Jane on TV!

Don't know if anyone checks PBS listings, but they're doing all of Jane Austen's books on Masterpiece Theatre. Saw part of Northanger Abbey and thought it was decent treatment from the book to screen. I always thought her work would translate well and so it did!

Northanger Abbey: Just another romance?

Austen really kicked up the satire and wit in this gothic parody. It was fun to read and satisfying after reading Udolpho.
By the end of the semester, my own ability to route for romantic unions had been so tryed that I longed for a better plot line and found nothing to go on. An egregious father and an infallible heroine and hero just did not satisfy what I expected to be a response to all of the customs of 18th century english novels. I guess I was putting too much on the shoulders of Austen. After all, these types of storylines were what sold then.

the Mystery around reading Udolpho

This book had that wonderful tendency of wrapping everything up all in the last possible second or maybe it was my speed reading of the last few sections that made it seem that way, (because of the abundance of pages we were consuming per week toward the end of the semester ). It was as if, the technique of the author was to keep everything hidden because if the reader knew any of it they may be inclined to stop reading.
The novel made me want to go on vacation (and maybe take it with me).

My favorite book of the class

Evelina was one of my favorite books of the class. It really seemed like a pleasure read. Seeing a fallible young girl entering a society that she had no prior knowledge about was entertaining and informative. Having previously seen it through the descriptions of Jane Austen's balls, I really enjoyed the feeling of actually meeting it with Burney. Though Burney does not present her heroines with the fresh and natural outlook that Austen does, Evelina still seemed real. But, I guess that was just Burney's fluid narrative and technique because Evelina was unbelievably self-controlled as no girl of her age should naturally be. The only reason could be that Burney knew she was writing to an audience that preferred rationality above sentiment and to stay in line with those standards was to do her book sales credit.

Tom Jones

Akthough Tom Jones was an unperfect hero because of all of his indiscrepancies, his heroine was as close to infallible as they come. It sets the double standards of men and women farther apart even if Fielding was trying to be satirical when he designed Sophia that way. I like her anyway though. Sophia is a strong character because she knows who she loves and takes action to make that happen. She disobeys her father (even if she is justified because he is only a comic relief character).
Though I liked the novel because it discusses the natures and thoughts of people realistically, the scenes of comic relief (excepting the witty and subtle dialogues of Squire Western) seemed too staged to be very funny.

Shamela and spoof on Pamela lovers

The spoof Shamela, was effective at comic relief but a minimally respectable work of art. Since, Fielding only put about sixty pages worth of energy into the novel I will not really hold it against him or say, it was not necessary. A satire of Pamela probably was necessary.
Richardson seemed to have some ideas about improvement in mind when he wrote Pamela, though and even if I think they were self-destructive in the end, Fielding's premise for writing Shamela seems trivial and indecent. I do not appreciate it as a work of art, maybe just an attack on all people who took Pamela as a second Bible.

man of feeling, weak or strong?

There are characters in the novel, The Man of Feeling that encourage the jaded modern reader to keep turning pages. Maybe nihilistic readers like me just want to see maladies. Maybe they just seem to be what is real.
Harely is sunk because of his inability to acclimate his virtuous actions in society. The life fortune has set up for him leads him to tragedy. His naivete is an added weakness but his inaction is most probably his demise.
The narrator's remembering him is for me, a sad conclusion to what should have been a more thought out ending. If the author wanted the readers to do all the thinking and reacting, it might just be that the reading community was not ready for that much responsibility seeing as how the book did not seem to change that much.