tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5275239266133000382.post5601954246898575498..comments2024-01-01T20:45:04.000+00:00Comments on Be Sol Be: Mansfield Park - Read a long.Solhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10518631542782309728noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5275239266133000382.post-53821953243379681852017-02-21T19:03:44.600+00:002017-02-21T19:03:44.600+00:00Hi Linda, maybe I need to listen to it as it is ha...Hi Linda, maybe I need to listen to it as it is hard in some areas like Ray said to know who is talking. I think I have the same problem, that I dont seen to have the attention span. I also read other books at the same time and I think I need to stop this, as I read fast pace young adult fiction. I have just finished the 5th wave by Rick Yancy, I also didnt know this was a film, that came out last year.Solhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10518631542782309728noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5275239266133000382.post-87374178004784587282017-02-21T18:19:29.583+00:002017-02-21T18:19:29.583+00:00Interesting!
Years ago I loved these classics and...Interesting!<br /> Years ago I loved these classics and their elegant prose. Now I just get impatient and definitely am not prepared to give the books the attention they deserve. I cheated and listened to it on YouTube and found I followed the story far easier and got to know the characters better.<br />I'll post my brief reviewlocal alienhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14586011850451326646noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5275239266133000382.post-55833005061905486192017-02-21T17:36:17.175+00:002017-02-21T17:36:17.175+00:00argh blogger ate my comment.
I didnt know that ab...argh blogger ate my comment.<br /><br />I didnt know that about Jane Austens editor, changing it. I am trying to think if I feel it changes it? I also hated the length of the 'speech' sentences. The sentences in some parts are enormous. Really enormous. It is one of the reasons I find classics hard to read, as I want more full stops!<br /><br />Thanks for the comment and for joining in. I hope you will like reading the next book if you are joining in. Solhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10518631542782309728noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5275239266133000382.post-40654850222434304562017-02-21T15:37:31.531+00:002017-02-21T15:37:31.531+00:00My experience at re-reading this was utterly diffe...My experience at re-reading this was utterly different from the previous three encounters, the last time having been twelve years ago. Before, I'd been considerably captivated by the novel, especially the third time round, as I'd only 'discovered' (about thirty years ago) the manner in which one ought to read Jane Austen in order to get the utmost therefrom i.e. with complete, undistracted attention and slow deliberation. Austen, along with Henry James (another one with whom I'd had prior problems) had now become for me the supreme writers of elegant prose - and enjoying their works was rather akin to the pleasure of biting into a soft, warm, sponge cake, each mouthful of which one allows to be leisurely savoured by the taste buds before being despatched below. Thus it was then. <br /><br />About ten years ago it was announced that much of (though not entirely) Austen's scriptoral finery had come, not from herself, but from that of her editor. It seems, apparently, that her grammar was often askew, with spelling leaving much to be desired, and - just one example - she had a complete disregard as to the proper use of paragraphs. Furthermore, a considerable number of times her vocabulary was wanting so that her editor fund himself substituting a more apt word for the one she had employed. What a come-down! This latest reading of 'Mansfield Park' is the first time I've read any Austen since that study was published. <br /><br />Now exactly how much my changed opinion is due to this 'epiphany' I can't honestly say, but I did find this reading to be a somewhat tiresome exercise. To take specific cases, I did find that in conversations between the characters, the absence of clear indications as to who was saying what, more than a bit trying. It required more concentration than I was in the mood to input. Also, several characters share the same surname, yet in talk they are sometimes only referred to in surname terms so I had too keep referring back to find out precisely about whom remarks were being addressed. This wouldn't have happened so much if I'd maintained a close concentration for a lengthy period, but I have to confess that this time I did keep putting the novel aside more than I usually do in reading, with the result that when I got back to it, my memory as to where I was had got to was clouded - and I found myself having resumed my reading with a false assumption. In fact, when I'd got just forty pages from the end my interest had reduced to such a minimal level that it took me more than a week to pick up the book and finish it off!<br /><br />It was a sad encounter this time, and clearly not Austen's fault as I'd got much pleasure from my previous readings of the same work. But either I have moved on or something has now interposed itself to prevent my repeating the previous pleasurable experiences. Clearly the discovery about her editor being such a salient part of the published product was at least influential to my change of heart. Shame about it, whatever the cause, but I do hope that I'll be around long enough to give 'Mansfield Park' yet another chance - though maybe not for a while yet!Raybeardhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12424095016313843883noreply@blogger.com