The Jane Austen Book Club watched the film version of Pride and Prejudice in May. Although it omitted a lot of nuances from the book, it was an enjoyable watch.

In June we will be discussing Mansfield Park and watching excerpts from the film.  Austen starts to dissect some new behaviours that are beginning to break down the strict rules of her social class.

​Meg Dillon

At our April session we finished watching the film Sense and Sensibility and discussed the similarities and differences in these two books drafted much earlier but revised together during Austen’s later creative period.

Austen explores the difficulties of choosing a life partner in these two novels. Women without dowries were almost unmarriageable and formed the larger part of governesses and companions in middle class households. Younger sons too, who did not inherit the larger part of a family estate had to search for a woman with a substantial dowry that could keep them both as a first priority for financial survival. Dowries of £30,000 enabled the pair to buy an estate and create an income for themselves.

While Austen celebrates the pairs in these novels who were able to marry for love, she doesn’t deride those who chose a marriage of convenience and suggests that some of her characters made a good showing of their choices.

Next month we will watch the film of Pride and Prejudice and conclude our look at this novel.

Meg Dillon