Tuesday, September 23, 2008

More of those Nineteen Reasons

Thanks so much for writing in with your comments on what you love about the Nineteenth Century and what you'd like to see us discuss in NineteenTeen--keep them coming! Don't forget that doing so enters you into drawings for a $25 Barnes & Noble gift card or a genuine 19th century fashion print.

So here are a few more reasons why I love the nineteenth century...

7. The Manners. So maybe having to remember to curtsey to your elders and social superiors and always speak and carry yourself gently and quietly in public could feel restrictive to young women. But it also meant that in general, people didn't behave badly in public. Is that a fair trade-off? Would you prefer the more formal manners of the past? I know I would...


8. Horses. Say what you like about hot cars, but honestly, they're soulless things made in factories and one looks pretty much like another in my eyes. Horses on the other hand are individuals with personalities and differences and strengths and weaknesses that add a layer to life that we no longer have, for better or worse. And at least their emissions can be recycled.

9. Hats. I suppose that this could go under "the gorgeous clothes for women" category, but there's more to it than that. Hats are meta-clothes: they have their own language that can reinforce or give lie to the messages given by a dress or coat. A fluffy hat worn with a demure dress can give the message that the wearer has hidden depths, for example. It can flirt by giving a glimpse of partly concealed locks of hair or gracefully accenting the face, or cover up bad hair days. Women lost something when hats went out of fashion.

10. Jane Austen. I made the mistake of trying to read Pride and Prejudice when I was twelve, and didn't get past the first chapter. Even though I was a very advanced reader, I just didn't get it. But when I read it at seventeen, I realized how wonderfully funny it was and read all the other Jane stories as quickly as possible. Don't pick up a Jane Austen novel expecting something big and dramatic and passionate like Wuthering Heights (though Persuasion is a beautifully romantic story). Read it for the quiet, ironical humor and the finely drawn characters and the glimpse into nineteenth century life. If you're not a total history geek, look for a foot-noted edition that explains some of the more obscures references--it will deepen your appreciation of the humor and give you a better picture of 19th century life. Jane was one of the first authors EVER to write about ordinary people and ordinary things and yet make them totally fascinating. That's not only very important for literature as a whole, but also very cool.

What do you think?

6 comments:

Tia Nevitt said...

I LOVE Jane Austen. Which is probably why I loved your book as well.

Amee said...

Jane Austen is without a doubt one of the best things about the 19th century. I haven't read P&P yet but it's on my shelf just waiting. Once the semester is over I plan on wasting no time delving into it. :D

Anonymous said...

Jane Austen really understood the rules and morals of her day and the one thing I love most about her works is the subtle poking fun of society. Her books are realistic in a way that novels of the time usually weren't and she knew how to be subtle in her satire, something that I think no one else has been able to capture. She was definitely one of the best things about the 19th century. I also enjoyed Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte and I have liked the Elizabeth Gaskell movie productions I have seen North & South, Wives & Daughters and Cranford. I remember reading North and South in college and liking it but didn't quite see it as a love story until I saw the movie version. (Nice Mr. Darcy type hero).

Marissa Doyle said...

tia, you are making me blush. :)

amee, have you read other JA yet? I've been mulling over what I think is the best order to read her stories in...thoughts, anyone?

qnpoohbear, you have to read Cranford. It's wonderful!!

asdfjkl; said...

The simplicity is the most appealing aspect of the 19th century to me.

TheBookworm
emailthebookworm(at)yahoo(dot)com

Anonymous said...

Marissa, my advice is to read Jane Austen from lightest to heaviest: Pride & Prejudice, Emma, Sense & Sensibility, Northanger Abbey, Persuasion (my favorite) and Mansfield Park (my least favorite).