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Thread: Jane Austen Book Club - Book number 1, Persuasion.

  1. #1
    Registered User Zee.'s Avatar
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    Jane Austen Book Club - Book number 1, Persuasion.

    With the poll officially closing tomorrow, and Persuasion being the clear winner, I thought now would be a good time to create our first discussion thread.

    For those who are new, you can visit the original thread here:
    http://www.online-literature.com/for...ad.php?t=45670

    This book club will continue for a long time and i'm sure we will both lose and gain people along the way. With that said, you are welcome to join in and leave the discussion at any point. If you have no particular interest in reading one of the books then you are welcome to simply join in at a later date. In short - everybody is welcome to come and go as they please.

    Please don't feel the need to contribute a great deal to the discussion, you don't even have to at all. If we've bled the book dry before the three months are up, that's okay too, however, I would love to see us finish all of the novels so please don't forget to come back at the end of every set of three months.

    I'll create a new thread for every new Austen book we read which will include a link to both this thread, and the original.

    Phew.

    Based on the poll, I have compiled a list of the books we'll be reading, the order we'll be reading them in, and the time period we will be discussing them in, etc. If there is any mistake with the list, please let me know

    Persuasion - From the 21st of July to October the 21st
    Sense and Sensibility - From October the 22rd to January the 22rd
    Mansfield Park - From January the 23th to April the 23th
    Pride and Prejudice - From April the 24th to July the 24th
    Emma - From July the 25th to October the 25th
    Northanger Abbey - From the 26th of October to January the 26th



    Let the reading begin

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    Overlord of Cupcak3s 1n50mn14's Avatar
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    Excellent. I expect to be popping back in in a week or so to discuss what I've read so far. Happy reading!
    Naked except for a cigarette, you let your mind drift and forget your disbelief. Feel the chill down your back and the flutter of wings through dandelion fields, and forget the pull of gravity in a night without stars.

    I lack eloquence and commitment to my arguments. They are half baked, and I will begin passionately, and then abandon them.

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    Registered User Zee.'s Avatar
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    Woot woot, chapter 4!!!!!

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    Here I am and I'll be sooooooooooooo glad to see such discussion and to participate..I ead all of them and some several times...soooooooooo ready...!

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    Bibliophile JBI's Avatar
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    I have a quiz and a midterm tomorrow, so I don't think I'll start until the weekend, but I will catch up, and I've already read it, so I can join in I guess - though, I may not start my reread until the 31st (when summer classes end, and study week begins).

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    Ditsy Pixie Niamh's Avatar
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    right better pick my battered copy of from my mams tomorrow. i'm due my read!
    "Come away O human child!To the waters of the wild, With a faery hand in hand, For the worlds more full of weeping than you can understand."
    W.B.Yeats

    "If it looks like a Dwarf and smells like a Dwarf, then it's probably a Dwarf (or a latrine wearing dungarees)"
    Artemins Fowl and the Lost Colony by Eoin Colfer


    my poems-please comment Forum Rules

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    Hitchcock Enthusiast Mathor's Avatar
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    I just started yesterday, and I find this novel to be very amusing. I laugh out loud many times while reading it. The characterization of Sir Walter is completely ridiculous. I find the satire in that he spends his entire day reading, editing, and looking over his place in the baronetry kind of sad, but funny. It shows the narcissism in himself, and what is valued among the rich upper-class in that time period (and probably mirrors what is important among people of similar wealth today). The fact that Sir Walter would rather give up his house than keep his accounts in order, and risk looking less than unwealthy, is almost laughable.
    I'm losing all those stupid games
    That I swore I'd never play

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    Registered User Zee.'s Avatar
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    I hope you're all reading, my bookwormy friends!
    i have some stuff to ask, discuss etc, but not until I read a bit more..

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    Vincit Qui Se Vincit Virgil's Avatar
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    I'll start reading this weekend.
    LET THERE BE LIGHT

    "Love follows knowledge." – St. Catherine of Siena

    My literature blog: http://ashesfromburntroses.blogspot.com/

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    Registered User prendrelemick's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Mathor View Post
    I just started yesterday, and I find this novel to be very amusing. I laugh out loud many times while reading it. The characterization of Sir Walter is completely ridiculous. I find the satire in that he spends his entire day reading, editing, and looking over his place in the baronetry kind of sad, but funny. It shows the narcissism in himself, and what is valued among the rich upper-class in that time period (and probably mirrors what is important among people of similar wealth today). The fact that Sir Walter would rather give up his house than keep his accounts in order, and risk looking less than unwealthy, is almost laughable.
    I always wonder if she had quite finished polishing this book, especially at the start, its a bit all over the place, and Sir Walter is as you say completely ridiculous. I find him one of her very few unconvincing characters.

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    Ditsy Pixie Niamh's Avatar
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    I think she purposely made him rediculous.
    I think with persuasion she attempted to characterise the stereotyes of her society. The Rich snobby Lord of the Manner, The stuck up self important aristoracts, which are depicted in Both Walter and Elizabeth, and of course the hypoconriac in her sister Mary. She also shows the lower classes as the nicer sweeter folk, and also a little less intellegent etc... same way later writers like Dickens did. Same way R.B.Sheridan did in School For Scandel.
    Last edited by Niamh; 07-22-2009 at 10:54 AM.
    "Come away O human child!To the waters of the wild, With a faery hand in hand, For the worlds more full of weeping than you can understand."
    W.B.Yeats

    "If it looks like a Dwarf and smells like a Dwarf, then it's probably a Dwarf (or a latrine wearing dungarees)"
    Artemins Fowl and the Lost Colony by Eoin Colfer


    my poems-please comment Forum Rules

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    Reader plainjane's Avatar
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    I'm just beginning Chapter 8.
    Sir Walter would be laughable if he wasn't so pitiful. As remarked by Mathor, the fact he'd rather give up his home than downsize in any way is laughable, in a way. To a point that is, unfortunately, that type of person certainly exists, even down to the present and those that are so shortsighted are to be pitied.

    I don't know if Captain Wentworth is in denial or not...he is ostensibly uninterested in Anne at present.

    I've only previously read S&S and P&P, and to my recollection, they were better put together than this seems. Am I wrong in this?

  13. #13
    Ditsy Pixie Niamh's Avatar
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    Its more of a renting of his property than giving it up so to speak. Giving it up intirely and downsizing would have been unthinkable, and residing in bath and renting it out meant that it still remained in the Family. Also its purpose was to help him curb a majority of his spending, which was why the intitial concept of retiring to London was quickly turned around in favour of Bath by those close to the family.
    "Come away O human child!To the waters of the wild, With a faery hand in hand, For the worlds more full of weeping than you can understand."
    W.B.Yeats

    "If it looks like a Dwarf and smells like a Dwarf, then it's probably a Dwarf (or a latrine wearing dungarees)"
    Artemins Fowl and the Lost Colony by Eoin Colfer


    my poems-please comment Forum Rules

  14. #14
    Reader plainjane's Avatar
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    Yes, I realized he was only letting the place, but it is rather a step down in stature as it's seemingly gotten around that the reasons he is doing so are financial.

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    Registered User kiki1982's Avatar
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    I see it like this:

    The Elliot-family's head (Anne's father) is a typical empoverished member of the aristocracy. In his head, like in Elizabeth's head, the Elliot-family is still great (the book he continually reads), but actually he is not worth it anymore. He has not enough money to keep his style up and his daughter is married to a gentleman farmer (?), at least not with another baronet...

    He despises seamen, despite the fact that Admiral Croft is now richer than he is or at least as rich.

    He will end badly if he carries on... Hopefully after he has finished marrying his daughters off.

    Anne, who is actually more worthy to be an aristocrat (she does not think about the name, but about herself, is intelligent, does not show off, and only thinks of money in terms of 'can I afford it?'), is not valued by her family. Although ironically she is valued by 'the less better off'.

    But although she is intelligent, she will discover herself a little more... Aswill Wentworth.
    One has to laugh before being happy, because otherwise one risks to die before having laughed.

    "Je crains [...] que l'âme ne se vide à ces passe-temps vains, et que le fin du fin ne soit la fin des fins." (Edmond Rostand, Cyrano de Bergerac, Acte III, Scène VII)

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