Dying for Jane
Sam Leith at the Telegraph seems a little bored with the selection of Pride and Prejudice as the UK’s Number One Book You Can’t Live Without.
Perhaps, indeed, you will imagine visiting the homes of some of these voters and maliciously spiriting away their copies of Pride and Prejudice – the winning entry – JUST TO FIND OUT WHETHER THEY DO, IN FACT, DIE.
Murderer!
March 3rd, 2007 at 2:36 pm
Haha!! I like that!
March 3rd, 2007 at 4:18 pm
I loved what one of the responders to his blog said: “Harold Macmillan, the Prime Minister, once told John Kennedy that he got a headache if he had not read Jane Austen for a week or so.”
March 3rd, 2007 at 4:19 pm
Oooo, this man is crusin’ for a brusin’.
“Why is it always Pride and bloody Prejudice? It’s not even Austen’s best book (Emma is richer and cleverer; Northanger Abbey, to my taste, funnier). It’s a charming, featherlight rom-com with some sharp lines. I don’t believe it’s any substitute for – say — a dialysis machine.”
Rom-com? Featherlight? SOME sharp lines? *sound of something stuck in my throat*
I am glad that he gives props to E and NA, but puh-leeze don’t disparage my Desert Isle Bible. If I could insert a P&P IV directly I would!
March 3rd, 2007 at 4:46 pm
Cruel and unusual punishment: suddenly my copies of p&p start disappearing. And yes, Jessica, I believe a p&p IV would be just the thing to bring me back if I felt a fainting spell coming on…
March 3rd, 2007 at 6:09 pm
Hurrah for another blog responders to Sam Leith, Sally Crawford: “Mr. Leith, Dear Jane is what we call ’sustaining’. She will see you through anything.” Hear, hear!
Pooh-pooh to Jon Livesay who says, “And how many people voted for Pride and Prejudice because they felt they ought to, much as they buy health club memberships after New Year?”
Rest assured, Jon, voting was most likely an act of love, not duty. P&P is not a stuffy classic one grits ones teeth through and feels virtuous for reading. It is actually amusing if you care to try it, though be warned that a sense of humor is a prerequisite to enjoyment.
March 4th, 2007 at 3:21 pm
Thank you, Jessica Irene, for your kind mention of my pro-Jane comment to Sam Leith. I think he was being provocative (probably) just to get a reaction - and it’s fun after all to have these jousting matches with these journo’s - all of whom are supposedly the nation’s finest as it were.
Also, CurtB, there’s a reciprocal comment from JFK who is alleged to have said (I don’t know to whom) that he got a migraine headache unless - and how can I say this politely - ‘unless he had a fresh piece of (rhymes with ‘ale’) on a daily basis’. His alleged comment is so insulting to women that you have to forgive my even mentioning it.