Entering Jane Austen's World

A review of The Annotated Pride and Prejudice - an edition of Austen's great novel, being published this month, which contains more than 2,300 explanatory notes on every possible aspect of Jane Austen's world. Sounds fantastic to me!

But is it necessary? William Grimes writes:

The reader who does not know a farthing from a guinea, it’s safe to say, will nonetheless grasp the great drama of attraction and repulsion that plays out between Darcy and Elizabeth. The cut and thrust of their conversation is timeless. Generations of young women who do not know the first thing about an entailed estate or a quadrille will recognize in Austen’s heroine a kindred spirit, a contemporary, a valued ally in the eternal war between the sexes.

Grimes also writes:

Certain writers create worlds that readers do not want to leave, ever. Extreme devotees of Austen do not simply enjoy the novels, they want to sit in the living room at Longbourn with the Bennet sisters, drinking tea and analyzing Darcy’s behavior.

For me, I think I'd prefer to hang out with Lizzie and Jane, walking the grounds or cutting and drying flowers. After all, Lydia, Kitty, Mary and Mrs Bennet would all be in the living room...