Hamlette is currently hosting a Jane Austen blogathon, and since I’ve spent the past couple of months deeply enjoying re-reads of Emma and Mansfield Park, and appreciating just how wonderful Austen’s books are all over again, this was something I had to join in! While I didn’t have the chance to contribute a more in-depth post, I can definitely fill out this blogathon tag:
1. Which did you experience first, a Jane Austen book or a movie based on one?
Well, I don’t think this counts, but I used to sneak peeks into my mom’s Austen paperbacks when I was a little girl and considered too young to read them. We had the movie tie-in edition of Sense and Sensibility, and the page next to the inset of stills from the movie was the moment when Marianne receives Willoughby’s letter, which was suitably dramatic. However, the other pages I browsed didn’t seem to quite live up to that in my youthful eyes. Anyway, I believe my first full Austen experience was a film, probably the 1995 Pride and Prejudice miniseries (or possibly the Kate Beckinsale Emma?)
2. What is your favorite Austen book?
Isn’t this the impossible question? Whichever one I’m reading at the moment tends to be my favorite. However, while I think Pride and Prejudice may be the best, my personal favorite is probably either Persuasion or Emma.
3. Favorite heroine? Why do you like her best?
Anne Elliott, I think. I don’t know exactly why, except that she seems to be the one I empathize with most—perhaps because we’re allowed into her thoughts and feelings a little more than most of Austen’s other heroines. We’re allowed to witness her being in love, rather than just discovering at the end that she loves someone.
4. Favorite hero? Why do you like him best?
Probably Mr. Knightley. He’s so straightforward and honest, devoted to truth and integrity, and yet genuinely kind and not without humor.
5. Do you have a favorite film adaptation of Austen’s work?
The 1995 Sense and Sensibility, which is also one of my all-time favorite movies. But the ’95 Pride and Prejudice holds an honorary position as most-complete-and-faithful-adaptation-ever.
6. Have your Austen tastes changed over the years? (Did you start out liking one story best, but now like another better? Did you think she was boring at first, then changed your mind? Etc.)
I used to think Emma was one of the duller books, though looking at it from my present standpoint I have absolutely no idea why! Re-reading Mansfield Park from a more mature perspective, I also understand much better how Fanny Price’s natural shyness and timidity make her respond in ways that readers often find frustrating.
7. Do you have any cool Austen-themed things (mugs, t-shirts, etc)? (Feel free to share photos if you want.)
I have a couple of lovely notebooks with Austen quotations on them that my siblings gave me for Christmas, and a silver pendant necklace (also a Christmas present some years back) with a quotation from Emma on it: “Where shall we see a better daughter or a kinder sister or a truer friend?” I started to cry as soon as I saw that for the first time, and there’s nothing I’d like better than to live up to that quote.
8. If you could ask Jane Austen one question, what would you ask her?
Well, there’s always “WHAT IS THE SECRET OF YOUR WRITING GENIUS?”, but I’ve already reached the conclusion that that is a gift of God. But seriously, I’d be curious to know what she would have thought if she knew how incredibly renowned and popular her books would eventually become.
9. Imagine someone is making a new film of any Jane Austen story you choose, and you get to cast the leads. What story do you want filmed, and who would you choose to act in it?
I agree with what a lot of people have been saying: we need a proper adaptation of Mansfield Park! I must confess, though, I follow present-day film so little that I wouldn’t know who to cast in it. If this counts, I once had great fun inventing and casting an imaginary 1940s film that retold Pride and Prejudice in a contemporary (that is, ’40s) setting, with Ann Blyth as Elizabeth and Dana Andrews as Darcy.
10. Share up to five favorite Jane Austen quotations!
Oddly enough, I haven’t often singled out particular lines or passages as favorites, even though my family quotes lines of Austen dialogue to each other on a daily basis. But here’s one quote that always makes me smile, and one that I recently came across and liked very much.
“What dreadful hot weather we have! It keeps one in a continual state of inelegance.” ~ Letters
“Oh! if you knew how much I love everything that is decided and open!” ~ Emma
Hamlette says
Dana Andrews as Darcy. Oh my, yes. Yes, please.
I love what you said about how we get to see Anne Elliot being in love, not just realizing that she loves someone at the very end of the book. That’s definitely part of why I love Persuasion so much!
Thanks for joining the party 🙂
Elisabeth Grace Foley says
I almost did a write-up of that idea for the Great Imaginary Film Blogathon both times…the first time I chickened out, and the second I was just too busy to do a post. Maybe I should write it up someday just for the fun of it!
Thanks for hosting! It was a lot of fun to fill out the tag, especially since I’ve been loving Austen so much lately.
Hamlette says
That would be great! I would totally read it.
Skyeler says
I so love your necklace from Emma! What a kind and thoughtful gift! I would probably cry too. 🙂