Jane Austen Questionnaire

Well, I am a bit delayed in posting my Jane Austen birthday posts. I was busy celebrating her birthday with friends over and watching “Emma” while we knitted away! But of course I don’t want to not write up my posts just because her birthday is now over, so I shall write up for an “extended Jane Austen’s birthday” series of posts!

1 - What was the first Jane Austen novel you ever read, and who introduced you to it?

My first Jane Austen novel was Pride and Prejudice. I believe I was thirteen at the time. My Uncle was given Pride and Prejudice as a reading assignment in the English class he was taking at the time and I, wanting to share a book with him, found out that I just had to get a hold of a copy of this fascinating book for myself. Truth be told, I was hooked, he was not. From the very first page I was in love, and my addiction quickly went from there. I soon had read every single one of Jane Austen’s novels, as well as her “history of England” and the three copies of her juvenile writing, but Pride and Prejudice was the first, and as the first it will always have a special place in my heart. I remember curling up on my bed with the thick paperback copy and reveling in each word. I hung upon each word Jane Austen gave me, each word describing Mr. Darcy, Elizabeth, Mr. Collins, Wickham, they were all real, real and alive and conversing before me as I turned the pages of my now much-loved copy.

2 - Which is your least favorite Jane Austen novel, and why? (Everybody posts about their favorites... I want to know what's at the bottom of your list!)

Well I would have to say Mansfield Park. I love it as I love all of Jane Austen’s novels, however Mansfield Park just doesn’t leave me with that happy feeling I come away with from the rest of her books. It leaves you a feeling a little more subdued than many of her others. A little more like the heroine, Fanny, quiet and contemplative over life and her novel. I’ll talk about this a little bit more in question 11.

3 - Who do you think is the funniest character Jane Austen ever created?

Henry Tilney is in my opinion the funniest character apart from being ridiculous. Most of Jane Austen’s characters that make it impossible for you not to laugh at them are funny because of their very ridiculousness, but Henry Tilney is at the same time so very witty and amusing and yet not at all ridiculous or outrageous that I would have to choose him. I could of course choose to pick on of Jane Austen’s more ridiculous funny characters, however, there are so many of those I don’t think I’d ever be able to choose!

4 - Which Jane Austen villain[ess] do you love to hate?

Oh dear. Love to hate? Does that mean we are asking who I love to abuse unrestrainedly? *giggles wickedly* Willoughby gets that award. I loathe him, yet it’s just so fun to call him names and stick your tongue out (the horror! Would I do such an unladylike thing?) at the printed page when he makes an entrance. So yes, Willoughby has my complete and utter disdain, yet I would miss him rather if he disappeared because then who would I call outrageous names? *grins*   

 
5 - What's your favorite Jane Austen quote?

*cough* “You pierce my soul. I am half in agony, half in hope. Tell me not that I am too late, that such precious feelings are gone for ever. I offer myself to you again with a heart even more your own, than when you broke it eight and a half years ago. Dare not say a man forgets sooner than a woman, that his love has an earlier death. I have loved none but you. Unjust I may have been, weak and resentful I have been, but never inconstant.”

Yes, I had to bring up “Persuasion” sooner or later. It’s my favorite. I am in love. I have now revealed my little sentimental heart and shall move on before I am rendered into a complete sentimental mess gushing about how much I love “Persuasion.”

6 - If you were to "start" someone on Jane Austen, which book would you recommend to them first and why?

I think Pride and Prejudice is definitely the best place to begin. Perhaps I am prejudiced as this is the book I began with, do you say? Perhaps. It is quite likely. I do believe though that I would recommend for any reader to begin with Pride and Prejudice. How could you help loving Pride and Prejudice? How could you help getting caught up and wanting it to last forever? It is easy to read, sparkling, witty and all together love worthy. Then of course, I should want you to read “Persuasion” as it is my favorite and I love it the very best, however I should recommend Pride and Prejudice first.

7 - What is your absolute favorite Jane Austen film adaptation and why?Oh this is a hard one! Ack…probably Sense and Sensibility with Emma Thompson. I would have to say this one because I think it satisfies me on both scores, I think it is a lovely adaption of the book, staying true to it for the most part, and I also think it is a lovely movie taken apart from the book. So much you have to sacrifice the one for the other. I think this version was a very happy medium. Of course I miss the scenes they took away for the artistic quality but in the end it makes the movie itself flow much better. Plus I love the music! but I love so many of the different film adaptations it is so hard to choose just one! I like watching both the miseries which are so lovely and true to the books but also the more movie style films which are better in quality as a move. I think I shall have to do some posts on some different film adaptations now! *prances*

8 - If you could authorize a new film adaptation of one of Jane Austen's novels, which would it be and why?

Persuasion. Without a doubt Persuasion. I must admit I have only seen one version all the way through and the other one only a little bit into it. I couldn’t stand either. I vehemently dislike both versions and this could just be that I am not going to be pleased with any rendition of my favorite book, but they can do better than that. I know they can *puppy dog eyes*

9 - Which Jane Austen character do you most identify with?

Anne Elliot the very most I think. I identify with quite a few but I’ve always like Anne Elliot the best and in the same situation I think I would have acted likewise. Only perhaps not quite so much so perhaps? I know I would have been inclined to persuasion of those who were my nearest and dearest in such a situation, I would have tried to take care of my family as she does and I would have acted similarly I think in my deportment especially in that day and age. However Anne Elliot, being a character is more so in each of these things. I wouldn’t have been quite so quiet, shy, and probably not so yielding.

10 - If you could have lunch with Jane Austen today, what question would you most like to ask her?

Oh my! I can’t even say how much I am in love with the image that presents! Sipping tea over a luncheon with Jane Austen! My oh my! Well, you see I shouldn’t want to talk very much, I should want to listen. Listen with eager ears to anything she cared to speak of. So I would want to ask a question that would get her talking. Talking, so I could prop my head up on my hands and just listen. What I would like the very best to hear about would be “the mysterious seaside romance” as I have heard it called before. I would much rather believe in the “seaside romance of 1800” rather than the Tom Lefroy theory. Well what true romantic wouldn’t? The mysterious gentleman that Cassandra would speak of as the only man Jane ever loved? And who died so tragically only a few months after they met? What romantic’s heart does not quicken at such a tale? Yes, if I could ask her unreservedly anything I would ask her if it were true.

And yes, this is all from “Presenting Miss Jane Austen” my favorite biography of Jane Austen.

11 - Is there any one thing that you think could have been improved upon in one (or all) of JA's books? What is it and why?

I always feel slightly disappointed when I come to the end of Mansfield Park. I think that’s part of the reason why I don’t love it quite as much as the others. She (Jane Austen) tells us that everything turns out just as we wished but it feels that she is simply telling us rather than letting us see it. We live and breathe the rest of the story- we see each happening and hear each conversation- and then we come to the end, and she seems to quickly tell us what happens to end it all, and I am left feeling rather disappointed. I still love it, I just wish for more. I wish for the vividly of the rest of the story, and it isn’t quite there.

12 - If you could have lunch with one of Jane Austen's characters today, who would it be and why?

Could I invite Mr. Knightly and Emma to lunch both? You can’t take one without the other! Emma would be so much fun to chatter away with and then of course Mr. Knightly would even the conversation out and add a sensible calming strain to it, yes, it is they that I would want to invite over most of all! And after lunch we should go for some meandering walk through the woods!

I found this drawing off of the internet, I believe it is of Cassandra Austen, and I liked it so I am including it because I like pictures!