A blog of my running thoughts while reading. *Warning: Spoilers*
The end of the book helpfully filled us in on what happened to everyone after Jane and Elizabeth’s weddings. We got to hear how Lady Catherine responded, what happened to Lydia, what Miss Bingley’s reaction was and even where Mary and Kitty ended up. This was kind of nice, but it was also a bit odd in some ways. I’m glad I read this book, but I’m not sure how much I liked it.
I found it interesting that Elizabeth and Lady Catherine finally had a duel after so much build-up. It was reasonably well worked into the story, however. I didn’t think that having the letter come from Colonel Fitzwilliam worked as well as having it come from Mr. Collins. It just seemed odd. The weird little pulp-romancy things annoy me (”chestnut manes” and “most English parts”). The just feel stupid and unnecessary. I like that Darcy and Elizabeth finally fought side by side, though.
Is Lady Catherine still going to visit Elizabeth? With Mr. Collins dead, why will she be coming? Where will she be getting her news? Or will that part of the story be cut out and the main characters left to their own devices to find each other? It’s very odd. There’s so much that feel so forced about this story, and yet also a great deal that works very well.
The last section of this book was all “Sacred Eloquence” practice speeches. Some were very good, but more than a few focused on why it’s “necessary” to convert the world to Christianity and how absurd it is for an educated person not to be a Christian. There were even pieces about how impossible it is for government to work without religion or for people to act morally without it. The problem is that none of the arguments really worked. It was kind of weird. I felt like not only had none of these writers ever actually met someone who wasn’t Christian, but they just couldn’t imagine what it might be like to think or live in any way other than theirs. I felt like they lived in very sad, tiny worlds (and, unfortunately, there are still quite a few people who think that way).
Both Mr. and Mrs. Collins are dead, which means they won’t be inheriting Mr. Bennet’s estate, so who will be? I do find it interesting that the man who is writing this decided to punish Mr. Wickham (I suspect his injuries are not from an accident, but that remains to be confirmed). It’s gratifying to see him punished, but Jane Austen never felt the need to do so (or if she did, she refrained for the sake of her story). I guess I’m left wondering what’s going to happen to Lydia now. Is she going to visit home or is that impossible with her husband so… incapacitated?
There are some great selections in here. I’ve really enjoyed reading this book. I wish that the practice speeches were attributed better, since some I would like to read more of or learn more about some of them, but I don’t know where to find them. There are several anti-slavery pieces, which is wonderful, but also several pieces discussing the evils and dangers of Native Americans. It’s certainly an interesting collection and I wish Mr. Porter had said more about how he chose what to include!
Um… why is Mrs. Gardner having a totally random affair? What was the point of that? Turning Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy’s chance meeting at Pemberly into a meeting over a zombie attack worked well for this book. It seemed a little odd that the English housekeeper met them in a kimono and bound feet. There’s been such a Japanese vs. Chinese thing running all through this book and yet Mr. Darcy’s totally Japanese house as a servant with really randomly bound feet, which is a totally Chinese custom. It just seemed very odd to me.
This is a fascinating book. Unlike most instructional books of this nature today, there is no attempt by the author to either neutralize his presence in the text or to avoid commentaries on previous works or the subject which the student is not actually expected to be familiar with. Many of Mr. Porter’s comments (some of them rather extended) appear to be part of some kind of scholarly rivalry based on a fundamental disagreement about core principles relating to the subject. While these types of rivalries still very much exist, they rarely make it into writings intended to instruct beginning students. Of course, this may be partially because students are no longer as involved in academic discussions as they were once both permitted and expected to be. Anyhow, I’m enjoying the book very much and think this type of study of rhetoric could be very useful for many people who haven’t had access to it today (not to mention some of the lessons to priests and ministers would be useful to many people in those professions who seem not to get the same training or advice today). It’s too bad none of the public speaking classes I had growing up covered useful things like this. They were all focused more on format and less on actual delivery, which is a really big shame, since poor delivery will ruin the best speech and good delivery can make a poor speech appealing to listen to!
Mr. Darcy believing Jane to be stricken is actually a reasonable explanation for his behavior with Mr. Bingley. I still can’t understand how nobody suspects Charlotte, though. The episode with the wall in the city was extremely random and unnecessary. It added nothing to the story, I’m afraid I don’t see the point. The same goes for the church scene on the way to London. I just don’t see why they were included.
This is an absolutely fascinating book so far. It’s really interesting and incredibly illuminating. I am surprised at how little everyday speech has apparently chanted since this book was written because he accurately describes many of the most common American accents today. It’s fun to read this book – physically hold it and smell it and turn the pages, since it’s so very old. I find myself wondering who else held this book and turned these pages! The author has some great comments about Shakespeare and I’m looking forward to reading more of them.