JANE.

I love lists. List of the best, or even better, the worst. The worst songs, the worst booktitles and quite possibly the worst blogs. But I DO aim to stay reasonably highbrow, atleast for the first 99 posts. When I turn the mark at a hundred, and there are still noone reading, I'm sure I will, in my desperate state turn to reviewing Twilight movies. But I thought as my first list I should make something that might get people reading, while showing them that I am an intellectual and very highbrow person, who only occasional has washed her hair using fairy liquid. So withour further ad here it is:

My 3 favourite Jane Austen books. And not to cheat you of the worst, my three least favourite.(With some cheating).

Number 3: Mansfield park: 

This is a book famous for peoples dislike of it's main character, Fanny, who most people today would describe as a PollyAnna, a goody-two-shoes , or just dull and gray. But I don't think she is any of those things, what she is is someone who will not compromise her morals for anyone. She is convinced of what is right and wrong and stands her ground even when the others stray. She is not happy about a play her cousins are putting up in the house to pass time and have fun, and the modern reader will most likely read her as an overzealous fanatic. But the play is very risque and just having a play was seen as bordering on immorality. It's no secret that actresses were only considered in slitly better standing than prostitutes,. The young men and women acting out a play so erotically charged were bound to break the convention of male and female interaction. In the end fanny get's her guy, not through coqueertter, not through being someone else. But on being good, and righteous.

Number 2: Pride and Predujice:

While many may scream in abject horror over me not choosing this for my number 1 spot, while I do love this book, I may not love it enough to grant it the number one spot. I do love Elizabeth Bennet, and Mr. Darcy, but I am afraid that I have succumbed to much of the predujice that the book is so strongly against. He is just too annoying at first and too self-absorbed. I am not one to critisize the great romantic hero of our day, but I do not like many of the characters as well as I ought. The desription of the middle sister Mary, as a foolish , plain girl who thinks herself more clever than she is, doesn't really sit well with me(for perhaps obvious reasons). And Elizabeth Bennett is just too confident to make me really identify with her. I'm neurotic, insecure, and have a low sense of self-worth , Elizabeth is prudent, secure and knows her mind.This is not the fault of the book but just my own weakness.

Number 1: Sense and sensibility

I love this book. I can easily identify with both sisters, and it's nice to read about someone who has atleast SOME adversity. And the romance between Elino and Edward strikes me as more real than with Darcy and Elizabeth. Edward is shy, reserved and decidedly NOT the dashing hero, OR the antagonist come loveinterest. It's just nice to see a nice normal guy, though morally upright, act, not like a spoiled child or an obnoxious tease but as a real human being. I also love that Marianne winds up withe the gentle and loving colonel instead of the pompous, annoying, spineless idiot that is Willoghby. For much of the novel Marianne is the typical teenager, but she learns that love is NOT just wailing out shakespeare as a bleating goat -