Title: Darcy and Anne
Author: Judith Brocklehurst
Publisher: Sourcebooks
Rating: 4/5
In Jane Austen's novel Pride and Prejudice, Mr. Darcy's cousin, Anne de Bourgh, is a rather unpleasant character. She is sickly and snippy, with little to no personality that anyone (especially Mr. Darcy) would want to be acquainted. Anne's mother, Lady Catherine de Bourgh, is a horror. In Darcy and Anne, author Judith Brocklehurst shows readers a very different Anne de Bourgh in her pleasant "could-have-been" sequel to Pride and Prejudice.
As Darcy and Anne opens, Lady Catherine has called a truce with Mr. Darcy and has made arrangements for herself and Anne to visit Pemberley with the purpose of enlisting Mr. Darcy's help in finding Anne a suitable husband. On their way, Lady Catherine suddenly becomes ill and unable to continue the journey for a time. Anne continues on to Pemberley without her and, free from the suffocating presence of her mother, begins to blossom. With the help of Elizabeth and Georgiana, Anne learns what it is like to take an interest in activities, enjoy the outdoors, and make friends. When Lady Catherine returns with her idea of a perfect marriage match for Anne, however, she threatens to undo everything. Will Anne ever find true happiness?
I found Darcy and Anne to be a pleasant surprise and a very enjoyable read. Of the plethora of Jane Austen sequels currently available, I don't believe there are many devoted to the character of Anne de Bourgh. It is refreshing to see her featured and to be given a completely different perspective of her character. It also had a very interesting plot twist at the end. You will need to read the book to find out what it is, but let me assure you it is worth it!
Many thanks to Danielle Jackson and Sourcebooks for the opportunity to read this little gem!
I am welcoming a new addition to my family of pets. Her name is Dinah and she is quite the little dynamo! Dinah is about eight weeks old and was rescued four weeks ago along with her four siblings from outside where they were apparently abandoned. She has been staying with my daughter and one of her sibs (Fiona) until today, when I brought her home. Here are some action shots:
I need to take more pictures!
Here are a few older pictures of some of the other members of my fur family:
This is Twilight:
And Whitney:
And Oreo:
And Ronnie:
I need to take more pictures! I have another cat, Casey, whom I don't have any digital pictures of yet. I'd better get busy!
If you live in the tri-state area of Ohio, Kentucky or Indiana, you will want to add this event to your calendar. Cincinnati is hosting a book festival in October, called Books by the Banks. 2009 will be the third year for this event. (I'm not sure how I managed to miss it the past two years, but I plan to be there this time.) The date is Saturday, October 17 from 10:00 a.m.-4:00 p.m. at the Duke Energy Convention Center. Admission is free. The list of participating authors is still being compiled, but some of the more well-known include Jeanette Walls, Jennifer Weiner, and Garth Stein.
See you there!
I recently finished How to Read Literature Like a Professor by Thomas C. Foster which I read as an introduction into the world of reading literature at a deeper level. The book was written in such a way that was informative and instructive without making the reader feel like a complete idiot (for which I am extremely appreciative). His book introduced me to looking for themes, recognizing symbols (and what they stand for), and the importance of realizing where the origins of a particular story lie and, as a result, what the author is trying to accomplish. This isn't the first time I've read something like this, as I've skimmed through other books on this subject before, but it is the first time I've really paid attention and have gotten the message that if I want to know and understand literature, I have to be willing to start at the beginning and employ a way of reading that is (as of right now) foreign to me. In other words, I am about to embark on a journey of my own.
Foster gave numerous examples from novels, plays, poetry, and movies to reinforce the points he was making. Fortunately for me, there was a handy reading list at the end of the book with explanations as to why the author felt they should be included. I dutifully wrote down titles and authors of literature a) I had never heard of before or b) I avoided like the plague. With this list in hand, I made a trip yesterday to Half Price Books and went to the Classical/Poetry/Drama section. I stood there, along with some high school students and their parents, looking for Sophocles, Homer, Shakespeare, and the like. I was surprised at how many of the titles I was able to find, and - a bigger surprise - I wasn't cringing! Snippets of what Foster said about them kept flitting about in my mind, and I was actually excited to be taking them home. In addition to Sophocles (The Oedipus Cycle), Homer (The Iliad) and Shakespeare (sonnets), I found a copy of Bulfinch's Mythology, Samuel Beckett's play, Waiting for Godot, some poetry by Robert Frost and William Butler Yeats, and Beowulf as translated by Seamus Heaney.
A side trip: While I was looking for Beowulf, I found another volume translated by Heaney that caught my eye entitled, Sweeney Astray: A Version from the Irish, a translation of the medieval Irish work Buile Suibhne. Remembering that Foster said you can't go wrong reading anything written or translated by Heaney, I pulled it off the shelf to take a look. Folded inside was a flyer from the Howard County Poetry and Literature Society, announcing Seamus Heaney as being in residence for two dates at Columbia, Maryland. (How on earth it got to Cincinnati, Ohio from Columbia, Maryland is anyone's guess.) This made me especially curious, and to my surprise and utter delight, I found that the volume was inscribed by the Nobel laureate himself! It just goes to show that you never know what you will find in a used bookstore.
Back to my journey. I am happy with the books I purchased yesterday and although I know I have not begun to scratch the surface and will be continuing to add books to this pile, I feel a little better armed and ready to move on to the next baby step. Foster has another book of a similar nature, How to Read Novels Like a Professor, that I want to read before tackling - and following - Susan Wise Bauer's The Well-Educated Mind: A Guide to the Classical Education that You Never Had. I read through this book four or five years ago and found it interesting, but couldn't be bothered to follow her direction and methods in order to change the way I read and apply it to interpreting literature. (Another instance of avoiding the plague.) This time, I'm actually looking forward to it. I also want to revisit Jane Smiley's Thirteen Ways of Looking at the Novel and, of course, there are those MIT online courses I can use to supplement all of this. I feel my brain exploding already!
I have finally realized that in order to get somewhere, you have to begin at the beginning, and that is where I am. It is my hope that this journey will be as enjoyable as it will be educational.
I don't usually talk about books I am reading for review prior to my completing them, but I am going to make an exception today. I just started re-reading a favorite book by a favorite author, thanks to Sourcebooks. The author is R. F. Delderfield, and the book is the first in his Swann series, God is an Englishman.
I had the privilege of reading this book some 36 years ago, when I was a teenager. At that time, my book selection criteria was based on size (no less than 500 pages), historical background, and believable characters/plot. I wanted a book I could get lost in and that would take me away to a different time and place with characters I could care about as if they were family. It was my comfort zone and Delderfield, in my opinion, created this zone for me with his writing better than anyone else.
The Swann series follows Adam Swann and his family throughout the Victorian and Edwardian eras in England. Delderfield incorporates politics and important issues of the day into the everyday lives of the characters with a richness and depth that just sucks you in and makes you believe you are one of them, living the story as it unfolds.
As family drama is continuing to escalate for me, I am in need of a comfort zone now more than ever. The timing of my reading this book couldn't be better. I still have books to finish reading and reviews to write, but this book is truly calling me.
Will it be the same after 36 years? Is the comfort zone created all those years ago still there? I am about to find out. I started reading it last night and was drawn in like an old friend almost immediately...
The wait is over, and the "Man Booker Dozen" have been announced. The thirteen longlisted authors and titles are:
I enjoy following the various prize lists, especially the Man Booker Prize and the Orange Prize. Over the past few years, these lists have introduced me to authors and books I might not have otherwise "discovered". I also enjoy the hunt - seeing how many from the list I am able to get my hands on.
Unfortunately for me, the Man Booker selections are often not available in the US until long after the winner has been decided. That said, I have three of the above titles in my possession: The Wilderness by Samantha Harvey (an Orange Prize nominee earlier this year), Brooklyn by Colm Toibin, and The Little Stranger by Sarah Waters. Also, I pre-ordererd Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel last week, and it is scheduled to ship mid-October. The Byatt, Coetzee, Hall and Trevor titles have release dates ranging from September to December 2009 and it looks like I can order the Mawer, O'Loughlin, and Scudamore titles online. The only two that are not available at all are the Foulds and the Lever.
May the best book win!
