Today I will talk about Pride and Prejudice written by Jane Austen and published in 1813.I read this book one year ago and I liked it very much because of his romantic story but also because of his « writing style ».

The story tell us the sentimental life of 5 sisters and the main character is Elisabeth Bennet who falls in love of Mr Darcy (first she hates him), the friend of the man she must married. In fact, the mother of Elisabeth is determined to find an husband for each of her daughters to assure their future. Elisabeth notice all the ploys of her mother to reconcile her and her neighbour Mr Bingley with irony and even if she appreciates him she’s not in love.

Behind this romantic comedyJane Austen critisizes the rigidity of the English society of the XVIII-XIXth Century. Indeed at the time a woman must be married and she doesn’t chosen her husband. The main theme of this book is marriage and money but also sincerity and truth,

I like this book because it’s sensitive and writte with humor and characters are engaging and appealing. The decor plunges us in a beautiful world with beautiful garden and hill, a little cottage and a large castle… I remember I was very fascinated by this book and his story!

      I would like to talk about a book I read during the holidays: The importance of Being Earnest. It’s a play written by Oscar Wilde. The first was performed in 1895. The plot is rather complicated. It’s the story of two young men: Jack, known in the city as Ernest Moncrieff, and Algy. Jack, normally lives in the country where he must take care of his ward Cecily but he has invented a sick brother whose name is Ernest to escape his social obligations and in order to go in the city as often as he wants. In the first act, he discovers that his friend, Algy has invented also an ill brother Bunbury in order to go to the country as often as he wants because contrary to Jack, he lives in the city. He also proposes to Algy’ cousin: Gwendolen Fairfax. However, her mother refuses this engagement. In the second act, Algy goes to the country, to Jack’s home in order to meet Cecily. He introduces himself as being the brother of Jack. He decides to propose to Cecily, when Jack arrives and discover his friend. This situation provokes a lot of misunderstandings. It is a sort of satire of the wedding. The title is built on a pun with the words Earnest and Ernest. Gwendolen refuses to get married with Jack if his name is not Ernest.

     I advice you to read this comedy. It’s really gripping because of the complicated plot and the misunderstandings. It’s also really funny. Moreover, I think that it’s rather easy to read it in English and I find it could be an illustration for the thematic: Meeting people, love and friendship.

      The play has a lot of film adaptation such as: the films of the same name as the play by Anthony Asquith in 1852 and that of Oliver Parker in 2002. I have never seen them. Well, I don’t know if they are good. And you have you already read or seen the play ? Did you enjoy it ?

Trailer of The importance of being Earnest by Oliver Parker, released in 2002 :

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tMrcooqyO2g[/youtube]

Hi everybody! Hope that your holidays are fun!

I am going to talk about the novel « Emma ». When we talk about a novel of Jane Austen, it’s always about « Pride and Prejudice », which I don’t have read but seems to be sooooo boring…
So even if I am not a big fan of this kind of book, I am going to talk about « Emma »: It could be pleasant for some of you who find that Jane Austen is incredible!

So this novel was first published anonymously in 1815. The heart of the story is about Emma, who wants that single persons can find an idealistic love. In this book we also find the notion of mores, a little like in Madame Bovary in french

I found this novel rather « kitch », but I would like to have your opinions, interepretations etc…
And if you have also read some novels of Jane Austen which are less boring, write it down!

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/e/e6/Anniehallposter.jpg

Annie Hall is the story of Alvy Singer, an American comedian, played by Woody Allen who looks back on his relationship with Annie Hall, as Diane Keaton. He got married with two women before meeting her. But she is different. He doesn’t understand why they are separated. Well, he describes his relationship with her. We can see their moments of happiness and crisis.

This comedy directed by Woody Allen was released in 1977. This film received the Oscar of the best director, the best movie, and the best actress for Diane Keaton.

I think that it’s one of the best film directed by Woody Allen if it is not the best. Woody Allen is my favourite film director. It’s a funny film and it’s really gripping. Woody Allen is really great as film director as actor.

It’s also interesting because I think that this film could be a good illustration for the thematic: Meeting people, love and friendship because the 2 mains characters are going to love each other, separate each other and become friends. I really advice you to see it.

If you want, we can see the movie trailer : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TBzHphcc2Jw

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TBzHphcc2Jw[/youtube]

« All the world’s a stage,
And all the men and women merely players.
They have their exits and their entrances,
And one man in his time plays many parts,
His acts being seven ages. At first the infant,
Mewling and puking in the nurse’s arms.
Then, the whining school-boy with his satchel
And shining morning face, creeping like a snail
Unwillingly to school. And then the lover,
Sighing like furnace, with a woeful ballad
Made to his mistress’ eyebrow. Then, a soldier,
Full of strange oaths, and bearded like the pard,
Jealous in honour, sudden, and quick in quarrel,
Seeking the bubble reputation
Even in the cannon’s mouth. And then, the justice,
In fair round belly, with a good capon lin’d,
With eyes severe, and beard of formal cut,
Full of wise saws, and modern instances,
And so he plays his part. The sixth age shifts
Into the lean and slipper’d pantaloon,
With spectacles on nose and pouch on side,
His youthful hose, well sav’d, a world too wide
For his shrunk shank, and his big manly voice,
Turning again toward childish treble, pipes
And whistles in his sound. Last scene of all,
That ends this strange eventful history,
Is second childishness and mere oblivion,
Sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans everything. »

This is the famous monologue spoken by Jacques in Act II Scene VII from As You Like It. By writting this monologue, William Shakespeare compare life to a stage and say that a man play different role in different acts in his life. These acts, or « ages » represent the stages of life, they are seven :

The first age is the infancy, when we are a little baby in our nurse’s arms.

In the second age we play the role of a little child, who don’t want to go to school.

The third age is the lover, the part of our life dedicated to the feeling of love.

The fourth age is called « the soldier », when we struggle for honour and reputation.

The fifth age is when we play the role of « Justice », we use knowledge and experience to advice people.

In the sixth age we become more weak and and fragile.

And the last age is compared to a second childhood, because we’re once again dependent to other. And we loose our teeth, our eyes and also our memories, to death.

We have seen in class 3 versions of As You Like It Act 3, Scene 2 | As You Like It by Shakespeare.
I don’t really liked the first version because was a little boring and there was nothing really special but I enjoyed the others! The second is my favourite because I like the playing of the actress, the facial expressions, gestures.. she really embodies the role of the character.

I loved also the third version, more modern. The playing of Pippa Nixon is exceptional because for me, she comes to us through a lot of emotions just by talking, she speaks carefully, as the emotions she wants to pass.

The two women embody both very well the role of Rosalind in their own way but the result is very good on both sides.

William Shakespeare was born on April 1564 in Stratford -upon- Avon and died on 23 April 1616 in the same town. He is considered one of the greatest poets , playwrights and writers of English culture and wrote many tragedies like « Hamlet », « Romeo & Juliette », « Othello » … but also a lot of comedy like « As you like it ».

 » As you like it  » is a comedy written around 1599, just before Hamlet ( 1600-1601 ) .

We have seen in class three extracts of this comedy, our  teacher showed us the three extracts with specific way: the oldest to the most modern.

I prefer the third extract because it’s more modern ( the actress smokes on stage ), she is very expressive ( she cries , she laughs … ) , else, I enjoyed the crazy character.

In the first two extracts , It’s the makeup that turns girls into boys while in this extract, the girl naturally looks like a boy.

It’s for the choice of the actress that I preferred the third extract.

« Stop all the clocks, cut off the telephone,
Prevent the dog from barking with a juicy bone,
Silence the pianos and with muffled drum
Bring out the coffin, let the mourners come.

Let aeroplanes circle moaning overhead
Scribbling on the sky the message He Is Dead,
Put crepe bows round the white necks of the public doves,
Let the traffic policemen wear black cotton gloves.

He was my North, my South, my East and West,
My working week and my Sunday rest,
My noon, my midnight, my talk, my song;
I thought that love would last for ever: I was wrong.

The stars are not wanted now: put out every one;
Pack up the moon and dismantle the sun;
Pour away the ocean and sweep up the wood.
For nothing now can ever come to any good. »

I would talk about this book because I watched the 2005 film adaptation by Joe Wright , with Keira Knightley and it gave me desire to read this book.

Pride and Prejudice is a love story written by Jane Austen between 1796 and 1797 but the book was edited in 1813. The Main Character is Elisabeth Bennet , the second daughter of an familly of five girls. Their Mother wants to marry them. And one day , to a bal Jane the eldest daughter encount Mr.Bingley a charming young man. He has an great friend Mr.Darcy , very rich but not very talkative and proud. At first impression , Elisabeth and Mr.Darcy haven’t appreciated each other.

But with time and knowledge of each other they fell in love. But still the problem of social gap separated them. Mr.Darcy’s aunt Lady Catherine is clearly opposed to this union because he has to marry with her daughter. But Darcy has overcome people’s opinions and has to married with Elisabeth because he loved her. The same day that Jane and Mr.Bingley.

It was a short summary . But clearly I think it is an very good book what wrote Jane Austen.

In class, we studied an extract from the book, Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen

I read this book in french personally and I enjoyed it. At the beginning it’s difficult to understand who are the character and their feelings but step by step I better knew the characters and their own personalities.

It’s a really good story who illustrate the condition and the differents behaviors of the characters.

In class, we study a poem, Funeral Blues,written by Wystan Hugh Auden who is an Anglo-American poet, born in York on 21 February 1907 and died in Austria on 29 September 1973.

In my opinion, I love the poem because he used simple word to express what he feels and we understand quickly what he talks about.

There is an expression of grief because he used the past to express his feelings and everythings stops around him, he feels nothing more.                                                            We have the impression that he lost everything.

I like the way he express his feelings despite of there are sad.

In class, we read an extract of Shakespeare’s play As you like it. It’s a comedy written around 1598-1600, during the last years of Elizabeth’s reign. In our extract, there are two characters : Rosalind and Orlando. Rosalind is the daughter of Duke Senior, she disguises herself as a young man named Ganimede. As to Orlando, he is a younger brother of Oliver and we know that he falls in love with Rosalind. Into the passage, they are alone together in the forest.
Last Monday, we saw three video clips of this play. These three clips were totally different. The first extract was the oldest, the setting was very simple as the character’s costume. Moreover, the actors were away from each other during all the extract. Personally, I found that this adaptation theatrical was nothing special! Concerning to the second extract, the staging was better as the setting, the actors played well and their costume were really not bad! And to finish, the third extract was the most modern, the characters smock on stage and their costume are both well, the setting is more realistic. Among these three different representations, I preferred the second.