Book Meme!

[syzygy_dw]

 I've been tagged by

nonelvis for the following book meme:

Grab the nearest book, open to page 123, find the fifth sentence. Then post the next three sentences. Tag five people and post a comment.

I'm at work right now, on my lunch break. I work in a book store, so there are plenty of books at hand. It just so happens that the book closest to me is a book I have ordered for myself, but have yet to pick up. It's waiting for me at the server computer in the back of the store, where I usually have lunch and search teh intarwebs. The book is Jane Austen: The Complete Novels, and page 123 falls in Sense and Sensibility:

It is merely a melancholy consideration. Born to the prospect of such affluence! I cannot conceive a situation more deplorable.

Jane Austen's works are always popular here at the store, and we have a hard time keeping them in stock! It's amazing how her books have endured. I recently read Pride and Prejudice, and the character of Mrs Bennett struck a chord with me. Everyone sees her as a comic figure, interfering in the lives of her daughters. It's easy to forget, from our perspective in the 21st century, how her preoccupation with finding husbands for her daughters wasn't just her being meddlesome. It was a necessity. She had no sons to provide for their unmarried sisters, and girls couldn't inherit. If they didn't marry, the Bennett girls would have been left destitute once Mr Bennett died. 
 
Jane Austen: The Complete Novels is a gorgeous volume. It's a  blue leather-bound hardcover, with gold-edged pages and a ribbon bookmark. It's $21.99 Canadian, too, which is about a third of the price one would expect to pay for a book like this. I ordered it for myself because I have a weakness for books in general, and beautiful books in particular. I also like omnibus editions. I've been thinking about collecting Jane Austen's works, but so far all I have at home are Pride and Prejudice and Emma. 

And now for the tagging. I call on the following people to answer this meme:  eponymous_rose, lizbee, laeb, iko, and shaxophile. Have fun!. o

 

Comments

[laeb.livejournal.com]

i want to cheat.... the nearest book at hand is my MLA Handbook :-/ Then there's the Bescherelle Conjugaisons, Leki's Academic Writing, my Canadian Style, Guide du Rédacteur and other Grévisse and Oxford Grammar Finder.... Bleh. Then my dictionaries are second nearest. I'm such a dork.