Jane Austen, Mark Twain

carpocrates

Quotes by Mark Twain on Ms. Austen that I did enjoy:


Jane Austen? Why I go so far as to say that any library is a good library that does not contain a volume by Jane Austen. Even if it contains no other book.
- quotes in Remembered Yesterdays, Robert Underwood Johnson

To me his prose is unreadable--like Jane Austin's [sic]. No there is a difference. I could read his prose on salary, but not Jane's. Jane is entirely impossible. It seems a great pity that they allowed her to die a natural death.
- Letter to W. D. Howells, 1/18/1909

Jane Austen's books, too, are absent from this library. Just that one omission alone would make a fairly good library out of a library that hadn't a book in it.
- Following the Equator

I haven't any right to criticise books, and I don't do it except when I hate them. I often want to criticise Jane Austen, but her books madden me so that I can't conceal my frenzy from the reader; and therefore I have to stop every time I begin. Everytime I read 'Pride and Prejudice' I want to dig her up and beat her over the skull with her own shin-bone.
- Letter to Joseph Twichell, 9/13/1898

impr0v

One wonders why he would read 'Pride and Prejudice' a number of times if he feels so strongly about her work.

funky penguin

impr0v wrote:

One wonders why he would read 'Pride and Prejudice' a number of times if he feels so strongly about her work.

esuaceb s'ti llew nettirw omi

theCzar

funky penguin wrote:

esuaceb s'ti llew nettirw omi

hag, m'i gnitteg a ehcadaeh, pots gnitirw sdrowkcab!

"able was I ere I saw Elba"

simu

I'd pick a book by Jane A. over one by Mark T. anyday.

nesf

Jane Austin’s work is a travesty.

The fact that it was part of the old leaving cert course was both a source of pain and disbelief for me.

That our English teacher chose it over James Joyce really frustrated me when I was in LC.

However in the tempered years of my elder age, I can look back and see with such clarity, that a book devoid of anything but the barest conception of a plot and with characters that make stereotypes look like well rounded and researched characters, does indeed benefit the student. No student could fail to capture the entire scope of the book in anything longer than an A4 page, thus with the 2.5 Pages that they should write on average for the exam they should never be marked down for being unable to appreciate or interpret the text.

The above of course assumes that said student can speak English, and can read and write. Otherwise there is a chance that the student might miss some nuance in the text for their answer. A slim one, but it still exists.

I will acknowledge that she was a master of her particular genre. I'm just glad that we can all take that genre of fiction and send it to some group that burn books. That way I could at least for a short time agree with them destroying books.

Anyone disagree?

funky penguin

Yes. I don't think I could ever condone the destruction of a book.

*Me waits for someone to name certain book and cause me to retract above statement*

Im so nervous!

carpocrates

I don't reckon she ever wrote anything up to the calibre of Huckleberry Finn in any case.

Funky Penguin: I give you: the davinci code

nesf

carpocrates wrote:

I don't reckon she ever wrote anything up to the calibre of Huckleberry Finn in any case.

Funky Penguin: I give you: the davinci code

Nah, the da vinci code was what it was, regular pulp, page turning fiction. It just got hyped up into appearing special which it wasn't.

For a book that should be burned, I point you in the direction of the entire Mills & Boon series. I've never actually read one, or actually seen one up close. But from hearsay they sound well burnable....

funky penguin

nesf wrote:

For a book that should be burned, I point you in the direction of the entire Mills & Boon series. I've never actually read one, or actually seen one up close. But from hearsay they sound well burnable....

How can you want with the destruction of a book you have never read? Somebody out there likes those books, therefore somebody is reading instead of sitting infront of a television screen watching Eastenders or Home and Away.
Isn't that a good thing?

Same goes for DaVinci Code. It may not be well written, but alot of people enjoy reading books they can understand without the need of a dictionary.

funky penguin

theCzar wrote:

hag, m'i gnitteg a ehcadaeh, pots gnitirw sdrowkcab!

"able was I ere I saw Elba"

"a man, a plan, a canal, Panama"

theCzar

funky penguin wrote:

"a man, a plan, a canal, Panama"

http://www.palindromelist.com/longest.htm

nesf

funky penguin wrote:

How can you want with the destruction of a book you have never read? Somebody out there likes those books, therefore somebody is reading instead of sitting infront of a television screen watching Eastenders or Home and Away.
Isn't that a good thing?

Same goes for DaVinci Code. It may not be well written, but alot of people enjoy reading books they can understand without the need of a dictionary.

Eh...

Humour...

You know that thing that religious fundamentalist book burners lack?

funky penguin

theCzar wrote:

http://www.palindromelist.com/longest.htm

Holy crap thats amazing! I was there on the first sectence till I realised it was the whole thing.