I'm sorry that I haven't been writing more often. I find myself, oddly, gone most of the time, which makes it hard to update my blog. I just got back from the St. Louis area visiting my boyfriend for his 22nd birthday. Tomorrow I leave to take my younger sister, Kristin, to Ozark, MO to college! Yay! Luckily the weather looks fairly good and we managed to fit all her stuff (including a monstrous bike) into my dad's little Mazda 6. But tonight I'm going to talk about every girl's favorite romantic heart throb Mr. Darcy.
If you happened to grow up in a fish bowl or underneath a rock, Mr. Darcy is the principle male character of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice. The book is very famous and has been made into several movie adaptations. Pride and Prejudice is my all-time favorite book and the A&E mini-series is the most epic chick flick ever. I highly recommend you either read the book or rent the movie (warning: the A&E version is about 5 hours long, so if you aren't a patient person watch the Keira Knightley version instead).
Now, don't get all righteous on me by arguing the Keira Knightley version would cause Austen to roll over in her grave. I got my boyfriend into Pride and Prejudice by watching that film and there may be some major flaws but it does cover the basics.
About 2 months ago, I was out eating dinner with a dear friend of mine and we ended up stopping by a book store, which if you know me at all is no surprise. I kept seeing all these books about Mr. Darcy and it really irritated me (especially the Mr. Darcy, Vampyre). I consider myself to be a Jane Austen purist and messing with the ultimate Austen heart throb is a level beyond mortal sin. I mentioned them to my friend and she commented on how I should read them all and then tell her which ones are worth reading.
I was appalled by this idea! A REAL Jane Austen fan would not stoop to such a level and read these depraved books! If Jane Austen were still alive, she would find all these books and BURN THEM! All these so called "authors" would be shunned from premier literary circles and sleep in beds made of their detestable pages of melodramatic hogwash.
If you can't tell, I paid no attention to this idea. I was, however, looking forward to spending 4 days in the UK going through Jane Austen country, since this book store escapade took place about a week before we left for Europe.
So fast forward two weeks later to Bath, UK. We make an obligatory stop to the Jane Austen Centre to look around and see what the gift shop offers. The minute I walk in I notice the same Mr. Darcy garbage I saw in the book store! I was outraged! How could a place devoted to the memory of my favorite writer display such garbage? I decided the place couldn't truly be dedicated to Austen because their walls were tarnished by these disgraceful books.
Then I had my Grinch moment (the part where he hears the Who's singing on Christmas and his heart grows 3 sizes....) when I read one of the cards on a book titled Me and Mr. Darcy. It was a staff pick and it talked about how Mr. Darcy is every girl's fantasy. Curious, I turn the book over and read the back cover and I was intrigued about this New York book store manager running off to England for an Austen tour after a string of bad men. And she meets Mr. Darcy!
I read a couple of pages and I laughed! Then I caught myself... this author was witty and I totally related to the narrator! I had to have this book! I must finish reading it! After 5 pages, I couldn't put it down and I flipped over the cover to look at the price... and realized that if I bought it I wouldn't be eating for the rest of the trip. But I swore to myself I would come home and FIND THIS BOOK!
I finished reading Me and Mr. Darcy yesterday. It was absolutely fabulous! The author totally does credit to Austen's masterpiece. The book simply takes the basic idea of Pride and Prejudice and puts a modern day twist on it. I honestly believe if you don't read this book you're doing Austen a disservice only because Austen would appreciate how the main character goes on her own adventure to discover the truth about Mr. Darcy. It's not the typical Pride and Prejudice knock off where the author tries to either rewrite the whole story or write the sequel. And although the plot lines closely mirror each other, there's enough differences to make even the most snobbish of Austen purists happy.
So in the end, I did decide to take my friends challenge. Can I, a hard core Austen purist, read all the Pride and Prejudice knock offs with out judging the book by its cover? Me and Mr. Darcy was a promising start and as I'm finding out quickly with this next one, To Conquer Mr. Darcy, that it may be a very difficult journey. I still feel my grinchy tendencies with this one but I'm pushing through. So I will periodically update where I stand in the midst of these books because there are A LOT! I will be renting books from my library and also buying them for my e-reader (mostly because it's easier to carry my Nook instead of a bunch of books).
Oh and in case you were wondering Mr. Darcy, Vampyre is next on my list. Followed closely by Mr. Darcy, Werewolf. I can already feel my skin beginning to turn green and hairy....
No comments:
Post a Comment