Everyone remembers their first.
Pride and Prejudice was mine, devoured in big chunks on the floor of my student bedroom when I should have been studying. Jane was my first real introduction to classic literature and Pride and Prejudice was my introduction to all things Austen. I loved Pride and Prejudice from the first time I read it and I’ve loved it (and Mr Darcy) ever since.
Jane Austen died at just 41, 200 years ago this week. She has influenced writers down the ages and given untold pleasure to readers such as me. In honour of her short but creative and influential life this Weekend Wander is dedicated to all things Austen
Shiny New Books have been celebrating Jane’s bicentenary by posting Jane related material every day this week. There are some great posts to read. I particularly liked A Reading List of Austen inspired fiction.
I have never been here. Why have I never been here? I need to . Its in Hampshire and is the only house where Jane lived and wrote that is open to the public as a museum.
The Jane Austen Book Club by Karen Joy Fowler
This is such a great book. Set in California’s Central Valley, five women and one man join to discuss Jane Austen’s novels. Over the six months they get together, marriages are tested, affairs begin, unsuitable arrangements become suitable, and love happens. This is described as the book Jane may have wrote had she lived in twenty-first-century California.
The Jane Austen Centre in Bath is where all true Austenites go for all things Jane. The centre houses a permanent exhibition that explores Jane’s time in Bath and the influence this city had on her books, characters and personal life. I have been, although some years ago now. I feel it may be time for a return trip.
Or failing that why not spend some time with your own favourite Jane.
This weekend, indulge your inner Austen.