Austen-mania

My favorite sport is reading. There is very little I would rather do. My doctor says this isn't necessarily a good thing, so I took up scuba diving, but that is a story for another day. :)

I am a huge fan of Jane Austen, and my favorite is--of course--Pride and Prejudice. Let me recommend to any of you ladies (because let's be honest--the men won't care) who may have missed it thus far the 6-hour miniseries of Pride and Prejudice produced by A & E. It stars Colin Firth as Mr. Darcy, which might be reason enough to watch this film. He is an excellent, smouldering Mr. Darcy. Jennifer Ehle is also beautiful as Elizabeth Bennet.

I love the character of Elizabeth. I love that she is strong and fearless, despite knowing what limitations that may place on her in her male-dominated Victorian society.

A year or so ago I was in Deseret Book and I found a wonderful trilogy that I have been re-reading, just for the fun of it. The first book is "An Assembly Such As This;" the second is "Duty and Desire;" and the third is "These Three Remain." The author is Pamela Aidan. This is basically "Pride and Prejudice," only it's written from Darcy's viewpoint. Existing characters are there, of course, though many are more detailed than in Austen's original work. New characters are introduced. Darcy's activities are outlined, as well as how his feelings for Elizabeth developed. It is a lot of fun to read. Ms. Aiden has often used Austen's original dialog, and she has drawn extensively on the A&E series for her settings (in fairness, A&E is VERY true to Austen's work). Additionally, Ms. Aiden's use of vocabulary is wonderful, and she's very Austenian in her writing.

I've read several other Austen spin-offs, and none of them has captured my interest the way this trilogy has. Check it out and have some fun. (But read Pride and Prejudice first!)