Julia Slaughter

Posts Tagged ‘Jane Austen’

It’s funny how my moods are tied to the weather, because when I opened the door and the hot air hit me in the face – I felt myself deflate. I suppose this is Indian Summer. The temperature is rocketing towards the upper 80’s and the humidity makes the air feel like a hot wet towel. Sadly,  the weather was at its nicest while work was at it’s busiest, but I’ve had a taste of Fall and I’m hopeful that more is coming soon!

Yesterday I retreated from the heat to my local bookstore, but the clock was ticking as Rascal was at home waiting to be let outside. I wandered among the aisles and picked up a book, but on my way out I spied this sitting on a table:

At first I thought that surely it was a joke, but upon further investigation I find that it’s not a joke, per say, but rather a parody. See, Pride and Prejudice is in the public domain which means the copyright has expired, it’s why you can download a copy of someone reading it for free from Librivox, so someone decided what Pride and Prejudice really needed was, of course, zombies.

I had rather mixed emotions about this book, see I like Pride and Prejudice. I’ve read it half a dozen times and listened to it about a dozen times, so I wasn’t sure how I felt about anyone messing with Miss Elizabeth and Mr.Darcy but I have to admit – I’m intrigued. I read the plot summary on Wikipedia and I think I might actually buy it.

What is so tantalizing to me is that the author managed to right a few wrongs. There are some characters that I always felt that Austen let get off too easily, but not so now that Seth Grahame-Smith has interceded. It looks like the dastardly Wickham is going to get his just desserts! (Even more so than just by virtue of marrying the flighty, superficial Lydia!)

I have another stack of books on their way from Amazon, but once it starts to dwindle – bring on the undead!

I am in a book club, we’re a small group, there are just three of us but we all share a love for books. I like the way we talk about books, as a group we aren’t into dissecting the writing or the grammar but we like to talk about the characters and the stories focusing on what we liked rather than what we didn’t like.

Mr.Fitzwilliam Darcy

Last month I got to pick and selected Cassandra Clare’s City of Bones, so I suppose it’s inevitable that the conversations turned to Jace. I was fascinated and intrigued to see that my friends were cheering for Jace and Clary, just the way I was. As the discussion went on and on somehow comparisons were made from Jace to Jane Austen’s Mr.Darcy and my friend Lisa wanted to know what it is about men like Jace and Mr.Darcy that makes women like them so much. I have contemplated Lisa’s question for days because frankly of our triumvirate, I am the one with the most dating experience and I have come to this conclusion – Mr.Darcy has gotten a bad rap.

I admit that Mr.Darcy is a bit of clod, but I don’t really think he’s quite the literary bad boy that he’s made out to be. His time was a time when there was a very definite class system in place, a class system that people lived and died by. I mean really think of all the drama that surrounded Prince Charles and Camilla Parker-Bowles and that was in 1990’s, Jane Austen wrote Pride and Prejudice in the 1800’s.

Here we have a man who takes honor and responsibility very seriously, and when he meets our heroine he is practically engaged to someone suitable who was picked out by his family. (Well actually his future wife IS family, a cousin which was a pretty common place event for that time period as well.) He’s in the company of a friend he is dearly devoted to who is kind and very easily influenced by the people around him, and who Mr.Darcy clearly feels like he has to look out for. Can we really blame him for not immediately recognizing the finer points of our Miss Bennet?

Okay, so Mr.Darcy rises above all of his preconceived notions and falls for Miss Bennet and she, rightfully, crucifies him for being such a clod. Now any other man in the face of the telling off that he gets, would slink off with his tail in between his legs and never be seen my any Bennet or friend of Bennet again. However, our honorable and noble Mr.Darcy doesn’t fuss or fight, but he sets about making things right. (I could also point out that Miss Bennet wasn’t entirely right in all of her accusations but Mr.Darcy doesn’t quibble over these things he is a man of action.) So really, how does any of this translate to him being a bad boy? Clod, absolutely, but not a bad boy.

Jace, who I absolutely adore is a bad boy. He is sneering and rude to Clary when he meets her. He’s later seen canoodling with some pixie chick, and rumor has it he’s done alot more than canoodling. He is a fierce warrior with a ton of redeeming qualities but really can you trust him with your heart? I’m not so sure.

So Jace, beautiful and redeemable but bad boy; Mr.Darcy beautiful, akward, but merely a bit of a clod and really how can you not love someone like that?