Literary Heroine Blog Event

Kellie at Accordion to Kellie is hosting a Literary Heroine Blog Party.  It’s taken me forever to get all the questions answered but here it is.  Hope you enjoy reading this.

What, to you, forms the essence of a true heroine?

A girl who isn’t afraid to speak her mind…a true lady, sweet and kind but with spirit.

Share (up to) four heroines of literature that you most admire and relate to. 

 

Elinor Dashwood (Sense and Sensibility) – I don’t think I can ever match up to Elinor but I admire her very much and I think that I’m the most level-headed of my siblings.

 

Amy Dorrit (Little Dorrit) – What’s not to like about Amy?  She sweet and steadfast and so many other good qualities.

 

Jane Eyre (Jane Eyre) – I like Jane.  She’s not the typical, ultra-pretty heroine.  I like her very much.

 

Estella Havisham (Great Expectations) – I don’t exactly admire Estella and I hope that I don’t relate to her but I like her anyway despite the way she treats Pip.  Besides, if you have someone like Miss Havisham taking care of you, how are you expected to turn out?

Five of your favorite historical novels?

Mansfield Park (Jane Austen)

 

Jane Eyre (Charlotte Brontë)

 

Great Expectations (Charles Dickens)

 

Little Dorrit (Charles Dickens)

 

Emma (Jane Austen)

 

Out of those five books who is your favorite main character and why?

 

Amy Dorrit – see above

 

Out of those five books who is your favorite secondary character and why?

 

Jane Fairfax – elegant and refined.

 

If you were to plan out your dream vacation, where would you travel to – and what would you plan to do there? 

 

I’d travel to England to a little village called Chawton and visit the Jane Austen museum.

 

What is your favorite time period and culture to read about? 

Regency England wins hands down.

You have been invited to perform at the local charity concert. Singing, comedy, recitation – what is your act comprised of?

I hate performing in public so I’d probably turn down the invitation. 

If you were to attend a party where each guest was to portray a heroine of literature, who would you select to represent? 

Catherine Morland.

What are your sentiments on the subject of chocolate? 

Wonderful!  Milk chocolate (especially Galaxy ©) is my favorite but I also like dark if it isn’t too dark.

Favorite author(s)? 

Jane Austen

 

Charles Dickens

 

Charlotte Brontë

 

Amanda Grange

 

Those are just a few of my favorites.

Besides essentials, what would you take on a visiting voyage to a foreign land?

My set of Jane Austen novels

My Jane Austen Anthology – Jane Austen Made Me Do It

My writing notebook

In which century were most of the books you read written? 

England

In your opinion, the ultimate hero in literature is…

Elinor Dashwood
 
Describe your ideal dwelling place. 

Where I’m living now…it’s a secret…

Sum up your fashion style in five words.

Tailored.  Simple.  Mix-and-Match.  Purple.  Denim.

Have you ever wanted to change a character’s name?

No…never.

In your opinion, the most dastardly villain of all literature is… 

Riguad, Blandois…Whatever you want to call him.

Three favorite Non-fiction books?

Jane Austen: A Celebration of her Life and Works

Spirit of the Horse

The Jane Austen Handbook

Your duties met for the day, how would you choose to spend a carefree summer afternoon?

Writing and listening to beautiful music.

Sense and Sensibilty

Sense and Sensibility is a story about two girls – Elinor (sense) and Marianne (sensibility).  When they move to Barton cottage with their mother, Marianne is swept off her feet by a dashing stranger, Willoughby.  Meanwhile, Elinor must mask the love she feels for Edward Ferrars because it is impossible for them to marry.  When Willoughby leaves suddenly, Marianne is heartbroken and succumbs to her ‘sensibility.’  How the two sisters find their own true loves makes and interesting and enjoyable read for anyone.

This S and S graphic novel is not the best Jane Austen graphic novel I have seen.  On one hand, it stays true to the book – often directly quoting it in places.  On the other hand, the artwork is atrocious.  The characters heads swell out of proportion with warning, Elinor is unattractive to say the least, and the overall appearance is quite shabby.  However, it did follow the book closely.

I love Colonel Brandon’s Diary by Amanda Grange.  I have read all her ‘diaries’ except Henry Tilney’s and this one is the best one.  It goes far back into Colonel Brandon’s life and recounts how he fell in love with the first Eliza, lost her, found her, and how he took care of her daughter when she died.  It tells the story of S and S skillfully and believably.  I love reading this book over and over again.

BRAVO!

One of my favorite Jane Austen bloggers amazed and delighted me today.  Miss Laurie of Old-Fashioned Charm put this up in answer to a Jane Austen tag question.

Which is your least favorite JA novel, and why? (Everybody posts about their favorites… I want to know what’s at the bottom of your list!)
Probably my least favorite novel would have to be Pride and Prejudice. “What!?!” you ask. “Are you CRAZY!?!?!?” Well let’s just agree that I am.
I’m not sure why it’s my least favorite really. Perhaps it’s a combination of a lot of little pet peeves I have.
I don’t really identify with Elizabeth Bennet, even though I admirer her. I have quite a different personality than her (I’m more like an Elinor Dashwood) so on occasion her more out-going and feisty personality gets a bit tedious to me. Mr. Darcy is my least favorite hero mostly because although he is a gentleman he can also be quite a snob at times (sorry!). Also Mrs. Bennet, Lydia, Wickham and Mr. Collins drive me crazy! Yes they are funny but they also can make me mad (especially Lydia!). One definite reason that P&P has less appeal to me now is that I’ve probably watched too many film adaptations too often. Also it seems that many people have copied the story line of Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy’s romance in other books and films. I’m a bit sorry that P&P gets a lot of the attention from media and fans when Jane Austen wrote five other amazing novels. Sometimes I think that just once I’d like to say “I love Jane Austen. You know, she’s the author of…” without having to mention Pride and Prejudice.
Now, all that being said (and lest you think me completely horrid), I would still adore Jane Austen if the only novel she had written was Pride and Prejudice. My love for Jane Austen’s work as a whole far outweighs my love of every other author. Picking a least favorite Austen novel is very difficult!   

This is exactly my opinion.  It conicides with my answer to the same question:

This is really tough!  I love all of her novels, but my least favorite would be…Pride and Prejudice *united Janeite gasp*.  The way I see it, Pride and Prejudice has been so dramatized, made over, etc. that most people lose sight of the actual book itself.  Don’t worry, I really enjoy P and P.

My 101 Post!

I was just idly checking through my site stats and I noticed to my amazement that I had written 100 posts.  This calls for a celebration!  The first thing I will do is give you a little stat update.

113 comments – I just love the reader/writer interaction.  Keep commenting!
17 pages – Check them out.  You might like what you see.
12 categories and 83 tags
52 sidebar widgets
The month with the most posts was this month with 31 (soon to be 32) posts 

Here are some of my favorite posts over the 100 post period:

• Sense and Sensibility 1995 Review
• The Hoofbeats Series
• Bell’s Star
• WordPress for Dummies
• Daughter of Venice
• Book Tag

My blog started out a book review blog and it’s graduated into a book review and Jane Austen blog.  I hope that you are okay with this and if you have ANY questions or comments just e-mail me at kraftyhorselover@hotmail.com

 

Sense and Sensibility 1995 Review

You’re all thinking “This is a book review blog, not a movie review blog.”  Yes, I know but I just watched S and S today and I couldn’t resist reviewing it.  Besides, it’s J.A. related.

First the synopisis from Wikipedia.

Mr. Dashwood dies, his wife and three daughters – Elinor, Marianne  and Margaret – are left with an inheritance consisting of only £500 a year, with the bulk of the estate of Norland Park left to his son John from a previous marriage. John and his greedy, snobbish wife Fanny immediately install themselves in the large house; Fanny invites her brother Edward Ferrars to stay with them. She frets about the budding friendship between Edward and Elinor and does everything she can to prevent it from developing.

Sir John Middleton, a cousin of the widowed Mrs. Dashwood, offers her a small cottage house on his estate, Barton Park in Devonshire. She and her daughters move in, and are frequent guests at Barton Park. Marianne meets the older Colonel Brandon, who falls in love with her at first sight. Competing with him for her affections is the dashing but deceitful John Willoughby, whom Marianne falls in love with. On the morning she expects him to propose marriage to her, he instead leaves hurriedly for London. Unbeknownst to the Dashwood family, Brandon’s ward is pregnant with Willoughby’s child, and Willoughby’s aunt Lady Allen has disinherited him.

Sir John’s mother-in-law, Mrs. Jennings, invites her daughter and son-in-law, Mr. and Mrs. Palmer, to visit. They bring with them the impoverished Lucy Steele. Lucy confides in Elinor that she and Edward have been engaged secretly for five years, thus dashing Elinor’s hopes of a future with him. Mrs. Jennings takes Lucy, Elinor, and Marianne to London, where they meet Willoughby at a ball. He barely acknowledges their acquaintance, and they learn he is engaged to the extremely wealthy Miss Grey; Marianne is inconsolable. The clandestine engagement of Edward and Lucy also comes to light. Edward’s mother demands that he break off the engagement. When he refuses, his fortune is taken from him and given to his younger brother Robert.

On their way home to Devonshire, Elinor and Marianne stop for the night at the country estate of the Palmers, who live near Willoughby. Marianne cannot resist going to see Willoughby’s estate and walks a long way in a torrential rain to do so. As a result, she becomes seriously ill and is nursed back to health by Elinor after being rescued by Colonel Brandon.

After Marianne recovers, the sisters return home. They learn that Miss Steele has become Mrs. Ferrars and assume that she is married to Edward. However, he arrives to explain that Miss Steele has unexpectedly wed Robert Ferrars and is thus released from his engagement. Edward proposes to Elinor and becomes a vicar, whilst Marianne falls in love with and marries Colonel Brandon.

Now for my thoughts:

For one thing this movie has a great musical score and beautiful scenery.

I know that Emma Thomson and Alan Rickman are too old for their respective roles but I don’t let that take away from the story, and frankly I couldn’t picture Elinor and Colonel Brandon any other way.  The script is true to the book, only slightly deviating from Jane Austen’s novel.  The story moves swiftly and is interesting.  Even my brothers (who claim to hate the J.A. films watched most of it with me).  Lucy Steele is easy to hate and so is Fanny Dashwood.

One of my most favorite parts is – the wedding!  Marianne and Colonel Brandon look so much in love and so happy with each other and so do Eleanor and Edward.  My sister’s favorite part in the entire movie is when Colonel Brandon tosses the coins into the air.  By the way, it was a tradition for the grooms to throw coins into the air, because it indicated how wealthy they are.  Naturally, you would expect Colonel Brandon, rather than Edward to toss coins into the air.

Overall this is a great movie to watch and enjoy and it’s my favorite Austen adaption.  I would highly recommend it to anyone.  

All my photos came from here.