What are you reading at the minute?

I am reading Jane Austen's Persuasion again. I had been reading crime novels, watching true crime on television and looking at news bulletins - possibly the most depressing of all - and I decided that what I need is some TLC in the form of a book where love wins the day and everyone lives happily ever after. We all need something, some scrap of comfort to hold on to when we think the world has turned on its head. And sometimes we just need to curl up with a book which we know won't disappoint us. I will read Mansfield Park and Sense and Sensibility later on in the year when it is dark and cold outside and Christmas still seems that bit too far away to feel the warmth of the season of good will.
In the meantime, I have been to a few charity shops and my reading list currently is John Grisham's The Brethern. I have to say that I am not a big fan of Grisham, preferring the film adaptation of his novels. He does write an intriguing story but somehow I never feel much empathy for his characters. That is what writing and reading is all about - it is like picking your friends. There are lots of people you enjoy meeting now and again but you consider them acquaintances, whereas your friends, with all their faults and all your own faults, are still your favourite companions. You turn to them with pleasure whenever you can.
Next on my reading list is Joanna Trollope's An Unsuitable Match. Trollope is a prolific writer - this is her twenty first novel. I have read several of her books. I like her style. I seem to breathe the perfume of an English garden when I open one of her books. She writes about the complexities of family life and family loyalties and although not everything turns out as the characters hope or expect, the endings are always highly satisfactory.
Last on my little reading list is a novel called Corridors of Power by C.P. Snow, first published in 1964. I have never read any of his works. He once wrote that "if you pursue happiness you'll never find it."
I don't know what to think of Corridors of Power, whether I will like it or even finish reading it. I know it is going to be about politics and those involved in politics. Snow himself served in the British Civil Service and in the government. I will have to be in the mood for this sort of book, I feel.
That's the thing about reading. It's like a journey you set out on, not quite sure what or who you will meet on the way but that's what makes it a big adventure.
What are you reading and what made you decide to read it?

A Letter to Jane Austen

Dear Jane Austen,

I have read all your novels and loved them all with just one exception: Northanger Abbey.
I return to them again and again. It's like visiting old friends. Emma Woodhouse and her father who is so careful of his health, Eleanor and Marianne making do on a low income, Fanny Price living in the awesome environs of Mansfield Park. I hardly need mention the lively Elizabeth Bennet and the stuffy Mr. Darcy, not that Mr. Darcy would be everyone's fancy but the telling of his proposal to Elizabeth and her spirited refusal is a treasure among "romance" novels.

You grew up in a world where women had to marry in order to have what was known as a comfortable provision. Or they had to be rich, like Emma Woodhouse. We know that you were not wealthy. Yet you refused to accept the norms of your day and your heroines are all rebels in their own way with the possible exception of Fanny Price. Many readers are impatient with Fanny but you  remained true to the character - given her upbringing and circumstances, it is highly unlikely that Fanny would have been a rebel. That is what makes a talented author, to know the characters you have put on paper and understand how they would react.

Having said all that, I can't tell you how depressing I find it when modern authors "build" on your stories - murders and vampires included! - and books are published on your private life and "wild love affairs".  I have read a collection of your letters many of which concerned domestic matters. You were most entertaining when you described acquaintances or people you had met and were very proud of recognizing an "adultress" on one occasion despite having been told she was not the one. I have read one or two biographies of your life and as far as I can gather, you fell in love with a dashing young man (I feel you built Wickham's character around him) and refused another gentleman's offer. There might have been more romance inbetween but as your sister Cassandra burned all your letters during a bad period of your life, we are never going to find out all the details. And we don't need to. We can admire your work and enjoy all the nuances of your characters (and compare them to people in our circle of acquaintances!).

So, thank you Jane Austen, thank you for the pleasure I get whenever I re-read one of your novels. You are a treasure!