Top Ten Favorite Classic Books

Between not having Wifi during the week while I'm at work on the pig farm and going on my mission trip to Costa Rica I haven't really been churning out blog posts. Don't worry, this trend shouldn't continue once the summer is over. :) So for today I'm giving you a top ten tuesday and the theme is my favorite classic books. :)

1. Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen- Duh!
2. Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien- Again... duh!
3. Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen
4. Persuasion by Jane Austen
5. Mansfield Park by Jane Austen
6. Wives and Daughters by Elizabeth Gaskell
7. Leave it Psmith by P.G. Wodehouse
8. Little Dorritt by Charles Dickens
9. The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins
10. The Golf Omnibus by P.G. Wodehouse

Except the first two these books aren't in any specific order. I was kind of in a hurry making the list so don't sue me over the books I chose. These were just the favorites that first came to mind. :) I love most every classic work of literature these are just my favorites. 

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Top Ten (secondary) Characters Who I Enjoy in Austen Novels

I can't get around it! I either have to be writing about Austen or Tolkien. ;) This week Broke and Bookish's Top Ten Tuesdays theme is "Top Ten Characters Who..."
So everyone knows the main characters from Jane Austen's novels but it's the side characters that in some ways really make the stories. Some of them are unique in that they are excessively annoying (Mrs. Norriss) or stupid but therefore humorous (Mr. Collins) or there are those that are genuinely great people (Mr. and Mrs. Gardiner). So here are my top secondary characters from Austen novels. :)

1. Mr. and Mrs. Gardiner (Pride and Prejudice)... Some of my favorite characters in all of Austen's novels and my favorite secondary characters in terms of people I'd want to be like. 

2. Mr. and Mrs. Bennett (Pride and Prejudice) .. I have always loved Mr. Bennett. He isn't a great father at all but he is such a hilariously sardonic character that I can't help but like. :) Mrs. Bennettt is just wow! I would hate for her to be my mother and I think Jane and Elizabeth turned out amazingly despite her and I am always impressed with the amount of respect they still treat her with is a good judge of their character. 

3. Mr. Collins (Pride and Prejudice)... Probably my favorite annoying secondary character because he isn't annoying enough that he makes me mad (that would be Mrs. Norriss). What he says, how he acts, everything about him just cracks me up. One of Austen's best secondary characters for sure. 

4. Lady Catherine de Bourgh (Pride and Prejudice)... Proud, domineering and rude but in the process sometimes humorous for it. I love the portrayal of her in the 1995 Pride and Prejudice.

5. Miss Bingley (Pride and Prejudice)... She thinks she's so clever and that by always agreeing and complimenting Mr. Darcy she's endearing herself to him. Little does she understand. Her attempts make me laugh and one of my favorite parts from Pride and Prejudice is this exchange between Mr. Darcy and Miss Bingley.

``I remember, when we first knew her in Hertfordshire how amazed we all were to find that she was a reputed beauty; and I particularly recollect your saying one night, after they had been dining at Neverfield, "She a beauty! -- I should as soon call her mother a wit." But afterwards she seemed to improve on you, and I believe you thought her rather pretty at one time.''

``Yes,'' replied Darcy, who could contain himself no longer, ``but that was only when I first knew her, for it is many months since I have considered her as one of the handsomest women of my acquaintance.''

6. Mr. Woodhouse (Emma)... The first hyperchondriac. ;) Frustrating and lovable all in one. :)
7. Mrs. Elton (Emma)... Another amazing side character that is excessively annoying and just to the point that she makes me mad. In Peter Leithart's book Miniatures and Morals he says that Mrs. Elton is the foil for Emma. In a lot of ways Mrs. Elton and Emma are very similar in how they try to control people's lives and if it wasn't for Mrs. Elton being as bad as she is you wouldn't like Emma nearly as much.
8. Miss Bates (Emma)... A very complicated character that you really have to learn along with Emma to love. I think all of us have a Miss Bates in our lives in one form or another that we have to learn to respect and love anyways.
9. Mrs. Allen and Mr. Allen (Northanger Abbey)... Mrs. Allen especially makes me laugh. She cares for little more than fashion and because Mr. Tilney happens to know about muslin he is immediately in her good books and quite the gentlemen.
10. Mrs. Norriss (Mansfield Park)... Probably my least favorite character in all of Austen. That, though, is why she is such a great secondary character. Her hypocrisy, her cruelty, everything about her just frustrates me to no end and I'm so glad when she gets sent off at the end by Lord Bertram. :)

So those are my favorite secondary characters of Austen. Half of them came from Pride and Prejudice but is because it is the best partially because it has such great secondary characters. :)

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Top Ten Tuesday: Book Quotes

Top Ten Tuesday and this week we can link up with any past themes. I was glancing through them and the obvious one that stuck out to me was "Top Ten Book Quotes". I couldn't resist. :) So here are ten of my favorite book quotes (I don't want to say favorite for fear I missed some).

1. "It is a truth universally acknowledged that a single man in possession of a large fortune must be in a want of a wife."- Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
2. "In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit. Not a nasty, dirty, wet hole, filled with the ends of worms and an oozy smell, nor yet a dry, bare, sandy hole with nothing in it to sit down on or to eat; it was a hobbit-hole, and that means comfort."- The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien
3. "Miss Morland, no one can think more highly of the understanding of women than I do. In my opinion, nature has given them so much that they never find it necessary to use more than half."- Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen
4. "I don't know half of you half as well as I should like; and I like less than half of you half as well as you deserve."- The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien
5. "Red hair, sir, in my opinion, is dangerous."- Very Good Jeeves by P.G. Wodehouse
6. "She is tolerable, but not handsome enough to tempt me, and I am in no humor at present to give consequence to young ladies who are slighted by other men."- Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
7. "Do you wish me a good morning, or mean that it is a good morning whether I want it or not; or that you may feel good this morning; or that it is a morning to be good on?"- The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien
8. "Arise, arise, riders of Théoden! Fell deeds awake, fire and slaughter! Spear shall be shaken, shield shall be splintered, a sword-day, a red day, ere the sun rises! Ride now, ride now! Ride to Gondor!"- The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien
9. "Love has a lot of press-agenting from the oldest times; but there are higher, nobler things than love. A woman is only a woman, but a hefty drive is a slosh."- A Woman is only a Woman by P.G. Wodehouse
10. "If I loved you less I might be able to talk about it more."- Emma by Jane Austen

Somehow that came out as a bunch of Jane Austen and J.R.R. Tolkien quotes with a couple P.G. Wodehouse quotes. I guess it's easy to tell who my favorite authors are from that. :) There were conversations from their books that I wanted to use but they would be more difficult to include so I'll leave you with those. :)
Linking up with The Broke and the Bookish. 

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Movie Review- Northanger Abbey (1987)

I knew there was another film version of Northanger Abbey out there and since it was made by BBC and they made an okay version of Pride and Prejudice, I figured that it would be an okay version as well. It wasn't. I'm just really not surer that the makers of the movie realized that Jane Austen was writing a PARODY of Gothic novels... not actually writing a Gothic novel. There were so many aspects of this film that were done wrong that I really don't know where to begin. I probably spent as much time gagging over this movie as I did watching the 2005 version of Pride and Prejudice or the 2007 version of Mansfield Park... and that's saying a lot.

Casting

Okay... meaning not quite bad but definitely not good. I think some of the cast could have done a lot better with just some better script writing. 

Scriptwriting

Atrocious! As I said above, I don't think they realized the whole point of Austen's book! They also left out chunks of it and added in new parts that added NOTHING. Everything was very rushed, it was an hour and a half long movie and not put together well. 

Catherine's Fantasies

As in the 2007 version of Northanger Abbey, this version dramatizes Catherine's fantasies. This is a very interesting idea but despite my not quite liking how they did it in the 2007 version, they did it better than in this version. The fantasies were just to weird... I mean weird, and oftentimes gory! 

Music

Music you ask? Why would the music factor into our analysis? Why not! In this case, the music strongly influenced my dislike of the movie. It was terrible! I'm not sure how to describe it, though my mother likened it to blues. It went along with the whole theme of making it a rather gothic movie. 

Overall, I suggest you do not waste your time watching this movie. Read the book! Always read the book. Then I would cautiously recommend the 2007 version of Northanger Abbey as a film version to watch. 

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Not Romance

I know this has been bothering you for a long time. It probably haunts you at night and most certainly infests your daydreams. At first it wasn't too bad. You only occasionally woke up in a cold sweat screaming "Austen... romance?" Then it got worse. Every time you blinked your eyes the image of Pride and Prejudice came closer... and closer.
That is why I write this blog post, that is why you are here. To alleviate all of your deeply set worries once and for all. Jane Austen's novels are NOT, and NEVER will be romance novels.
Granted, there is romance in the novels and they are kind of a running theme in each of her books but they aren't the only theme. At this point I'd also like to say that I don't mind a little romance.  However, when it comes to Jane Austen I believe that there is a lot more than a romantic theme running through her books or else they wouldn't be what they are.  What I first think of are the witty lines and overall great writing.  Everything about how Austen writes is amazing (almost inconceivable)! With her words she paints such incredible characters that you will come to love, hate, or there are sometimes those characters that you really aren't sure about your feelings toward them (Mrs. Bennett, Mrs. Jennings, Miss Bates and Lady Bertram come to mind).  I guess that sentence kind of transcended into my next thought about the great characters in Austen's novels. Some of my favorite literary characters come from Austen's novels: Elizabeth Bennett, Mr. Knightley, Henry Tilney, Anne Elliot, Fanny Price, Colonel Brandon, Mr. Darcy and then moving on to secondary characters that I also love: Mr. Bennett (despite his failings), Mr. and Mrs. Gardiner, Eleanor Tilney, Anne Taylor and even though I don't like him he will forever crack me up- Mr. Collins. When it comes to Austen there is also the morals that she brings into every story. Her heroes and heroines are not perfect and spotless; they struggled with the same things you and I do. They have flaws they must work on: prejudiceness, micro-managing, naiveness, ect. Her "good" minor characters all interesting in that while there some of them that just aren't your favorite you still somewhat like them because of their uniqueness.  Here again I am thinking of Mrs. Bennett, Mrs. Jennings, Miss Bates and Lady Bertram.  It seems that Austen crafted each of her character with such precision. I think she must have had a lot of fun creating some of them (Mr. Collins).
I was talking to my mother about this and she made a great point that if Jane Austen's novels were just romance novels, they wouldn't have lasted this long and been remade into movies over and over and over again. There is a lot more to them than romance.

Did you catch my three movie/TV show references/quotes I made? Comment below and let me know!

Lois Johnson, avid writer, tea drinker, and reader but first and foremost, avid Christian.

All about Jane Austen- Her books, film adaptations, ect.

I have read and re-read Jane Austen's novels so many times its ridiculous... some of them far more than others (Pride and Prejudice).  Over Spring break and afterwards I went back and re-read them again. There were a lot of things I noticed this time through that I hadn't noticed before and a lot of thoughts I had on certain characters. Maybe I've matured more... that could always be a possibly. ;) So here are just a few thoughts on each of them. At the end of each I have included my movie recommendations or condemnations.

Pride and Prejudice

My all time favorite book. The characters and lines are some of the best that have ever been written.  For this book I didn't noticed quite as much that I hadn't ever seen before... probably because I've just read it so many more times. However there were a few things. Lizzy's Aunt Gardiner had to warn her to be careful not to show too much interest in Wickham as she knew quite well she could not marry him. I don't know why but I never noticed it before and somehow had autocorrected that.  I think it shows a lack of judgement in Lizzy's character that I maybe didn't expect in her and it makes me slightly disappointed in her. That also makes me love her Aunt Gardiner even more though.  The Gardiners are some of my favorite characters in the books.  They are so loving and kind, ready to assist in every way they can and Aunt Gardiner is wise and gives helpful advice to Lizzy several times.
Another thought I had was about Lizzy was that after she finds out about Lydia and realizes that at the moment when she really loves Mr. Darcy she knows that he will never have her now.  She contemplates that he really was the only man she could have married because he was someone she could respect and they complemented each other so well.  I don't know why but I don't remember reading that scene before, I don't remember it being in the movie but I could be mistaken.  I like that scene though because Lizzy thinking through her feelings and realizing that she loves Mr. Darcy but also the reasons why... it's not just all lovey dovey, but they would actually work well together.
Movie recommendations and condemnations: Pride and Prejudice (1995) is the BEST VERSION EVER!!! The 1940 version is also good but not incredibly true to the story line. My family still likes it though. You'll have to watch it to understand. DO NOT watch the 2005 version. Want to know why? Read my earlier post about it. I seriously think it will kill your brain cells. I recently watched via YouTube the 1980 version. It was tolerable I suppose but not amazing enough to tempt me. Meaning it was okay, I definitely liked it better than the 2005 version but still, there were certain things that just weren't right. I haven't written a full review which you can read here.

Sense and Sensibility

I had a lot of thoughts about this one.  One of my main complaints, having re-read the book is that the love stories of both Elinor and Marianne is not developed enough.  You are told, but you don't see it play out.  This is especially with Marianne.  The movie does that very well though and because of that I never really recognized that the book didn't. I was disappointed in that but it doesn't completely ruin the book for me. Another thought that entered my mind when reading this was that Marianne was about the same age as Lydia Bennett and in some ways (but obviously not all) she acts like her in her relationship with Willoughby. I just never really thought about that before. One doesn't normally draw parallels between those two but I think there is one that can be made.

Movie recommendations and condemnations: I love the 1995 movie version of this book with Emma Thompson. While of course it isn't as long as to give the book full justice, it is as good as it gets I think.  The only other version I have seen is the 2008 version, which is okay. I really like the Elinor and the Colonel Brandon was good as well, however  I think that even though it is roughly two and a half hours, it doesn't tell the story as well as the 1995 version.

Mansfield Park

I have heard that the heroine of this story was Jane Austen's favorites and one doesn't have to wonder why. Fanny Price is sweet and selfless, unasking of attention or thanks but always deserving them. One thought as I read this book was I was surprised that Edmund did not see through Henry Crawford.  I have always been disappointed he didn't see through Mary, though to a point he did, but Henry I felt like he more should have. In many ways Edmund is a dissatisfying hero because even though he know Mary has certain faults and does not see the clergy as she should he still falls in love with her. However, when you read the conversations he has with Fanny and sometimes with Mary you see that his mind and heart are in the right place, though he was lead astray by Mary.  His thoughts on the duties of a pastor are incredible and that is what forgives him in my mind.

Movie recommendations and condemnations: Because of Fanny Price being shy and reserved, I think she is a hard heroine for filmmakers to portray... which is why they end up butchering her I suppose. I have only seen one version of this movie and I didn't even get to finish it, it was that bad. seen two versions of Mansfield Park. The first version I saw was the 2007 version with Billie Piper in the lead roll, which is quite bad in my opinion. My full review is here.  The only decent version of Mansfield Park that I have seen is the 1983 version. You can read my full review here. 

Emma

This hasn't ever been my favorite to read but I have always loved watching the movie. So let's just cut to the movies shall we? :)
Movie Reccomendations and Condemnations: I grew up watching the Kate Beckinsdale 1996 version, which to me is thee version. I know others really love the 2009 version with Romolai Garai. I think it has its good points but there are several things that I dislike about the film. You can read my full review here. I probably was too harsh in that review but it is pretty much how I feel about it. I have also seen the Gwenyth Paltrow version that I thought was an enjoyable version. 

Northanger Abbey

I can't think of anything new I noticed reading it through again. I still loved it a lot. Mr. Tilney is so great and, as I have mentioned before, my mom has compared me to Catherine Morland, which I'm still not exactly sure how to take.
Movie Reccomendations and Condemnations: The only film version I have seen of this is the 2007 version. I have reviewed it before but here are a few brief thoughts on it but you should just go read my longer review here. I do like this movie version, however there are a couple scenes I don't appreciate. I think it captures pretty well the spirit of the novel and the casting is incredible! I recommend it, but cautiously 

Persuasion

Anne Elliot is just about my favorite heroine. In many ways she is like Fanny, only more outgoing. I really didn't think many new thoughts when reading this. I found Elizabeth Elliot annoying, as usual, but a character that I found more aggravating than normal was Mary Elliot. In some ways I dislike her more than Elizabeth, even though Elizabeth is worse.
Movie recommendations and condemnations: The 1995 version is good, though if you haven't read the book you might have trouble following it. I have also watched the 2007 version, which was good, though I disliked the ending. 

Lady Susan

Lady Susan is a novelette written in the form of letters that I did review more than a year ago. You can read the review here. It is really excellently written and I enjoyed reading it. It takes a little bit to get into the flow of it but once you're in, you're hooked!
Movie recommendations and condemnations: There have never been any film adaptations made of Lady Susan.

The Watsons

I just finished this one recently. It is one of Austen's two unfinished novels. To be short, I liked it a lot and I'm sorry that Austen didn't finish it. When I was reading it though, I did have the feeling that I had read it before, meaning it read very much like Austen's other books. I don't suppose I ever thought about all of her books sounding the same as I practically grew up with them. Several authors have completed it before, but I've never read any of those and I really couldn't say if they're good or not. If after reading it you want to know a rough idea of how Austen planned on it ending, just go look at the Wikipedia article. 

Movie recommendations and condemnations: There have never been any film adaptations made of The Watsons

Sandition

This is the other of Austen's unfinished novels. I didn't enjoy it as much as The Watsons. In this book, Austen delves into to some different aspects then she did in her other books. Probably that is why I didn't like it as much. It has been complete many time by various other authors as well. 

Movie recommendations and condemnations: There have never been any film adaptations made of Sandition

So I'm sorry that this post took me so long to complete. I have had it as a draft for a long time now and almost forgot that I hadn't already posted it. But here it is! 

Lois Johnson, avid writer, tea drinker, and reader but first and foremost, avid Christian.

Movie Review- Northanger Abbey (2007)

All my long time readers know that I am a big fan of Jane Austen's novels.  I have read them all multiple times and watched many film adaptions of the books as well.  Normally when people name off their favorite Austen novel, it is Pride and Prejudice, or Sense and Sensibility.  It isn't normally Northanger Abbey.  I would have to agree that Northanger Abbey is not my favorite (that of course is Pride and Prejudice), but I like it enough to have read it more than once and anticipate re-reading it again in the future.  I feel the character to be highly relatable; I say that because my mother told me that of all Jane Austen's heroines, I was most like Catherine Morland.  I didn't appreciate that too much, if you are wondering why, you must not be very familiar with the story.  Catherine Morland is quite naive.  However, Catherine is a very sweet girl so I guess it could be somewhat of a complement.

To put it loosely, the story line of Northanger Abbey is this.  Catherine Morland is the daughter of a clergyman in a small town.  She is an avid reader of Gothic novels, which largely shapes her character of naivety, and want for adventure.  Her well-off neighbors, the Allens, invite her to go with them to Bath. While at Bath, Catherine meets Isabella Thorpe, a vivacious young woman who also has a taste for Gothic novels, and they become fast friends.

Catherine also meets Henry Tilney, who she falls in love with, and his sister Eleanor.  They become friends and when the Tilneys leave Bath they invite Catherine to come with them for a visit at their home: Northanger Abbey.  I will tell you no more as it would give away too much, I just suggest you read the book.

Now for the movie. I got this one from the library after I saw at the shelf one day while shelving DVDs.  I was immediately excited at having found a movie of one of Austen's books.  I talked to my Dad, who had never heard of this movie, and then my mom and dad both agreed that I could get it and we could watch it.  My mom and I watched it together and for the most part we enjoyed it.  I was quite impressed with the casting of all of the characters.  I felt like each one of them fulfilled the pictures I had in my mind.  Mr. Tilney is one of my favorite heroes of Austen and I felt that JJ Field did him perfect justice.  Felicity Jones played Catherine Morland and I think she did such an excellent job of capturing Catherine's naivety.  All the other more minor characters were acted incredibly as well.  

Considering the time constraints, I felt like the movie did an excellent job on telling the story and it managed to include a good amount of the witty lines for which Austen is so famous.  Despite how much I was impressed with this movie, there were a few problems.  To illustrate how Catherine's mind went with Gothic novels, the filmmakers showed Catherine's Gothic dream sequences.  I didn't mind that so much except that they over sexualized the dreams, which obviously made the movie less clean.  While not really showing much, the ideas are hinted at enough to make one uncomfortable.  Another thing I had a problem with along those same lines was an "after sex scene" but again it was only a reference to what had occurred.  Also, despite the fact the Northanger Abbey is suppose to be making fun of Gothic novels, the movie actually seems to tilt more towards being a Gothic novel like story.  That kind of undermines the whole story.  However, it isn’t so complete that it ruins the movie.  

Overall I really enjoyed this movie adaptation of one of my favorite books.  Unfortunately, due to what I mentioned above, I don't feel safe recommending it too lightly, especially to guys.  So there is my forewarning.  If you choose to watch it, I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.  However, if you don't, read the book, it is even better!

Lois Johnson, avid writer, tea drinker, and reader but first and foremost, avid Christian.

Why I Love Jane Austen's Novels: Favorite Characters, Favorite Lines, and Favorite Everything!

     Jane Austen is one of my favorite authors.  I could almost say she is my favorite but there are so many other great authors it seems wrong to.  She did write my favorite book though, Pride and Prejudice.  As she is one my favorite authors, I thought it only appropiate to dedicate a blog post to her.  First off, I don't look at Jane Austen's novels as romance novels.  Wanted to clear that up first.  I don't read romance novels, and if her novels were I wouldn't read them.  Jane Austen's novels have a lot more to them then romance.  They have wit and wisdom, good and evil, and important Christian values ingrained into them that make them so much more then romance novels. 

       With that in mind, I would like to add that Jane Austen's novels are not just for girls.  Boys can and do read Austen's novels.  Peter Leithart Ph.D. says in his book Minitures and Morals: The Christian Novels of Jane Austen, "Real men read Austen."  I have brothers who enjoy Austen, my dad enjoys Austen, and I know of other men who do as well, Peter Leithart Ph.D. being one of them.  "Real men read Austen."

       So let's talk a little about the characters of Austen's books.  Austen's novels have many well crafted characters, some good some evil, that will always be remembered.  It is so hard to select a favorite hero or heroine, Austen has created such unforgetable charecters in all her books.  I love all of her heros and heroines.  Heros that really stand out to me though would be Mr. Knightely from Emma, Colonel Brandon from Sense and Sensibility, and Henry Tilney from Northanger Abbey.   I think Jane Austen created her heros and heroines to complement each other, which I think is done perfectly in the examples of these three men.  Mr. Knightely's wisdom is just what Emma Woodhouse needed to curb her domineering and impulsive ways. Colonel Brandon's age and experience is just what Marianne Dashwood needed to complement her youth and inexperience.  Henry Tilney's discernment is exactly what naive Catherine Morland needed to guide her.  My ideal husband would be some combination of those three men, especially Mr. Knightley.  My favorite heroines are Elizabeth Bennett from Pride and Prejudice, Anne Elliot from Persuasion, Elinor Dashwood from Sense and Sensibility, and Fanny Price from Mansfield Park.  A combination of those women is what I would so want to be.  I want Elizabeth Bennett's wit, but not prejudiceness, Anne Elliot's patience and kindness, Elinor Dashwood's forebarance and patience, and Fanny Price's sweetness and kindness.

       There are a million and one favorite lines from Austen I have.  My family and I quote them incessently.  A lot of them happen to be from Pride and Prejudice, which is probably because we watch and read that one the most.  Let me note here that we watch the five hour BBC Pride and Prejudice  and would NEVER watch the newer two hour version because it makes a romance story out of it and you just CAN'T cram that long of a book into two hours and make a good movie.  One of my brother's favorite lines from Pride and Prejudice is when Elizabeth Bennett says, "I am happier even then Jane; She only only smiles, I laugh."  A favorite quote for my mother is when Mr. Bennett (Pride and Preujdice again) says, "I am going into my study and I'm not to be disturbed."  Wonder why that would be her favorite line. :)  My favorite quote from Jane Austen's novels is the opening line from Pride and Prejudice, "It is a truth universally acknowledged that a single man in a possesion of a large fortune must be in want of a wife."  Classic, enough said. 

       So that is why I love Jane Austen's novels.  Why do you?

Lois Johnson, avid writer, tea drinker, and reader but first and foremost, avid Christian.