Just found this blog-surfing…  food for thought; weigh in and comment if you will; I just couldn’t let this slip by:

From David Ottewell’s blog, quoting David McNulty’s blog:

[McNulty] I finally got round to reading Pride and Prejudice. It’s brilliant in all the ways people say it is, but there were points about three quarters of the way through when I was thinking – get on with it. Am I just a philistine or could she have done with a good editor?

[Ottewell] Great stuff. Actually, when it comes to Pride and Prejudice I am sympathetic to the fictional diarist Adrian Mole, who (from memory) was sacked from a library for moving the collected works of Jane Austen from the ‘classics’ section to ‘light romantic fiction’…

[Comments]

I think P&P is a bit of a girl thing!!

Posted by: Kate | December 11, 2008 11:46 AM

Kate,
Yeah, maybe. But I honestly think – and stop me if I am going to far – that Jane Austen is nothing more than an witty, perceptive chronicler of the dull and pointless mores of dull and pointless people, at a dull and pointless time. With a couple of Neighbours-style will-they-won’t-they sagas thrown in to keep people reading.   Posted by: David Ottewell | December 11, 2008 12:01 PM

I guess Austen’s tales contained some of the original love/hate will/they/won’t they plotlines (A Lizzie Bennett and Darcy-style relationship is a chick flick staple) so I think dismissing them as ‘Neighbours style’ is a bit harsh!! Sense and Sensibility is a gorgeous story of sisterly love and romantic redemption and has for P&P, well, without it we would never have had that Colin Firth wet shirt moment would we?

Posted by: Kate | December 11, 2008 01:50 PM

Taming of the Shrew? Pamela? (Both of which are rubbish, anyway.)

Posted by: David Ottewell | December 11, 2008 02:12 PM

Actually, thinking about it, I think Beatrice and Benedict from Much Ado About Nothing are the best will they/won’t they pair (and early than Lizzie/Darcy). Especially as they are old foes, and get tricked into falling in love.

Posted by: Kate | December 11, 2008 02:38 PM

I’ve often felt that the YES campaign’s stream of statements saying that they are outraged and demanding that people apologise to them had the whiff of an Austen character.

Anyway David, 24 hours from the biggest political event in Manchester’s recent history and you’re offering lit crit on a one-on-one basis to your readers. Impressive multi-tasking.

Posted by: Nigel | December 11, 2008 04:01 PM

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Hurray for Kate, whoever you are!