Jane Austen

"Let other pens dwell on guilt and misery." -- Jane Austen

I am the perfect cliche of a high school English teacher. One of my favorite books of all time is Pride and Prejudice. I love, love, love it. I have read it more times than I can count. Everytime I come back to it, it's fresh and new. It's totally charming. I always want to be Elizabeth and find my Darcy, my foil.

I have two pieces of jewelry with JA quotes on them. I wear them almost every day. They say words you wear next to your skin have "special powers." Funny...I don't feel like a super hero... :)

I have read several of the other Austen novels, although by no means all of them, but P and P is my favorite. Lately, I've been on an absolute binge of reading sequels, some of them well-done, some of them not, to the original story. The best ones I've found so far are Mr. Darcy Takes a Wife and the Fitzwilliam Darcy, Gentleman series.

What is it about this story that draws hopeless romantics? I realized how many sisters I probably have in my Darcy worship when I saw You've Got Mail for the first time. If it's widespread enough to have made it into a semi-smarmy movie like that, there must be a lot of us.

I think the draw is watching those two perfectly matched characters square off. How rare is it to find a person who balances you? Although the two of them have some marked differences, the core elements are complementary.

I love the verbal fencing matches they have, but I would have to feel a very strong connection with somebody before I could be that forthright with my opinions. Once, a long, long time ago, I was told that I was judgmental. Even though the person who told me that was mad at the time, it's stuck with me. This has made me very hesitant to give strong opinions to any person I don't know well. Elizabeth Bennet I'm not.

Maybe some day I'll find my balance. It's a nice thought. I don't know if there will be a "merry chase" like the novel, but I look forward to finding someone who will walk beside me, not be dominated by my own strength or try to crush it with his own.