It’s the weekend and I have a lot more time to read (although I did end up working for a bit). With the extra time, I managed to finish Emma and Pride and Prejudice, which makes the end of the Jane Austen rereads for now – I wonder what I should read next…
Interestingly, I’m not feeling the urge to write individual reviews for both these books. But I’m really liking the rereads and may dedicate a month in 2021 to reread and I’ll probably reread Austen again (I know Lewis says you only need to reread once a decade but I guess I’m just a Janeite at heart) so I could write the reviews then? Or perhaps I won’t and I’ll learn that I’d have read a book whether or not I write about it in depth.
Emma was fun and completely gripping towards the end. It was so obvious (to me) that Emma was in love with Mr Knightley before she knew it and Mr Knightley was jealous about Churchill (also, benefit of hindsight).
By the way, I realised that the age difference between Emma and Mr Knightley is about the same as Marianne and Colonel Brandon, yet I’m not as uncomfortable with it. Perhaps it’s because we see so much more of Emma and Mr Knightley interacting and all those hints that they like each other helped to ease me into the idea of a relationship despite the age gap? I mean, one thing about Marianne and Colonel Brandon is that while we are told that Colonel Brandon likes her (and he does show it by helping), we don’t actually see Marianne fall in love with him or show it – she spends most of the time pining after Willoughby after all.
Pride and Prejudice was fun, as expected. I really enjoy seeing Elizabeth grow and it’s pretty fun to see Darcy grow through her eyes. This is probably the Austen novel that I’ve reread the most because I love it so much. The green edition I have in the featured image was bought in KL and I remember that on that holiday, I ignored all the sights in order to finish the book. I don’t think it was my first time reading it, but it’s probably when I properly fell in love with the book.
On a related note: I’m thinking of buying copies of Northanger Abbey and Mansfield Park so I own all six novels, and I was thinking that while I was at it, I should get a copy of Tea with Jane Austen for myself. While searching, I found out that there’s a cookbook called Tea with Jane Austen! But the recipes sound pretty similar to Dining with Mr Darcy so I might (or might not) pass on it.
At this rate, I’m probably going to be drowning in books by the time the circuit breaker is over!
Today’s bake
I went back to an old favourite today – scones! To accommodate all the preferences in my family, I made three types of scones: plain, cranberry, and green tea with chocolate. I kind of kneaded the green tea powder into the scone, but I think I need to add more next time because the taste of the green tea isn’t as strong as I was expecting. Other than that, the scones were a success!
Wow! You whizzed through those! 😁
They were too good, I couldn’t slow down!
I reread both of these often. They’re some of my favorites, so much so that my wedding bouquet was made out of the pages of Pride & Prejudice 🙂
That is such a sweet idea for a bouquet! Is it still in your house?
Emma and Knightly never bothered me either and I wonder if its because I picture Knightly as younger and Emma as older than their actual ages, so the story inside my head puts them at the same age. Its been a while since I read them but I wonder if in Emma its easier to do this? With Colonel Brandon his age is made very apparent so its hard to ignore and imagine otherwise? Haha does that make sense?
Makes sense! If the book didn’t mention that Mr Knightley was 37, I probably would have thought he was about Darcy’s age (28), which would be the same as Darcy and Elizabeth!
Colonel Brandon definitely gives the impression of being older, possibly because very early on in the book the girls discuss his age so it got fixed in my mind! (plus he doesn’t seem as lively as Mr Knightley and he has a ward to take care of)
I think I may have mentioned how much I disliked Pride and Prejudice the first time I read it. I loved it when I re-read it though. I’m so glad I gave it another chance. It’s one of my favorites now. I haven’t yet read Mansfield Park or Sense and Sensibility. One of these days . . .
My husband is a Jane Austen lover too. 🙂
Awesome to hear that!
It’s interesting that your feelings towards the book changed so much on the reread! Do you know why?
I know a lot of people don’t like Mansfield Park as much as the other Austen novels, but I really like it and I hope you do too!