This is how I spent my week. I fully embraced being a librocubicularist. It was heavenly.The week of Christmas was so crazy because it was immediately followed by my brother's wedding. Both were great! We had a lot of fun family times and a lot of interesting stories were told. However, I was totally wiped out when I got home, so the last few days have been me trying to catch my breath and find my rhythm again.I decided that one of the most necessary parts of that was to read a fun book, which I hadn't done in long time. Being that I have been on a crazy-strong Jane Austen kick (I watched both versions of
Pride and Prejudice, Sense and Sensibility and
Becoming Jane last week and the BBC version of
Emma is on the docket for tonight), I thought picking up a Jane Austen novel sounded delightful.Jane Austen wrote six novels before she died. Prior to this week, I had read three of them:
Pride and Prejudice. Sense and Sensibility. Emma.My goal when I hit up the library on Sunday was to find some of the ones I hadn't read yet. I found
Persuasion and
Mansfield Park. I jumped right into reading
Persuasion and fell in love!!Anne Elliot, the heroine, is a twenty-seven year old woman
living in the countryside of England with her father Sir Walter Elliot, who is prone to entitlement, pride, and spending more than he has. Eight years prior, he had convinced her to give up an engagement because he thought the gentleman too poor and undignified to be part of his family. So she has spent eight years trying to forget her love while being ignored by her father and her sister. However, when poor financial circumstances force the Elliots to take up residence elsewhere, Anne is once again forced to associate with the man she gave up. In the eight years since she last saw him, he has risen in rank to be a Captain in the navy. The two of them are forced by the rules of propriety (and the fact that almost no one knows about their former engagement) to interact as if they have had no prior relationship. Anne struggles to remain as indifferent toward him as he is easily able to act toward her while she watches him pursue a relationship with a young, flighty woman. Anne is one of Austen's more flawed characters, which makes her all the more interesting to follow.This is by FAR my favorite Jane Austen book. I don't know if it was the characters, the difficult situation, the writing style, or the way she told the story, but I couldn't put it down. I got off work and just wanted to read. I pulled it out on my lunch break to sneak a couple chapters in before returning to work. I was so completely disappointed when I finished it, not because it was a bad ending but because I wanted this story I was thoroughly enjoying to continue.It's been a while since I've enjoyed a book that much. Plus, the version I checked out from the library (Everyman's Library, a division of Random House) had an "alternate ending." It was really a cancelled chapter Jane Austen had written but decided not to use--and a different version of one of the most pivotal chapters at the end of the book. I loved getting to read both versions of how she wrote the story. Both were incredibly well written, funny and intriguing. I would highly recommend this book! Just remember that the writing style in the 1800s was very different from today's writing, so it may take some getting used to and you will might need to keep a dictionary handy.I now have two more Jane Austen novel's left to read...before I can start reading them all for a second time.:)