A bright & sparkling end to a challenge: P&P #29

Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen, read by Emilia Fox.

Upon the whole... I am well satisfied enough. The work is rather too light, and bright, and sparkling; it wants shade; it wants to be stretched out here and there with a long chapter of sense, if it could be had; if not, of solemn specious nonsense...

I thought it would be fitting to end the challenge with the book that started it all. I actually listened to this earlier in the year when I had a crapload of marking to do. I like to put on a movie or audiobook while doing a marking marathon. Something I've seen/heard before, so I don't have to pay too close attention because I know what's going to happen, and if my attention is completely caught by a particularly odd or hilarious answer from one of my students, I don't need to rewind. My usual go-tos are mystery novels or the extended version of the Lord of the Rings, but this time I decided to listen to Pride and Prejudice; I've had this on my computer for a few years but for some reason had never listened to it.

I haven't really gone into details about why I love this book before, but the witty dialogue is one reason. Another is the simple subject matter; I feel I can relate, somewhat, to Elizabeth because she is not going through some dramatic love-affair/abduction/political intrigue. Darcy is not my ideal hero (I sigh for Henry Tilney), but what I like about their relationship is that Darcy and Elizabeth are better people for being in love with each other. They both have faults, have both learned from each other, and have both grown as a result.

On to the recording itself. Emily Fox played Georgiana in the 1995 series. I don't remember her saying a lot, because, you know, Georgiana, but she has a lovely voice. The most important thing is that her Mrs. Bennet doesn't drive me up a wall, because that would make the recording unlistenable. I was initially annoyed by Jane; I felt she was being read as too little-girly (a little like when Lizzie plays Jane in costume theatre), but that stopped after a while. It's very listenable, overall.

What I noticed in listening to the book is that there is stuff I don't remember. I don't mean major plot points or conversations, but small things, especially right near the beginning, that I forgot were there. When you've read a book eleventy billion times, you tend to skim over certain parts and skip to the stuff you like. At least, I do. Anyway, it was nice to be surprised every now and then.

(I should note that my parents had a record of P&P, abridged. It had to be, otherwise it wouldn't fit into the 50 or so minutes allotted to vinyl. One of the episodes cut? Was Lydia's elopement. The mind reels.)

To sum up, here are all my reviews. You'll note the list has been considerably added to since I started the challenge:

Web series

Jan: The Lizzie Bennet Diaries (with a final comment here but no review of the DVD since we're still all waiting for it

Books

Feb: three teen romances: Epic Fail, Prom and Prejudice, Pride and Popularity (various authors)

Feb: Fitzwilliam Darcy, Rockstar, by Heather Lynn Rigaud

March: Death Comes to Pemberley, by P.D. James

April:Pamela Aiden's Fitzwilliam Darcy, Gentleman trilogy

April: Lions and Liquorice Vanity and Vexation, by Kate Fenton

May: Mr. Darcy Takes a Wife and Darcy & Elizabeth: Nights and Days at Pemberley, by Linda Berdoll

June: Mr. Darcy's Diary and four others by Amanda Grange

Sept: The Annotated Pride and Prejudice and Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice: A Sourcebook (various editors)

Oct: Mr. Darcy, Vampyre by Amanda Grange

Dec: Dinner with Mr. Darcy, by Pen Vogler

Audiobooks

Oct: Pride and Prejudice and Zombies by Jane Austen and Seth Graham-Smith

Dec: Pride and Prejudice, read by Emilia Fox (self-referential, much?)

Plays

July: Elizabeth – Darcy: An Adaptation of Pride and Prejudice by Hallie Burt and Kate Werneburg

Movies/TV

March: Bride and Prejudice

July: P&P (1980)

Aug: P&P (1995)

Sept: P&P (1940)

Nov: P&P (2005)

29 items. 20 books. 16 hours of audio. 16 hours of video. 1.5 hours of theatre. 1.5 hours of baking. That should be enough to win me something, right?

Thanks to Austenprose.com for the challenge. I've enjoyed reading other people's picks and seeing their sometimes differing views. Since this was my first real introduction to Jane Austen fan fiction, as it were, I'm looking forward to reading some of their recommendations. I'm also looking forward to not having to blog them.

It's the end of the year as we know it: Top 5 misses and hits

So, I have a serious backlog of blog posts to catch up on, but I thought I'd jump onto Gillian's end-of-the-year reflection bandwagon while it was still the end of the year. I had a secret goal this year to not buy any item of clothing or jewellery if I could reasonably make it, and I was successful^*. Before this year, I only made things every now and then. This year? Different story. Quick summary: not including gifts, I sewed 17.5 items, crocheted 9, made 10 pieces of jewellery, and refashioned 8 things. I'm fairly sure that that's a lot more than my previous output combined. I'm including jewellery, crocheting, and refashioning in these lists, because otherwise I'd be stretching to find 5 items I'd give top marks to. What can I say? My reputation for being a hard marker is not undeserved.

Starting with the... I hesitate to call them misses. Let's call them learning opportunities. When I was thinking of which items to blog about, I realized that, while I do have several problem-child items, some of them are less absolute misses and more casualties of the way I approach projects. So I'm going to copy Ginger Makes a bit; my last two misses learning opportunities are general trends. And learning opportunities are useless if you don't actually learn from them, so I'm including some plans to turn them into yeses instead of nopes. Here we go.

Sorbetto tanks (unhacked versions)

I have worn these a couple of times each, but the bust darts and armscyes on the black Sorbetto are really high and the length is a bit too short. I fixed that problem on the white Sorbetto, but it is made of a bit-too-sheer cotton voile and I'm not thrilled with the way the binding turned out, so I don't like to wear it in public. I might try to fix the darts on the black one, but I suspect that I won't.

Even Mr. Darcy acknowledged that the partridges were remarkably well done: P&P #28

Dinner with Mr. Darcy: Recipes inspired by the novels of Jane Austen by Pen Vogler

I came across this Sunday when I was browsing in Chapters after the Sing-Along Messiah waiting to meet up up with the DC and G to see The Hobbit (Xmas spirit, I has it) and I couldn't resist.

This is a nifty book. Vogler has split the recipes into meals and linked them to a book: breakfast at Northanger Abbey, tea at Mansfield Park, the supper at the Netherfield Ball, etc. What's cool, though, is that below the standard recipe is an original recipe from a contemporary cookbook; many of them are from Martha Lloyd's Household Book, written by a lady who I am just learning now lived with the Austen ladies. There are also short articles discussing mealtimes, table arrangements, servants and the like.

There is, happily, a recipe for white soup.

Image source: rylandpeters.com

This isn't a book for vegetarians, by the way. There are only three or four non-meat or sweet dishes. Bring on the night sweats!

My one complaint is the texture of the cover; it's fabric and a cat-hair magnet. I'm going to need to vacuum it before I use it again.

Naturally, I needed to test one of the recipes. I chose to make gingerbread, since it is one of the DC's favourite things. These are quite tasty; they have caraway seeds in them, which gives them an unusual flavour. The DC has taken to calling them "Mr. Darcy's gingerbread."



I might be attempting some of the picnic recipes for next year's Dîner en blanc -- pigeon pie, anyone? Assuming I can source pigeons (aka squab) in Toronto.

A dress good enough to swim in: The hunt for Red October finally ends?

This is a bit late for the Red October sewalong, huh. And it's the exact opposite of a Green December make. Fine.

I have a black lycra RTW dress with a cowl neck and flared skirt. It's so pretty and fun to swing dance in, except for one small problem: it has a really low back, which means that it can be awkward for leads to put their hands on my (sweaty) back^*. I've been hoping to make a backed version for some time, possibly in red. And so I finally have.