I have read all of Austen before, including the unfinished books and the Juvenilia (some of which is bizarre and some infuriatingly good - she was fifteen!), so I'm going to have to set myself a target of which books to reread. I think I'm going to go with:
- Mansfield Park - I have only read this all the way through once. I've read bits and pieces again - particularly the parts in Portsmouth and what follows - but I found it boring when I first read it (though that was seven years ago). I think it's about time I reread and reassessed.
- Emma - It's been a while since I reread Emma, and I do love it. And I've just tried to find a clip from the 2009 BBC adaptation of Mrs Elton appearing on a donkey and I cannot. That is one of the best parts of the book. Well, that and all the rest of the book.
- Persuasion - This often sits in the place of "my favourite Jane Austen", until I think about Pride and Prejudice and Northanger Abbey, and then I have to decide that I don't have a favourite Austen. But Persuasion is wonderful, and probably the most thoughtful Austen; it's certainly the most melancholy yet hopeful. Think I'll save this to the last and read it as a treat.
Yes, I think those three are enough to be going on with - though this is also a chance for me to persuade my flatmate that we need to rewatch the 2005 Pride and Prejudice yet again (I think we've watched it three times in the last year alone).
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