane Austen and other such 19th Century Classics sparked from an unhealthy interest in the sex life of one Mr Collins, parson to her ladyship Catherine De Bourgh of Rosings Park

First up : Sense And Sensibility

Bring your love of Dashwood, Brandon, Willoughby, Farrars, and Emma Thompson's weird crying noise here!!!

Ooh can I join in please?

On the subject of illnesses, this is quite funny: the-toast.net/2015/06/11/things-women-in-literature-have-died-from/. Though it is quite scary to realise that things that now are a minor inconvenience (for which only wimps would take a day off work, according to the adverts for flu remedies) could actually have killed you in the olden days.

Marianne was 19 when she married Col. Brandon and he was 37. That's not a lot different from the gap between my parents, who were 36 and 20 when they met. So maybe that gives me a different viewpoint, but I certainly don't see that kind of gap as necessarily creepy...

Saying hello whilst S and S is downloading :-)

Hello everyone! Great thread, loved the P&P thread as well. Would love it if we could do Wuthering Heights next too.

Going back to the subject of Marianne's 'illness', which I think was at least a tiny bit of teenage melodrama, surely even back then people were scoffed at for thinking they were going to die from standing out in the cold?

I'm sure I recall Mrs Bennett saying something along the lines of 'whoever died from a trifling cold?' when Jane is off to Netherfield on horseback and it looks like it's about to rain. Have any male literary characters ever died from being caught out in a rain shower or is just the reinforcement perception of the so called weaker sex?

Amazon also have Georgiana Darcy's story available for free today. (I know that's not by JA!)

Have any male literary characters ever died from being caught out in a rain shower or is just the reinforcement perception of the so called weaker sex?
In the Woodlanders by Thomas Hardy, Giles Winterbourne dies after letting Grace Melbury spend a stormy night in his hut while he stayed outside in the rain to preserve her virtue. I think he had been ill previously though.

I know this is a reading thread but the Amanda Root & Ciaran Hinds Persuasion is on Drama channel on Sunday at 2pm if anyone is interested!

I love the way Ciaran Hinds plays Captain Wentworth.

Thanks for the tip, DrOgden. Will have to set up the box to record. I love that film.

Well, I suppose Mrs B had a vested interest in ensuring Jane went to the Bingleys', didn't she? Jane always struck me as not being particularly robust, in contrast to Lizzie who seemed full of rude health.

Not quite the same, but didn't Prince Albert catch something and die following being caught in the rain?

I love that Persuasion! Anne E my favourite "heroine".

Thanks for the tip Julia

See it's happened again. I slope off to work for the day and you guys have all the fun talking about the fabulous Miss A. I have to find a way to smuggle my phone into meetings so that I can keep up.

I have to admit that I find Marianne tiresome and Elinor wonderful, but then I've always been told off for not being romantic. I do think that Marianne's illness is by way of being a deus ex machina but done so well that it moves the action of the book along and heightens our understanding of Mariannes character . It is yet another illustration of her sensibility. However, it also gives JA the opportunity to show outwardly that Elinor is not heartless, but is very greatly effected by the threat to her sister's life.

As to Prince Albert I think he caught pneumonia.

Thanks for that tip Hippy I'll have a look at that in a moment.

Prince Albert's death was widely attributed to typhoid, as this is what Jenner stated. But Albert had been ill for at least two years before his death, possibly suffering from Crohne's disease or cancer leading to his death.

This is the problem, that so many diseases were not recognised or understood, and this is even more so in JA's time.
So it's not unlikely that a good soaking in cold heavy rain could leave someone with a "low fever" leading to their death, and the actual cause of death never be suspected or explained.

Have any male literary characters ever died from being caught out in a rain shower or is just the reinforcement perception of the so called weaker sex?

In Wilkie Collins' The Moonstone the family doctor loses his wits and spends the rest of his days as a gibbering wreck after being caught in a rain shower.

I remember once starting a thread about the devastating effect of rain upon literary characters.

delurk

Huge S&S fan here. Haven't been able to watch the ET film since AR died though, too Marianneish emotional about it all.

Did anyone else really enjoy the film, but also really enjoy the extra time for the story in the BBC adaptation? I felt far more sympathy for Edward Ferrars in the latter portrayal, he came across as deeply, quietly emotional rather than just a bit silly.

Oh and because I can't believe nobody's quoted it yet - "The air is full of spices..."

I didn't like the BBC version of S&S. Marianne was even more annoying than Kate Winslet's version and the actress who played Elinor seemed to be doing an Emma Thompson impersonation. Twas most perplexing.

delurk

Hello! Massive S&S fan here. Haven't been able to watch the ET film since AR died though - feeling far too Marianneish emotional still.

Did anyone else who really loved the film also love the BBC adaptation, with so much more time to explore the characters and story? I didn't really get HG's Edward Ferrars, a bit Tim Nice But Dim, but in the latter I really warmed to him, more like the book where he seems like a nice young man who made a silly mistake and is paying for it!

Oh and since I can't believe nobody else has said it yet - "the air is full of spices..."

Argh, sorry for the double post!

Every time I read S&S the bleakness of the absolute dependence of the women on the men in their lives is more evident. I understand there was a similar tangle a couple of generations back in JA's own family - a will which resulted in Jane's branch of the family not being nearly as well off as they otherwise would have been. The moment when Mrs D is suddenly rescued by being offered a cottage by her cousin is like a pressure cooker having the steam let off.

I've seen a dispute about a will between a third wife/widow and a child of a first marriage up close and it wasn't pretty in the 21st century when neither of them was going to starve or lose all connections because of it.

More lightheartedly I love Mrs D and her endless DIY ideas. Well, YSDI (your servants do it). It took me seven years to decide to paint the bathroom white so I can relate.

I liked it enough, but I literally don't remember anything about it, which effectively makes its defining characteristic : forgettable.

Sorry my post was to follow Squoosh about the BBC S and S

It was kind of unforgettable Every. I can't even remember who played their evil Mrs Dashwood bitch face sister in law.

I remember Marianne and Elinor, and that Willoughby was played by that actor who looks a bit like a frog.

Oh God yes the BBC S&S was a mess, though the scenery looked pretty. Everyone staring into space endlessly. One tiny good thing - they included the older Steele sister and her smart beaux, I missed them in the Thompson S&S.

Huge bugbear of mine that anyone adapting Austen for a short form (single film or whatever) says 'I know, I'll cut all the dialogue' leaving a pointless romance. She doesn't write romances, they are comedies. You wouldn't remake the Life of Brian without any of the jokes for crying out loud.

It was kind of unforgettable Every.

Errr, I meant forgettable! FORgettable.

So forgettable it made me forget 'forgettable'.

Oh yes! No you say it I remember the girl who wouldn't shut up about how many eligible beau there might be - great accent what is that accent??

Frog boy is Dominic Cooper of Mamma Mia and the Duchess