Thursday, August 16, 2007

So You Think You Know Jane Austen

As an undergrad I took a study abroad trip to England. While we were there the BBC replayed their Pride and Prejudice miniseries and almost our entire group fell in love with P and P (or Colin Firth and Jennifer Ehle) Upon my return, I took a class devoted entirely to Jane Austen, where we read even the dreaded Mansfield Park. Since then I've seen the mini-series at least 4 times and the new (inferior) Keira Knightly version. With this background I thought that I could at least do well at the Pride and Prejudice section of this literary quiz book. Alas, it was not to be. Each of the six major Austen novels has four quizzes, the first strictly fact based, the second more tricky, the third requiring some speculation on the part of the reader and the fourth being the most interpretive questions, such as why Mr. Bennet marries Mrs. Bennet in the first place (physical attraction is provided answer). I liked the different types of quizzes but because I hated flipping back and forth (and was getting so few right) I ended up just reading the end section which provides questions with the answers. It's a lot of fun, though much of it is speculative, making any answer as right as another to such questions as to why Wickham chose to run off with (spoiler!!) Lydia.

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