Happy New Year!!!

Hello fellow book clubbers!

2010 was a great year! It was the start of our book club where we got a little taste of Jane Austen's novels when we tackled Pride and Prejudice. It turned out to be a wonderful, inspirational, and all-a-round fantastic novel to kick-start our book club.  This book clubs new years resolution is to make 2011 the year of Jane Austen!!!  In order to achieve this new years resolution we posted below the overall schedule for the whole year. You should go get your spiffy new calender plus a pen/marker and get ready to mark the dates below! Yes, I am talking to you.  Alright, now that we have our calender's in front of us, here we go...

2010:
Pride and Prejudice.....Finished!!! =D

2011:
Sense and Sensibility.... January 3rd - February 28th

Mansfield Park.... March 1st - April 30th

Emma.... May 1st - June 30th

Northanger Abbey.... July 1st - August 31st

Persuasion.... September 1st - October 31st.

The Set schedule above allows two months per book. 

If you are a new reader and would like to join our book club we would LOVE to have you!! Feel free to join us at anytime during our Austen journey, comment, or email us at BookclubLBR10@gmail.com.

Alright, now that we have our schedule for the year lets start reading! Make sure to check back in the next few days where we will post the first round of questions for our first Austen novel in 2011, Sense and Sensibility!!!! 

Till then Happy Reading!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Laura's Part Three Response

1.) What do you think motivated Lydia to run off with Mr. Wickham?

I think she loved him and perhaps wanted to take some burden off of her parents.

2.) How do you think Elizabeth handled herself with Lady Catherine? Putting your self in that time period, if you were in Elizabeth's shoes how would you have handled that situation?
I found Catherine to a very uppity, I did not like her, but Elizabeth spoke to her with poise and confidence.  Elizabeth held her own really well.  I would not have been able to do what Elizabeth did I would have been insulted and hurt and I would have held it all in to allow it to fester.  Elizabeth was able to deal with things right there and then and continue on with life, I really admire that.

3.) What is your final impression of Mr. Darcy?
My final impression of Mr. Darcy is a positive one.  Mr. Darcy seems to have a good head on his shoulders, but he needs to learn social skills and needs to be softer with people. Mr. Darcy seemed to be arrogant in the beginning, but I think he has a tough kind of personality that a person needs to get to know.  I never really thought he was horrible, just a tough nut to crack.  I feel he loved her all along but had a hard time telling her.  In the end you can't help but like him for loving her.

4.) Does the novel end the way you expected? How? Why?
The book does end in the way I expected, although I was hoping for more of a bang at the end, it ended more quietly and a little unfinished

5.) One of the major themes throughout Pride and Prejudice is marriage. Compare and contrast the different kinds of marriages throughout the novel.
Marriage in those days was a lot more for convenience then love but I do feel that all of the marriages were good matches and had love.  If I had to say which marriage might not make it I would have to say Wickham and Lydia, but you never know.

6.) Do you find the characters likable? Are the characters persons you would want to meet?
Yes I do find them all like-able except for Lady Catherine de Bourgh, I really felt she had her nose up in the air with most everyone.  I would definitely want to meet all of them, even Lady Catherine.  In learning their personalities I would like being friends with Mr. Collins and Jane and Elizabeth and.....well all of the sisters, except Lydia I think I would have some issues with her.  Elizabeth's mother I think I would have a little problem with as well but I have to remember the times.  I felt she pushed really hard for the girls to get married and in current times I would not feel that way, but in that time that was the main focus women had in those days as women were seen in a very small way.

7.) What is the source of this novels immense and enduring popularity?

Relationships, love, marriage, how people feel and live and now that I have finished reading it the language.  I feel Jane Austen really elaborated the lives and relationships very vividly using a lot of interesting words.  I will have to say there were some paragraphs that were written with no sense, but she managed to get the point across.  I guess I would have to say that her novels have endured because of her style of writing in the relationships and love and the marriages and lives of her characters.

Closing Thoughts:

Even though this is not one of my most favorite of Jane Austen, I will have to say that reading it has renewed my love of her style and characters that she wrote about in this book.  Mr. Darcy in the movie seems like such a jerk and you think how could she marry him, but in the book he just seems hard and socially awkward and in the end his personality understood and loved.  I really look forward to reading the next one.

Laura's Part Two Response

1.      This part of the novel could be titled “The Turning Point” do you think this accurately describes part two? Explain your answer.

To me this was not the turning point, perhaps a point of more understanding of the characters and their lives and personalities but the story to me at this point was just continuing to a conclusion which in my mind I sort of knew what was coming.

2.      What were your first impressions of Mr. Wickham? After you read Mr. Darcy’s letter, did your feelings change?

A little, to me there are two sides to the story and I actually felt bad for both sides, I felt they both had merit in their feelings.  I was not convinced completely that Wickham was as bad as what Mr. Darcy thought; perhaps he was jealous of Wickham.  

3.      What is your impression of Mr. Darcy at this point in the book?  What did you think about Mr. Darcy’s proposal to Elizabeth?

Mr. Darcy still seems to have that hard personality that now seems to becoming softer as he starts to reveal his feelings.  To me the Proposal was not romantic, but he did love her. 

4.      What did you think about the letter Mr. Darcy wrote to Elizabeth after he proposed to her?

Confusing.

5.      What is your first impression of Lady Catherine De Bourgh? Does her real life impression match all the hype Mr. Collins gave her? 

I really did not care for Lady Catherine and in my eyes the hype that Mr. Collins gave her I felt was a little over the top, but that is how Mr. Collins is