Pride and Prejudice

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I first came across Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen through the BBC serial adaptation in about 1995. At the time my opinion on it was rather low as I viewed it as a bunch of women who's only thought in life was snaring a good husband. My opinion did improve on reading the book but I still did not really appreciate and enjoy the love story in it until rereading it after I got married. I do think that having found a husband probably makes it easier to appreciate.

As with Sense and Sensibility, Pride and Prejudice contains a range of characters who do not always seem to suffer the consequences of their wrong actions. However the wrong actions are clearly indicated as such so this is not a problem. Reading it straight after Sense and Sensibility I did notice a number of similarities but this did not stop the book from being enjoyable and I would like to read Jane Austen's other works sometime. One thing which particularly struck me this time was that the pride and prejudice was not just on Mr Darcy's part but also on Elizabeth's part. I like the way that people's strengths and weaknesses are discussed and I can see that it is about much more than a bunch of women trying to ensnare husbands.

Having read this book, it is much better than I remembered and definitely one to keep.

Sense and Sensibility

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I was interested to reread Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen because I came out as Elinor Dashwood in a quiz I took ages ago. I would say that a distinguishing feature of Elinor's character is that unlike her sister Marianne who grieves publicly when she feels she has been wronged and wallows in self pity, Elinor is much more quiet about her suffering and only allows others to know of her suffering when necessary. She prefers not to have others know and discuss her affliction with her. In this respect I am probably quite similar as I tend to prefer not to tell other people about trials and difficulties until well after the fact so for instance when I was pregnant and admitted to hospital with hyperemesis gravidarum I was very upset that my husband had given our minister permission to announce it at the Bible Study as I would rather have kept it private. (He didn't realise I didn't want people to know and had even thought about what I would want made public before he gave permission.)

Anyway, back to the book:

Sense and Sensibility follows the fortunes of sisters Elinor and Marianne Dashwood following the death of their father. Although some characters who do wrong do not appear to suffer any ill consequences, the chief one does and those who have been wronged seem happy that although they appear materially worse off, in fact they are better off than those who wronged them. The book places a high value on good attributes (such as patience, forbearance, kindness and forgiveness) and disapproves of bad attributes (such as gossiping, materialism, dishonesty and unfaithfulness).

In addition to being a book which I consider suitable to read, it is also a book I enjoyed and I am definitely keeping it.

Far from the Madding Crowd

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Far from the Madding Crowd by Thomas Hardy is a varied book. A lot of it is fairly bleak but overall it is much less so than Tess of the D'Urbervilles and it has a more or less happy ending.

There are two main characters who do wrong in the book. The first is Bathsheba Everdene who foolishly plays with Mr Boldwood's feelings and leads him on by sending him a Valentine with the words "Marry me" on it as a joke. It is portrayed as a foolish deed and something she lives to sorely regret illustrating clear consequences to wrong actions. The second is Sergeant Troy who behaves dishonourably towards more than one woman. He is portrayed throughout as a villain and his misdeeds are certainly punished in the end.

Overall I am quite happy to keep this book as it clearly distinguishes good/bad and right/wrong and has much discussion on the wisdom of various characters' actions. I particularly like that it shows the great folly in leading someone on in regard to your affections for them.

Shirley

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To me Shirley by Charlotte Brontë is a strange book. It seems to meander and wander monotonously around till reaching its conclusion with almost no plot. Despite this, I did find some interest in the book was in the historical context and character study. I would probably say that the character study in the book is a much greater strength than the plot.

Almost all of the characters in the book are portrayed as trying to be good with mainly the anonymous Luddite rioters being portrayed as bad although with some sympathy to the conditions which have driven them to such action. Even though most characters are "good" the book is by no means deficient in discussion of the flaws both in the personality and actions of various characters. Indeed the book spends a great deal of time moralising over the conduct and defects of the characters.

Although I would probably choose many other books to read before I chose this one, I think it is good in it's portrayal of characters and events and so I will keep it.

The Moonstone

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The Moonstone is the second book I own by Wilkie Collins and is in a similar style to the first. As with The Woman in White, I find I am completely captured by the story and follow all the twists and turns in wonder as to what will happen next. It is very cleverly put together and follows a similar form of narration in that it is narrated by a number of different characters.

Although most of the "good" characters live happily ever after, there is more tragedy in this than The Woman in White which I think makes it more realistic. Throughout the book there is a good deal of confusion as to who is good and who is bad and whether certain characters are doing what is right but eventually all becomes clear and those who have done wrong get their comeuppance.

The Moonstone and The Woman in White are cleverly constructed and are two of my favourite books so I may try and get hold of more books by Wilkie Collins after I have finished going through the books we already have.

Digital Decluttering

Since we probably won't have internet access straight away after we move, I will be limited to an hour a week online at the library. In preparation for this I decided it was time for some long overdue digital decluttering.

To free up the time needed to start off with, I stopped reading blogs. I then started by working through the messages in the inbox of one of my e-mail accounts. If it required any action (such as a reply) then I took the action and then either filed or deleted the e-mail. If it was from a mailing list then I unsubscribed. Each time I logged on I would start with the most recent e-mails and work backwards. Eventually I got through then all although it was embarassing to find I had an e-mail from December I had never replied to. Next I went through all the folders deleting e-mails I no longer needed and consolidating some of them together. Now I have five folders instead of about a dozen and when I log on I don't have a mountain of e-mails to delete. I must have been on at least thirty mailing lists mainly from having online accounts for things like amazon, photo printing companies and various other random things.

Once I had sorted out that e-mail account, it freed up more time online so I started reading blogs through the blogger dashboard (which is quicker than reading through bloglines) and went on to my other e-mail account. This time I went through the folders first deleting and organising (do I really need to keep hundred's of e-mails from e-bay and Amazon going back over five years?) as I knew there was more stuff to clear out. I also switched all the yahoo groups I'm subscribed to to web only except for Freecycle.

Now I am trying to work my way back through the inbox and then I will move on to replying to all my Facebook messages. Having an empty inbox in the e-mail account I've dealt with definitely helps me to deal with things more quickly rather than leaving them to sit and get lost for months.

Digital decluttering works for me.

Decluttering

In the interests of decluttering (and also partly inspired by this post of Ginger's) Hubby and I have decided to rewatch all our videos and DVDs and assess them as to whether we should keep them. I typed up our criteria for assessing to help us and thought I would share them:

Criteria for assessing videos/DVDs

Does it:
• contain profane language;
• condone sinful practice (e.g. homosexuality, adultery etc);
• portray sin as not having any consequences;
• display more detail of things than is acceptable (e.g. sex, drug taking etc.)?

“Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, Idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, Envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like”.

Galatians 5:19-21a

“Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things.”

Philippians 4:8

I'd be interested to hear what criteria others use to assess what they watch.

Books

A little while ago I came across this website: http://www.classical-homeschooling.org/celoop/1000.html. It got me thinking about our books and whether they are all suitable books to be read. I wouldn't advocate only ever reading specifically Christian books but we need to be discerning in what we read as they will influence pur heart and mind:

And he saith unto them, Are ye so without understanding also? Do ye not perceive, that whatsoever thing from without entereth into the man, it cannot defile him; Because it entereth not into his heart, but into the belly, and goeth out into the draught, purging all meats? And he said, That which cometh out of the man, that defileth the man. For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders, Thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lasciviousness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness: All these evil things come from within, and defile the man.
Mark 7:18-23

So; my husband and I have agreed that we will sort through all our books and decide which ones are appropriate to keep and which are not. I will be doing most of the reading/sorting but once I have studied each book I will discuss the book with him so that he can make the final decision. We decided to start with the fiction books as they are more like to contain immorality whereas non-fiction would tend to present non-Christian world views such as evolutionism which we would consider to be incorrect rather than immoral.

I decided to start with our "classic" books as I think they are the ones most likely to be questionable. The website I linked to above used the following criteria to judge books: "Does the book have literary value? Does the book re-emphasize a Biblical worldview or the Judeo-Christian heritage in some way? Does the book teach, through whatever means, what is moral or just or true? Does the book encourage to love and good works? Does the book exemplify warmth, tenderness, courage, humor, and other values and characteristics that we desire our children to be exposed to? Does the book nourish the intellect and fire the imagination? Does the book cross age barriers to be enjoyed by all?" I am trying to use similar criteria and am thinking about whether I would be happy for Baby Girl to read a given book when she is older and what my reasons are for objecting or not. It is quite hard as obviously it is not reasonable to eliminate a book on the basis of a character's wrongdoing so I am having to consider what sort of transgression it is and how it is presented both in terms of narrative and moral stance. By this I mean: Does the author give unecessary/gratuitous detail about things which should/need not be described in so much detail? Is the overall impression given by the book that any sins committed were okay?

I decided straight away to eliminate Tess of the D'Urbervilles and to keep Little Women and Good Wives. I'm now studying The Mill on the Floss to decide whether we shoudl keep it or not. I'll hopefully put a list of the books I'm sorting through on my sidebar soon and I will keep blogging about my progress.