There is a very old Pride and Prejudice at home, with yellowed pages and badly damaged. My father may not have thought that this one of the many old books he brought back from the school library in his early years had a great influence on me, and determined my preferences for almost my entire life. The first time I read it, it was as if I had finished reading a romantic and beautiful love fairy tale, and I fantasized about meeting my own Mr. Darcy in the future. So it became an ordinary member of the many books in the bookcase. In the summer vacation after the college entrance examination, my greatest enjoyment was to curl up in the reclining chair while blowing the cold wind, while reading the old books in the bookcase and listening to music. In this way, "Pride and Prejudice" gave me the biggest surprise. It seems that I have been searching for a long time, and finally found a soulmate. The feeling is indescribable. I carefully wrapped the cover of this critically ill baby and transferred it to my own box. This box was specially made before I left home. It contains some of my most precious things since I was a child. I told my parents not to touch my suitcase when I'm not at home... In college, I bought a hardcover Chinese and English version at the Pioneer Bookstore. So I kept it beside my pillow, and I read a few pages before going to bed.
Over the years, a distinction has been drawn between those who like Austin and those who don't. Charlotte, the author of Jane Eyre, disliked Austen very much. But that doesn't seem surprising. In the works of the Brontë sisters, the characters' emotions are so intense and agitated, which runs counter to Austen's forbearance, restraint, and rationality. Watching "Wuthering Heights" once made people feel suffocated, and watching "Jane Eyre" also felt that Rochester's emotions were like a wild horse, lacking the basic binding force of love and hatred. Love is like the tide - the tide rises and the tide falls.
For me, opening a copy of Austin is a comfort in any moment of depression. Austin's world is full of Christian perseverance and peace. There is no crazy love. There is no gnashing of hatred. Wisdom, wit, ridicule, and warmth can be found in every trivial, everyday detail. There is no war. There is no revolution. Only the wind and sunny pastoral scenery. Ladies and gentlemen drinking tea, dancing, parties and visits, occasional outings or excursions, a few letters, a little argument, dozens of characters interspersed and alternated, and soon, everyone is standing by you. The eyes are full of life.
I'm tired of hearing people repeat the Elizabeth and Darcy classic, just like I'm tired of some people talking about "Dream of Red Mansions" as a love triangle. If Austen was just a romance novelist, if she had only created Darcy, a diamond king who crossed the ages, she could not have enjoyed the supremacy of the British literary world. The essence of Austen lies in her precise analysis and perfect reproduction of human nature. Even today, you can easily see the fickleness, selfishness, narcissism, absurdity, stupidity, hypocrisy, treacherousness of human nature in any of the little characters in her writings... The measure is just right, sharp, but full of tolerance with compassion.
The most radiant, not Elizabeth but Charlotte, not Emma but Fairfax, and Anne. They all represent the most splendor of Austin's spiritual world. "Emma"'s novel skills are almost perfect. In contrast, "Persuasion", which has many characters and limited space, makes me feel a little less calm in writing. But the latter is my favorite Austen novel, without him, because it is moving. After eight years, distance and ups and downs in family, property, misunderstanding, resentment, Annie finally came together with Colonel Wentworth. Austin's most emotional story is "Persuasion". Although, Austin's sensibility is always mild. Born in the romantic period, this female writer advocated the neoclassical period - order, reason, proportion and elegance all her life.
order. reason. size. grace. Jane Austen's world is, therefore, timeless.
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