Hello
Joana. I’m glad you accepted to join us here at our online book club to
talk Jane Austen with us. Welcome!
Many
thanks for inviting me, Maria Grazia – it’s a great pleasure to be here!
My first question is: when and how did your
lucky encounter with Jane Austen take place?
If we’re
talking ‘first encounters’, like many of us here, I began reading Jane Austen
in my teens. Real appreciation, though, came much later. At first, I read her
novels for the storyline, but as I grew older, I began to look for context, and
reading them in context made me love them so much more!
And then
came the 1995 adaptation, which I absolutely adored, not only for the usual
reasons – i.e. Colin Firth J - but also for the fantastic attention to detail! Having watched the
miniseries, I was left craving for more. Luckily, I came across ‘The Making of
Pride and Prejudice’, a book explaining how the 1995 adaptation was put
together and I was mesmerised by all the details it mentioned, from the endless
hours spent looking for the perfect location, to the countless photographs and
sketches done in order to get Lydia’s hairstyle right, or Mr. Bennet’s
powdering gown, or the colour and the cut of Darcy’s coat! I was thrilled with
the little inside stories too, like Benjamin Whitrow (Mr. Bennet) recounting
how the period cook was kind enough to ask for his favourite pudding, so that
it could be used in one of the scenes – and how he gorged himself on gooseberry
fool during the first, second and third take, only to end up hating the very
sight of it by the time that particular scene was finally ‘in the can’!
Then,
having devoured the book, unlike Mr. Whitrow and his favourite pudding I was
still left wanting more, so I began trawling the internet until one happy day I
discovered JAFF – and the rest is history!
