Sense and Sensibility
Emma
by Jane Austen
Jane Eyre
by Charlotte Bronte
Loved all three books by Austen, with Pride and Prejudice most satisfying. Auntie Jane's ladies are beautiful, idealistic, independent, witty and worldly; her writing, with biting humor, displays a seemingly realistic picture of the old British society in the early 19 century: its foolishness, provincialism, and parties, lots of parties. After all the intrigues and confusions, there is a happy ending for all who have fallen in love, thus guaranteeing the ultimate joy of reading.
It's harder to warm up to Jane Eyre than to sympathize with, but she won over this reader with her intelligence, courage and her capacity for love, despite a nightmarish childhood, a humble beginning of youth and the unbearable hardship she endured while running away from Mr. Rochester . Her friendship with Helen Burns was sad but beautiful; that with Diana and Mary was endearing and so ... womanly.
I did not re-read Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte because its dramatic impression on me decades ago has never been forgotten.
In real life, Austen was a tough lady and Bronte sisters no less so. But what lively and eternally fresh books they have written.
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