Some progress...

on the Everything Jane Austen Challenge.

I finished reading Persuasion, but not the French translation that I had challenged myself with, so this doesn't count as a finish. I'll go back to it in a week or two, but in the meantime I've started The Mysteries of Udolpho, which I want to read before Northanger Abbey. Way back when I was an undergraduate, I had to read The Mysteries of Udolpho, Northanger Abbey and The Castle of Otranto for an English lit class. All three were in one volume, and The Mysteries of Udolpho were abridged, and that is the extent of the impression they made on me. So it is much to my surprise that I'm kind of enjoying Mysteries. So far, I've only read the first four chapters, and mainly St. Aubert and his daughter Emily have been admiring the scenery while Valancourt has been admiring Emily. Mme St. Aubert died, and Monsieur doesn't seem long for this world, although he has an amazing amount of energy for hiking through the Pyrenees. I've left the three travelers spending the night at a monastery.

However, I can report one finish on my Challenge list! Last night DH and I watched Northanger Abbey on dvd. This version was from the 1980's, and is part of a Jane Austen boxed set. I picked it after finding out that Peter Firth stars in it as Henry Tilney. Peter Firth is best known in this household as Harry Pearce of "MI-5." It was nice to see him in a romantic role. Move over, Matthew Macfadyen and Rupert Penry-Jones! It was even nicer to see that DH enjoyed the dvd, even though he swore that the only thing keeping him awake throughout was the cup of coffee he drank earlier that evening. Yeah, right! He also kept asking how similar the dvd is to the book, so maybe he wants to read it?