Friday, March 28, 2008

SPL - Jane Austen

Last summer I read Jane Austen for the first time after watching Joe Wright's Pride and Prejudice (you know, the one with Keira Knightly). Starting with Pride, I devoured every single Austen book the library had. They didn't have Northanger Abbey. Shame. The past couple of months, PBS has been showing a series of Jane Austen films--pretty much every Jane Austen film made, it seems like. Two versions of Emma--the one with Gwyneth Paltrow and the one with Kate Beckinsale (unrelated, she plays a meddling character in Cold Comfort Farm as well--I highly recommend it). Early on in the series, they showed Northanger Abbey--truly a delight. A story about a girl who reads too many gothic novels. Usually I try to read the book before seeing a movie, so having seen it (and having bought the DVD, actually), I'm required to read the book, ASAP. So today I went to the library to interlibrary loan it (not realizing until writing this that the text is actually available for free online: Project Gutenberg, and other places easily found by a quick Google search). I did a quick check of the catalogue just to make sure it really wasn't there, and guess what. They do have it. In the large print section. Hurrah. It's the size of a small textbook. Thank you, Spencer Public Library!

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

You'll really like Northanger Abbey--I read it last summer in about 2 days because I couldn't put it down!

Katie

Dena said...

I haven't read any of the books, shamefully. I did enjoy the PBS movies though!

Unknown said...

Rock on - I love Jane Austen! And Pride & Prejudice (with Kiera) is my all time fav movie!

Makala Brinkley said...

I would recommend purchasing Austen's books, they are so timeless and should be read and re-read. Borders has them at a very reasonable price. :) Happy reading!
Also you can download them on Audiobooks from Itunes for Free...