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.
Two steaming cups of chocolate goodness. Courtesy of whomever I swiped it from out of the cupboard.
Ben ,'The Killer In Me'
Literary Buffistas 3: Don't Parse the Blurb, Dear.
There's more to life than watching Buffy the Vampire Slayer! No. Really, there is! Honestly! Here's a place for Buffistas to come and discuss what it is they're reading, their favorite authors and poets. "Geez. Crack a book sometime."
Laga - Apr 24, 2009 1:40:31 pm PDT #8986 of 28407
You should know I'm a big deal in the Resistance.
Polter-Cow - Apr 24, 2009 1:43:20 pm PDT #8987 of 28407
What else besides ramen can you scoop? YOU CAN SCOOP THIS WORLD FROM DARKNESS!
Laga, I think 80% of it is the original text, so it will definitely give you a feel for the original.
Amy - Apr 24, 2009 2:09:10 pm PDT #8988 of 28407
Because books.
Part of me thinks I loved Emma as much as I did *because* I read it in a class with a fabulous teacher, and the discussion was great.
Same with Tess -- I did a paper on it junior year of high school, and then made my teacher cry in class because she was losing an argument with me about it. (I wasn't trying to make her cry, though. That was actually a little unsettling, much as I disliked her.)
Frankenbuddha - Apr 24, 2009 2:29:30 pm PDT #8989 of 28407
"We are the Goon Squad and we're coming to town...Beep! Beep!" - David Bowie, "Fashion"
Honestly - the two writers I hated being subjected to in high school: Dickens and Annie Dillard.
Dear lord, I could not get through Great Expectations to save my life, and Pilgrim at Tinker Creek was the most Hippy Dippy piece of shit I've ever had to endure. Ptui!
JZ - Apr 24, 2009 2:50:21 pm PDT #8990 of 28407
See? I gave everybody here an opportunity to tell me what a bad person I am and nobody did, because I fuckin' rule.
Pilgrim at Tinker Creek was the most Hippy Dippy piece of shit I've ever had to endure. Ptui!
FINALLY. THANK GOD. Definitive proof that you and Hec are clearly, firmly two distinct and separate persons!
beth b - Apr 24, 2009 2:55:57 pm PDT #8991 of 28407
oh joy! Oh Rapture ! I have a brain!
I was never fond of things like hardy and wuthering heights -- overly dramatic. And while I did read Austen early, I agree that it improves as I age.
Consuela - Apr 24, 2009 3:04:24 pm PDT #8992 of 28407
We are Buffistas. This isn't our first apocalypse. -- Pix
Hardy is just waaay too depressing for me. Austen has its depressing bits, but it's papered over with the wonderful mild snark. I saw a writer recently claim that from a feminist perspective, Austen is a horror writer (because of the desperate need to marry: Charlotte Lucas being a case in point).
I liked Jane Eyre but Wuthering Heights makes me roll my eyes: they're all such drama queens, and unpleasant people to boot.
I have never read Pilgram at Tinker Creek but I loved Dillard's An American Childhood and The Living was very good indeed, if a bit bleak.
javachik - Apr 24, 2009 3:15:36 pm PDT #8993 of 28407
Our wings are not tired.
I love Dickens, for both his literature and his societal impact, but my favorite Victorian writer is Elizabeth Gaskell. Her stuff is seriously funny and insightful. And not just because her most noted book is my last name. :)
sj - Apr 24, 2009 3:37:47 pm PDT #8994 of 28407
"There are few hours in life more agreeable than the hour dedicated to the ceremony known as afternoon tea."
:: hugs all of my Austen books tightly ::
I love Austen; she is the queen of snark. I don't know if I can handle zombies in my Austen.
I also love Wharton (Including Ethan Frome) and the Brontes. Hardy I can take or leave. And of course George Eliot is the queen of 19th century lit.
Atropa - Apr 24, 2009 3:41:15 pm PDT #8995 of 28407
The artist formerly associated with cupcakes.
Okay, now I must know. Why does Charlotte HAVE to marry in the original P&P? I know it's not for the same reason as in the zombie edition.
I enjoy Jane Eyre as an over-the-top black comedy. And I really should try rereading Wuthering Hights with the mindset that it's a psychological horror story, because that might make me hate it less.