I love Wharton but I *hated* Ethan Frome. Ick.

I have a soft spot for Hardy. And Tess.

::puts on tomato shield and hides behind Seska::

I love Austen, all the Brontë sisters, Hardy and Wharton. Please pass all your tomatoes to me.

I have read exactly two Austen novels. By the second, I'd worked out that they were all the same, and I was done.

Oh, heavens, no! (I mean, welcome, Seska!) There are definite similarities between the novels she wrote as a very young woman (P&P, S&S, and Northanger Abbey-- though that one's just sassy and snarky enough to almost belong with her rude and delicious juvenilia, Love & Freindship and The History of England) and very different similarities between the older, more emotionally painful ones she wrote much closer to her death (Emma, Mansfield Park and Persuasion), but even the similarities are all about tone and language and energy, not incidents or characters (Jane Bennet and Elinor Dashwood are a little similar, and Wickham and Willoughby more so, but their relationships with their sisters, their families, their beloveds--all so utterly different).

Most writers have similar veins they(we?) mine a lot but that doesn't mean they write the same book all the time. Except maybe Tom Robbins, but I love him, anyway, damn it. He just loves life and women's bodies so much...what? I have layers. One can't live on David Simon all the time. Austen: Phase started when I was about sixteen, am still a fan, but maybe not as passionately. Should read her now, see what's different. Hardy Bummed me out. Melville: Haven't really attempted him in long form, despite being one of DS' big faves and inspirations. I admit it, I think of that huge book full of whaling stuff and punk out.

erika, the whaling stuff was my favorite part of the book, to my surprise.

Huh. Well, maybe someday.

OK, I was being a bit flippant with 'all the same'. Also, also, I was about 19 when I last read Austen. Should maybe try again, it being over ten years later.

I think that to appreciate Hardy, it helps to know the area he's writing about. It's all about Dorset and Hampshire (bleak, depressing places, but with a certain charm that grows on you. Like mould). Well, that, and about society and the Industrial Revolution. But mostly the heaths and the locals.

very different similarities between the older, more emotionally painful ones she wrote much closer to her death (Emma, Mansfield Park and Persuasion)

In fairness, it's the stylistic similarities in Austen that grated. But I'll try her again. Recommend me one?

Well, if you read Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, you get pride, prejudice, and zombies, all for the price of one. Normally they sell pride and prejudice as a package deal, but in a special recession deal, they're throwing in zombies for free.

Thomas Hardy? :shudders:

(Sorry, I still remember having to dissect Return of the Native in high school. Not pleasant)

Just one? Persuasion. Old, sad, wise, meditative and thoughtful, with secret letters and dark pasts and regrets and quiet kindnesses and sidelong glances and selfish assholes who don't get nearly enough comeuppance and a great older couple and Jane Austen hating on Bath.

YMMV, but I'd avoid the illustrated version with drawings by Hugh Thomson -- he somehow makes Captain Wentworth, who ought to be handsome in a nice scruffy Wesley-without-the-giant-scary-insanity-issues way, look kind of domesticated and cute. Bleh.

eta: Okay, to be fair, I went and Googled it up, and the last picture of Wentworth looks all right. Still not my favorite set of Austen illustrations.

So am I hearing correctly that if one has never read Austen one might start with Pride & Prejudice & Zombies and get a proper feel for the original material but with bonus zombies? I was under the impression that it was for folks who had already read the original.