It might have started with seeing Emma at the Cincinnati Shakespeare in March. I know I saw Pride and Prejudice there in the last couple of years. But I had never read any of Jane Austen – I always assumed it would be that turgid Victorian you-are-taking-too-much-time-to-tell-me-how-the-garden-looks prose. Of course, I wasn’t realizing it was written a hundred years before that. And that Jane doesn’t spend much time on gardens, etc.
But then Curtis Sittenfeld’s Eligible – A Modern Retelling of Pride and Prejudice appeared in the book reviews and on the bookshelves – so I grabbed one and read it. Read it straight through most of a weekend. And then read it straight through again.
Since then, I’ve gotten the P.D. James murder mystery version – Death Comes to Pemberley, and the actual original Pride and Prejudice, which I had to wait several weeks for from the library. And I just spent part of this afternoon reading the juicy parts from Eligible again.
I’m also thinking about getting Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, which is also a movie. I personally find it very hard to believe I am thinking about that – but I am!