CLASSIC BOOK CHALLENGE

I remember one summer ten years ago when my boys were little and life was all about sippy cups and diapers, challenging myself to read Jane Austen--I needed something to feed my brain and Dora the Explorer wasn't doing it.

 

I started with Pride and Prejudice and struggled to get through it, until I watched the movie, and then I could keep all the characters straight and loved the book. That summer I read three of Jane's books.

Lately, I've been missing that classic literature. I have piles of really good English historicals written by contemporary authors, but I miss the classics written by British writers whose mastery of the English language proved that they are indeed from the same island as Shakespeare.

I want to reread Elizabeth Bennett’s first refusal of Mr. Darcy, all the naval banter in a Horatio Hornblower book, follow the heart ache of Jane Eyre.

So here's my challenge--finish up the novel you're reading, then blow off the dust of a classic you've been meaning to get to, or have already read. Return to old England. Escape to a time when manners and exquisite speech meant everything.

I've just finished watching the BBC version of Emma--it absolutely transported me in time for several delightful hours.  Now I plan on settling down to read Emma again. With a cup of tea. And a biscuit. Or two.

With much felicity

Therese