Yesterday I finished Pride and Prejudice. It was a terribly slow day at work, so I had plenty of time to devote to the Bennet sisters and their admirers. I spent the last pages just smiling--the ending was no less delightful the second time.
Today Christopher and I went to Winnemac Park and while he napped I wrote about P&P. I found myself trying again and again to articulate what made "good art." I know all too often that I try to force a conclusion while I'm still on the journey, and that I find comfort in labels, though they are limiting. So without making any grand statements, I want to put down a few things about Austen and why I want to spend my summer with her.
I've seen two works of art recently that for different reasons, I did not enjoy. In one I was too aware of the craft--I could see the glue and nails and it distracted me from the picture as a whole. In the other, it was all visual spectacle and nothing else. The symbolism was too opaque, and while I knew I was seeing something stunning that has inspired a cult following, I was bored. I kept wondering if I had time to get a candy bar, but since there was no narrative I had no sense of when the end would come.
P&P continued to evoke reactions from me the second time around. I still felt that punch-in-the-gut shame when Elizabeth read the letter that spoke the painful truth about her family; Mr. Collins makes me roll my eyes but his condescending letters make me angry*; and the joy of lovers reuniting still makes me grin. In other words, I was never bored. P&P makes me feel. I recognize the characters, and I recognize myself in the characters. Most shocking of all, I "just" enjoy reading it. I can appreciate the craft of the novel, but I don't need to; I can glide along with it and simply enjoy. I like that Austen can be brilliant and fun at the same time.
Virginia Woolf loved Austen for her artistry as well as for her simple appeal. Woolf wrote a collection of essays about reading for enjoyment, not for critique, and called the collection The Common Reader. Woolf's essay on Austen is insightful and lively. I love her characterizations of Austen--the baby whisked about by a fairy; the impartial guide with her staff, delineating fancy from reality; the satirist who creates characters merely to behead them; and, my personal favorite: the birdlike creature who carefully and quietly builds a little nest out of small, dusty twigs. Woolf says Austen had: "an impeccable sense of human values." Those values seem unconstrained by time.
What do you like about Austen?
*One of my favorite things on re-reading was that after Elizabeth and Jane read Collins' letter about Lydia, NOTHING WAS SAID. The story just moved on. It didn't talk about their reactions because it was obvious what was felt and Austen wasted no more time on his nauseating, pompous judgement. It was presented, and then left behind.
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