Advent with Austen
by Charlotte Reads Classics
November 27th until Christmas Eve is Advent with Austen. And indeed, Advent in general.
I’m planning to read as much of this list as possible, although what I don’t manage I’m sure I’ll get to at some point:
- Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen
- Emma by Jane Austen
- Lady Susan / The Watsons / Sanditon by Jane Austen
- Death Comes to Pemberley by P. D. James
- Jane’s Fame by Claire Harman
- Jane Austen: A Life by Claire Tomalin
I’ve never read Sense and Sensibility, Emma or the unfinished stories before so I’m looking forward to completing the Austen novels. My currently read Austen’s are ranked:
Northanger Abbey
Persuasion
Pride and Prejudice
Mansfield Park
It’ll be interesting to see whether this changes at all after this month. I’ll confess it is hard to imagine anything beating Northanger Abbey or anything being worse than Mansfield Park! Death Comes to Pemberley will be my first attempt at reading an Austen sequel; it takes place six years after Elizabeth and Darcy’s marriage in Pride and Prejudice. I think that if anyone could pull it off, P. D. James could – something about the tone of her writing feels possible. Other than snippets of information gathered from The Jane Austen Book Club, I know pretty much nothing about Austen herself. Claire Tomalin has written biographies of so many authors I like that I really want to actually read one. Claire Harman’s book seems to capture the spirit of Advent with Austen; what makes her so timeless and why we want to read her books today. Time to get the books out…
Charlotte Reads Classics 
Glad to see you’re joining in – that is quite a Stack Of Books!
I also want to read the PD James sequel so can’t wait to see what you think when you get to it.
Jenna
http://www.closetclassicist.blogspot.com/
What a wonderful pile of books. Jane’s Fame is a gem, and though I wasn’t sure about Death Comes to Pemberley at first, when I read an extract I was smitten.
Very curious to hear how you’ll like Death Comes to Pemberley. I haven’t liked sequels to Austen much, but it sounds like this could actually work. I agree with Fleur that Jane’s Fame is a wonderful read.
Wow, what a list! And here I’m worried about even finishing Sense & Sensibility on time for the readalong… good luck with all that and enjoy!
I can’t WAIT to finish my Austen books!! I wish I had time to take part in this awesome event. Austen seems perfect for the holidays. But I’ll be getting back to her, definitely, in 2012.
Sense & Sensibility is my favorite by Austen. I hope you enjoy it. 🙂
Also have Jane’s Fame on the TBR, but decided to leave to ’till next year. I’m looking forward to see more reviews of PD James’ book. So far I’ve only see one 🙂