So, after sending Dear Sirs emails, I turned to Jane Austen's quiet novels. Pride and Prejudice, Sense and Sensibility, and Emma are old, familiar favorites so I turned to audio books of Persuasion and Northanger Abbey.
And what a surprise! I'd read both some time ago and remember not being especially impressed. But listening to Persuasion convinced me that this was Jane at the top of her form. I felt better already.
The version of Northanger Abbey I heard was a delight! It was adapted and dramatized by a full cast of well known actors. And for the first time I felt the full comic impact of this tale of a young woman, steeped in the Gothic novels of the time, visiting Northanger Abbey and expecting horrors at every turn.
Austen was likely giggling as she wrote this. Her keen eye for absurdity is on full display here, and I was giggling as I listened.
Such a nice change from real life.
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