Last year I took part in Advent with Austen but only managed to read four of Jane Austen’s wonderful novels. To be honest, I was starting to feel a bit Austened out and was thankful when the month was over and I could pick up a completely different type of book. This year, on the lead up to Halloween, I was looking for a slightly spooky read, perfect for cuddling up with in the evenings, and from my first reading of Northanger Abbey a few years ago, I thought it was just the thing!
My second reading of Northanger Abbey didn’t engage my interest as much. I remember the book being full of tension and creepiness. Instead, the ‘creepy’ parts are rather silly, which I’m sure is the point, showing the ‘heroine’s’ naivety and over active imagination. I was disappointed that I didn’t get the same feel from the book, but still enjoyed the read, even if it was a bit slow. Continue reading
This is the fourth book that I read for 
Pride and Prejudice is the most popular of Austen’s novels and the most re-told. Therefore, when I first read it quite a few years ago I was determined to not like it! When I look back on my feelings of the book, I thought Elizabeth Bennet was selfish, rude and not at all a heroine for women to be proud of. Now that I have read the book a second time, I am rather ashamed.
I like to think of Persuasion as a bit of a back-to-front love story. There is no gradual falling in love and no eyelash fluttering flirtations leading up to an engagement – at least not for Anne, the pretty and polite protagonist. There may be girlish flirtations and gossip involving the other girls in her circle, but Anne’s heart was taken seven long years earlier, and now can never love another. The man in question is Frederick Wentworth, a good looking and decent enough man, but who at the time had “nothing but himself to recommend him”. At the age of nineteen, young Anne was persuaded by her father and her loyal friend Lady Russell to pull out of the engagement. 
When I found out it was the 200th anniversary of this much celebrated classic, I immediately hurried to my bookshelf to check that I still had my, as yet, unopened copy. With a thrill of excitement, I found it among all of my other unread books. Now you may be shocked, but I have never actually read Sense and Sensibility. It’s one of those books that has been on my To Read list ever since I can remember, so it was nice to have an excuse to finally read it!
Bundle of Books 