^ She could be doomed to marriage with a paunchy, titled widower looking for someone to raise his children.
Amy always was my favorite of the March sisters. I wouldn’t call her a “mean girl.” Yes, she’s a bit spoiled, but I never got the impression that she was intentionally cruel to others, which is my definition of a mean girl.
@VeryHappy, this one’s especially for you: https://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2016/08/theres-something-about-mary-bennet/496322/
Thanks, Mary!! I bookmarked the article for later.
It’s February 10th already, which means it’s time to think about our April selection. It was a treat to have so many participants in our Pride and Prejudice discussion, and I hope you will consider returning for the next round.
Any and all suggestions are welcome. (NJTheatreMOM used to kid that her favorite part was talking about all the books we might read, rather than discussing the book actually chosen.)
Our P & P discussion, of course, remains open. So feel free to carry on with that if the spirit moves you!
I’ve been hearing a lot of buzz about The Immortalists by Chloe Benjamin.
My daughter read and liked The Immortalists. @mathmom just (highly) recommended The Purple Swamp Hen on the Best Book thread: we haven’t read a book of short stories lately. I’d like to read it but @mathmom may prefer we choose something she hasn’t just finished reading.
Other suggestions:
The Sudden Appearance of Hope - Claire North - just won the World Fantasy Award. I read and liked her The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August.
Sunburn - Laura Lippman - comes out this month and has starred reviews from Publishers Weekly, Library Journal, Booklist, and Kirkus Reviews. Starred reviews from all don’t happen everyday … and we haven’t read any noir fiction - have we? (What is noir fiction, exactly?)
And I still want to read these previously suggest books (though I think those ships have sailed):
The Dry
The Nix
The Twelve Lives of Samuel Hawley.
^ Those ships haven’t sailed for me. I haven’t read any of the above suggestions.
I have a question about P&P. Would Elizabeth and Jane marrying so we’ll have had any effect on the marriage prospects of Kitty and Mary? In the book Kitty visits her older sisters and is described as developing a more pleasant personality because of it, and Mary becomes more socially active when she’s out of her sisters’ shadows. But I don’t think it mentions either getting married. Would prospective suitors only have considered the the position of the parents, or would the status and wealth of the sisters and the possibility of monetary gifts and/or the connections they could provide be considered?
Mrs. B’s personality after the marriage is described as being pretty much the same as it was before, so it doesn’t seem that her behavior was driven by a frantic desire to get her daughters married. She just seems to be a silly, thoughtless woman. I think Mr. B is just as bad. He, at least, understands the plight his family will face after he dies but he doesn’t do anything about it. I think the way their characters were drawn helped make the situation young women of that era faced more real to me. It had to be really difficult for young women who had responsible parents who tried to guide them and plan for their futures. Girls with parents like these must have fared so much worse.
I don’t know how much, if at all, the social standing of Kitty and Mary is potentially improved by the marriages. But if they are invited to visit, they may have the opportunity to meet men they never would have otherwise. Isn’t that an advantage?
I think Jane and Elizabeth’s successful marriages would improve Kitty and Mary’s chances of making a good match. Even if there was no monetary reward in it, marrying a Darcy in-law had to boost one’s social status a bit.
On a couple of different Austen-info websites, I read that according to James Edward Austen-Leigh’s A Memoir of Jane Austen, Kitty later married a clergyman who lived near Pemberley, and Mary married one of her Uncle Phillips’s law clerks.
Here’s a quote from the book, written by Austen’s nephew in 1869, which is available for free online:
Mrs. Bennet would agree with you!
Is there a master list of books you have already read for book club?
Does it have to be Literature or can it be a lighter book?
That’s so interesting that she did imagine futures for other characters. I always figured they’d be fine. If Darcy was willing to give a huge sum to pay off Wickham’s gambling debts, I can imagine him also helping out Kitty and Mary. If worst comes to worst they can always live as maiden aunts at Pemberley - but I always figured they wouldn’t have to. I never really believed that Mary was as annoying as the narrator makes her out to be. I can’t explain why, since I take most of the rest of what we read as gospel truth! Kitty is a bit of a cipher - but really she’s only 16 or 17 - plenty of time to grow up.
http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/discussion/comment/20899321/#Comment_20899321 has the list of what we read before October 2017. We read The Strangler Vine in December.
Definitely a mix of best sellers, contemporary literary fiction, and old classics.
FWIW, I’d like to read something non-Western world at some point this year. No particular suggestions though.
Jane and Elizabeth’s marriages (as well as, to a lesser extent, Lydia’s) improve their sisters’ odds of marriage in another way–financially. Mr. Collins was aware that it was probable that all Lizzie could bring to the marriage was 1,000 pounds in the 4%s–or words close to that. That is also what Lydia got from the Bennets along with an annual allowance.
Mrs. Bennet’s dowry was 5,000 pounds. If it was divided equally among the daughters, each would get 1,000 pounds. However, no such settlement had to be made for Jane or Lizzie. So there was 4,000 pounds left to divide between 2 sisters. 2,000 pounds was not a huge amount, but it’s twice 1,000. And for a local clergyman such as Kitty supposedly married, that would be a good sum. In today’s dollars, it would be the difference between receiving $80,000 and $160,000. https://www.cliffsnotes.com/literature/p/pride-and-prejudice/critical-essays/money-in-pride-and-prejudice
^ I wonder what my husband would take me for in today’s dollars. :-/ 8-|
In the romance novels I read - the ones where the heroines read Austen books - the wealthy titled heroes always dower the heroine’s sisters/cousins/etc. maybe to get them off his hands!
Re ideas for April…If you click on the link, you get a preview of the book – no need to bounce over to Amazon for a “Look Inside”: https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/books/50-notable-works-of-fiction-in-2017/2017/11/10/23ff5014-af85-11e7-9e58-e6288544af98_story.html?utm_term=.db8236acc1c9
mathmom said:
“FWIW, I’d like to read something non-Western world at some point this year.”
There are some new Amy Tan novels that I’ve never read. (I stopped at The Joy Luck Club.)
Also, there are numerous Indian novels – none of which I’ve read or can even name!
And I think it’s been suggested before: The Orphan Master’s Son. It’s fiction, about North Korea. Very timely – the Olympics are full of news about North Korea! I read it about a year ago and thought it was excellent. I wouldn’t mind re-reading it. It won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction.