Pride and Prejudice, and I

Let’s talk about Pride and Prejudice today.

“It is a truth universally acknowledged that a human in possession of the Pride and Prejudice novel must be in a state of obsession. “

Take it from me, I am living proof. Be warned that this post will just be me singing praises and raving about how magnificent a story Pride and Prejudice is. This entire post could just be me going “eeeeee”, for a thousand words and the point of the post would be exactly the same but I’ll spare you and try to put forth in a coherent manner, exactly why this 200-year-old novel is the best book I have read recently and my new favourite book.

I know you don’t believe me. You don’t get it. (Unless you’ve read it, in which case you do, please comment and rave with me) I have been there. I have had some disdain for “classic” literature over the years, so much so that I even wrote a blog post about it many years ago. Although as I grow older, I have slowly been opening my mind to the idea of re-reading classical literature and giving it a proper shot as an adult. I have also always loved the story behind Pride and Prejudice, never actually having read the original novel in its entirety but being in love with the 2005 movie adaptation of the same for as long as I can remember. Then, I happened to get my hands on the most gorgeous collector’s edition of the novel(As seen on my Instagram reels) and it was meant to be. I was reading Pride and Prejudice, wholly, fully and finally.

Surprise surprise, I absolutely devoured the book. As someone who has been struggling with finding a reading groove, that is insane. I couldn’t help it; Austen’s writing is so gripping and so refreshingly modern! She was so talented and her writing style is so engaging, it keeps you interested the whole time despite the subject matter being seemingly mundane. The book was also ridiculously hilarious and witty with the balance between satire, social commentary and the story itself being just perfect. It was so thoughtful, so surprisingly in-depth! There were no loose ends and it was so well written that I understood why it was a classic. I also learnt that Austen was a rare talent, one of the greats and so criminally underrated.

As a testament to the modernity of the novel, I found myself in Elizabeth Bennet and aspects of her personality in so many ways, even though she is a character I should have nothing in common with; she lives in Regency-era England and I’m in 21st-century India. She is also by far, one of the most well-developed female characters and/or protagonists I have found in literature and had the true pleasure of reading about, despite having been written in the 1800s. If that’s not contemporary writing, I don’t know what is.

Another fact in the same vein is the character of Mr Darcy and the wonderfully written relationship between him and Elizabeth Bennet. He is the ultimate male romantic interest: he admits to his faults, corrects them and is happy to be humbled by Lizzy for nothing to return. His transformation is so amazing and is written in such a nuanced manner, a testament to Austen’s genius. Their relationship also checks off all my boxes and absolutely kills me: the slow burn development, the enemies(ish) to lovers transformation, a healthy and lovely relationship built on so much love and respect. It is, without question, the ultimate ship and the inspiration for so many couples in fiction. Also before I move on, I have to give a shout out to Mr Bennet and his dry quips, they’re my exact brand of humour and I loved them and his character so much.

My next point is going to seem very reminiscent of English literature classes and for that, I apologise. However, I’d be remiss if I didn’t acknowledge the sheer genius of the title itself, it’s so so brilliant! It perfectly encompasses the journey the characters take over the course of the story, Darcy viz a viz his pride and Elizabeth with her prejudices while remaining ambiguous enough and not giving the plot away. I am a sucker for a good play of words and even the title of this delightfully written novel is a work of art in and of itself. How rare and special is that?

Now, onto the adaptations; the obvious next step in loving any story. I have seen two and I love both, for different reasons. One is the 2005 movie adaptation by Joe Wright starring Keira Knightley and Matthew Macfadyen, the other the 1995 BBC TV Miniseries with Colin Firth and Jennifer Ehle. The 2005 movie is special to me because it’s how I discovered the story in the first place but I also believe it does a wonderful job for what it is: not a faithful recreation of the novel but a contemporary take on it, to present the story to modern viewers. There are some liberties but I think it manages to remain true to the love story at heart. Plus, the cinematography and the soundtrack of the movie are so utterly beautiful. The 1995 BBC Miniseries is on the other end of the spectrum, the absolute gold standard of book adaptations. It is so authentic, almost exactly word-for-word from the novel and you can see how much effort has gone into making as Austen imagined it. It definitely manages to take you back to that time and place and is as proper as an adaptation can get.

Luckily for me, this book is over 2 centuries old and has been in the public domain long enough to give rise to a plethora of adaptations, recreations, retellings and what not. So as I close this post, know that you can find me binge-watching all the Pride and Prejudice content I can possibly get my hands on, for as long as possible and also diving into more Austenian fiction because Jane has made me a fan for life. (Help a girl out with suggestions please!)

THIS POST’S QUESTION: Have you read Pride and Prejudice or any other of Austen’s works? How did you like it/them? Comment below with what you think about it, I’d love to hear from you!

 

7 Things I Realised When I Read Harry Potter as an Adult

Let’s talk about reading Harry Potter as an adult today.

After one particularly rough day, during the lockdown, I decided to cope with this unprecedented situation the way I have coped with many things: by reading the Harry Potter series. This has been one of my big personal projects during this time, apart from the work and school and all: rereading the entire Harry Potter series. (That is the 7 books J.K. Rowling wrote, I do not count the Cursed Child, there are fanfictions far better than that travesty.)

I last read the Harry Potter series in 2013 when I was 7 years younger and deep in the throes of my teenage rebellion. Now, in 2020, I’m a young adult, I have grown out of my rebellion and have realised that there is a lot about the world that I do not know. I also already knew the story and all the plot twists and was not going to get any big plot surprises through this read. What I did get was a lot of emotions, rediscovery of the ability to be sucked in a book that I thought I lost to my teens and a lot of realisations. These realisations are what I present to you today and so without further ado, here are 7 things I realised when I read Harry Potter as an adult.

1. Just how tragic James and Lily Potter’s deaths and their whole situation was.

As a kid,21 seemed to be a very grown-up and very far away age. Hence, James and Lily dying at 21, leaving behind their 1-year-old son seemed sad to me but the weight of the tragedy didn’t quite hit me. I am 21 now. 21 is way too early and to go the way they did? It is awful. Add to that the fact that Sirius Black, who was innocent and had just lost his best friends, got blamed for the whole thing by the man responsible for it, framed for another crime he didn’t commit and thrown in prison for 12 years, also at 21. That is such a terrible situation to be in so young and so incredibly tragic. (Also one of the reasons I stand by my belief that we deserve Marauders Era books and movies; they will be tragic but they will be so interesting and these people deserved to be remembered in more ways than the tragic tales they became)

2. Just how great a family the Weasleys were.

The Weasleys were a great representation of being poor, but as a family, absolute gold. The way Molly Weasley immediately sent Harry a Christmas present when Ron realised he probably won’t get one, the way they always took Harry in and provided him with the best of what they could, always checked on him, cared for him, and how they all considered him family and became one when they didn’t have to, was amazing. Be it Molly Weasley’s protectiveness of Harry, the Weasley twins providing him with the Marauders map, Ginny, of course, being his future wife and Ron his best friend through it all and many more such instances, Harry had always had the Weasleys behind him at the moments he needed support. The Weasleys, Hermoine and Hagrid were with him, always and were his family and I did not give them enough credit for this as a child.

3. Just how wonderful a person Harry James Potter was.

Harry Potter had a very tragic life. His parents were murdered, he lived in an abusive household and narrowly escaped death multiple times and lived through a war and lost many close to him. As a kid for me and I suspect many others, Harry suffered from what I call the Protagonist’s Curse. No one said their favourite character was Harry himself, mine was Hermione and people chose any character really, as minor as they could be but not Harry. This is stupid because Harry Potter was an absolute gem of a person. To have gone through what he did, to live through the abuse the Durselys put him through, to be the Chosen One, to lose your few loved ones to the cause and to still be brave and just inherently good when he was so young it absolutely wasn’t fair, is amazing. He was a deeply selfless and wonderful person and this time around I got very affectionate and attached to the kid and I think he deserves a lot more credit than he gets. I didn’t realise how he was just a child living through absolute hell.17 seemed old when I was a kid.

4. Just how wasteful all the deaths felt and, where and how much they (still) hurt. 

All the deaths, right from Cedric Diggory to Remus Lupin, were impactful yet felt so wasteful. Cedric was a great guy and a good person, and he died so suddenly, so young. Sirius Black, who had lived a tragic fate he didn’t deserve, had finally built a relationship with his godson, just happened to get Stunned in the wrong place. Dumbledore, who is, admittedly a character with shades of grey, deserved a better death, not the one where he was disarmed and weak already. Mad-eye Moody too, as a brave Auror, deserved a better way to go. Dobby, and Hedwig, were too innocent and too pure to have gone out the way they did. Severus Snape, a very grey character, didn’t quite deserve that gruesome death. Fred Weasley, jokester and happy guy, did not deserve to die young. Remus and Tonks, who had just had a new baby boy, shouldn’t have died leaving him an orphan as an echo of the deaths that started this all, James and Lily Potter’s. All these deaths had a far-reaching impact and just really really hurt but were true to the fact that in war, the young, the innocent, the old and the seasoned die all the same. (Also dead: my heart after reading about all deaths these again)

5. Just how well-developed and well-written the Magical world was

As a child, I knew the books were good because I loved them but as an adult, who has read a lot more books, I have come to realize just what a great piece of writing they are.  I can only hope and dream that one day I can write something half as good as these books. The world and its nuances are so well developed and so rare, J.K Rowling really made magic, in the most literal sense with these books. They are something special, something that only happens, once in a while. Hogwarts, the Ministry of Magic, places like Diagon Alley, Hogsmeade etc. are just testaments to a world well developed. In fact, it is so well developed that many people(Myself included) would rather reside in this fictional world than our real one and that is saying something.

6. Just how much better the books were than the movies.

Don’t get me wrong. the movies are great by themselves, I love them and will watch them if they’re on for nostalgia reasons. However, when stacked against the books, the books win by a wiiiide margin. With the books the places your imagination can go, the movies can not. So much is better in the books; Ron’s entire character, Ginny’s entire character(Travesties these two are in the movies really), Hermione is well, human, the entire battle of Hogwarts(And most duel scenes or fighting really) At the end of the day, the books are the OG’s and the movies simply can’t compare.

7.Just how much I love Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban

When I was young, if you asked me my favourite Harry Potter book, it would, without a shadow of a doubt, be Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. It was the most complex, it answered all the questions, it added depth to characters like Dumbledore, it revealed the huge plot twist that was Severus Snape, all in all, it was the perfect culmination to the series. My favourite movie, however, has always been Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, as it is the truest to the book. This time, I enjoyed reading the Prisoner of Azkaban book and realised that it is my favourite Harry Potter book now. It introduces many new concepts like Azkaban and beloved characters like Sirius and Lupin, Hogwarts has great teachers for once so the education is fun to read about, the Marauders come into the picture and most importantly to me, it is the last happy book. With Voldemort coming back in the next one and the war starting, there is a very obvious tone shift and for me, the happiness in this book and in Harry, who as I mentioned I grew very attached to mattered a lot.

THIS POST’S QUESTION: What have you realised about the Harry Potter books as you have grown up? Comment below with what you think about it,I’d love to hear from you!

 

 

 

My First Love.

Lets talk about my first love today.

I wanted to start off with a little apology cum explanation. I’d been having some eye trouble leading to complete gadget abstinence due to which I couldn’t post on here. I also have a major study load given my position in the last year of school that will only increase as the year passes, so I cannot promise posts always but I will try my best to update regularly. I’m so sorry and I want to thank you all for being the best people ever. I love you all so much! Now, let’s get back to topic.

Are you expecting a love story? A chance meeting, a funny joke, a shared experience and a fairytale-esque metaphorical falling? Now, lets gets you back down from the clouds by telling you that this is not a love story. Well, it is, but not the kind you’re expecting.

When I was about 3,I got acquainted with someone I grew to love so so much. A book. I learned to read earlier than most people and was soon addicted to it. I’ve loved stories for as far as I can remember, my parents used to read to me almost every night during my childhood and those are some of my absolute favourite childhood memories. I learned reading and that calmed down the hyperactive child that I was, physically and mentally. It gave my overactive imagination something to do and made me sit down in one corner, silent as a mouse, which was unheard of before.

An accurate representation of how I was, although I did not engage in book sitting and would stuck to just chairs instead.

 

With the amount of reading that I did ,I also became really fast at it. As an example, there is an incident from my childhood that made me realise that everyone else did not read like me and was quite an eye opener. When I was 7,my school librarian used to give us books of her own  choice to take home for the week. We had to start reading it in the library and while everyone was at it, I generally would read through the entire book during that half hour and would then come back to her asking for a new book. She thought I was being troublesome and would just turn up to her without reading. I, at that age, didn’t realise that she could see it that way and went to her every time, insistent as ever. Eventually she stopped issuing books to me altogether saying that I didn’t read and would just keep swapping books. Then, when I laid the situation out to my mother, she spoke to her and explained that simply put, I read too fast. I finished every book I said I did and if she wanted to check she could always quiz me on it. So, my librarian, who was unaware of this, started quizzing me and realised that I enjoyed reading quite a lot, which made her like me very much. She kept books aside especially for me in a little drawer in her desk and would give me books way advanced than what other children my age were reading. Eventually, she even started a literary club in the school and I am proud to be the first member of that club. We sat and discussed books and wrote stories.Those were fun days, I’ve got so many fond memories from those.

Us at the literary  club, basically.

 

My first official favourite author was Roald Dahl, he was the first whose multiple books I’d loved and he had written my first ever favourite book, Matilda, which was about a girl like me who absolutely loved to read! I finished up Roald Dahl,Enid Blyton, Hardy Boys, Nancy Drew. Encyclopaedia Brown and all the classics by the time I was 8 or so, and then my librarian gave me the book she’d especially kept aside for me, the first book in the Harry Potter series ,Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, and that began a love story of its own, that spanned many years. That though, is a tale for another time.

My most favourite childhood character.

The start of a new love story.

THIS POST’S QUESTION: Did you have a favourite book in your childhood? If yes, then what was it? Comment below with what you think about it, I’d love to hear from you!

Are Classics ‘Classic’?

Lets talk about classic literature today.

I’m an avid reader. I love reading and as far as I can remember, have always loved it. For someone with the kind of overactive imagination that I have, reading is like therapy. I don’t have a particular genre I read either, I read everything as long as it manages to capture my attention. So, that being said, I’ve read among other things, several classics. Sometimes for school, sometimes on my own, several books that feature on almost every “Top 100 Classics” list.

After reading this assortment of books from completely different genres that share only one thing that is there ‘classicness’ ,I had one question. What exactly does the term ‘classic’ mean in literature? Does it include just every other good, well-written book, that people liked and enjoyed at that point in time? Or is it actually books that are ever-appealing, ever-hilarious and ever-intriguing? The kind that are always relevant and change you to your very core?

This is where it gets nasty.(Meaning I might just say I don’t like your favourite book) This might just be my age, my sense of humour or the point at which I read these. But these are my opinions and how I felt after reading these. Sorry in advance.

First off, Three men In a Boat by Jerome K Jerome. I felt it was very dragged and slow and there wasn’t much happening . This book is often called one of the funniest books ever written and yes, I agree some bits were amusing but most of the time the comedy just felt slapstick and not that funny. We were asked to read this for school and that might be why I didn’t like it but I struggled to finish it and that’s why its right here(For the sake of one of my friends who simply loves the book.). The issue, I simply deduced was that the jokes, called timeless on the cover itself ironically, were anything but. They felt like they’d lost their appeal to the ravages of time. So, how was this a classic?

Secondly, Catcher In the Rye by J.D Salinger. Hailed and heralded to be ‘ the coming of age story’ every teenager should absolutely read, I was highly disappointed. This was one where the lack of time-less-ness really struck, I could see that it must have been great at the time it was written as I read it, but I just did not relate at absolutely any level. I read it ,but I didn’t enjoy it so much. The question again being, how was this a classic?

Next, My Family and The Other Animals by Gerald Durrell. This book was said to be very hilarious and very timeless but it ended up boring me and being reduced to nothing but a animal fact book. Again, I read this for school so maybe that was why I didn’t like it so much.The question, for the third time being, how was this a classic?

I had began believing that a book being ‘classic’ was just a fad and in all honesty, the best the book could be was a one-time read. But then, I read one real jewel. The one book I call ‘classic’ proudly and maybe there’s more like it that I simply haven’t read. This did what I thought and expected a classic to do, it stirred my very soul. This one being, To Kill A Mockingbird, By Harper Lee. This book was funny, sad, emotional, relatable and respected, all at the same time. It was timeless, truly, it talked about a time and place I had never been in and I could still relate, still laugh, still experience and still be affected. This is one of absolute favourite books and I like it the all the more because it broke my rather concreted belief that classics are anything but classic.

So, to answer the topic, Are Classics ‘Classic’? I’d say it depends on you, the kind of person you are, your age, your mental frame and your beliefs. For all of us, something will be classic, while for others, it won’t.