I’m reading “Pride and prejudice” and I’m strangely enjoying it. I like the characters and the story, I’m really hooked with the book, but I don’t really know why it is so interesting and how Austen makes me feel interested in a book that, maybe just in the surface, is so mundane.
In the past, I also read “Sense and sensibility” for University and I also enjoyed it very much.
How do you think Austen makes this? How does she make a realistic and simple book so interesting in its story and its characters?
Exactly! Her books were very much character studies and comedies of manners. Almost 1800s Seinfeld at moments. “He said he likes women who read, Jerry!” “What’s the problem?! You love to read, Elaine!” “I know but not for a man, Jerry! It’s so… pompous. I shut it down.” “You shut it down? You read and you shut it down?” “I shut it down, Jerry! It was irritating!”
In between the romance and the beautiful prose, the situations and people involved are so full everyday awkwardness and irritation and humor. It’s like when a friend tells you how a date or a party went versus when an acquaintance does. All the little social friction is included.