Microwave Cooking for One by Marie T Smith

Mom's Favorite Book

Mom read extensively. Long before the BBC's production of Pride and Prejudice brought Jane Austen's romantic tale to the small screen on A&E and wide popularity among people of all ages, my mother read it over, and over, and over again. I have vivid memories from my childhood of seeing her curled up on the couch with her volume of The Complete Novels of Jane Austen. While she enjoyed the other novels, her favorite was always Pride and Prejudice.

It was not the romance of the story that attracted Mom so much as Jane Austen's timeless ability to capture the idiosyncrasies of human nature. The only other author she believed did this so well was William Shakespeare, whom she also read extensively. The people in Jane Austen's novels behave as people actually behaved then, but also as they behave now. Human nature hasn't changed in over 200 years.

Mom was in all sense of the word, a "lady." Jane Austen's books appealed to her because the heroines in the stories conducted themselves in a manner above reproach and as any lady with self-respect would behave. Mom believed in and followed a personal code of ethics that she never wavered from, and Jane Austen's books served to reinforce those values. It doesn't matter what anybody else does or tries to do to you, or what other's might entice you to do — you always follow your own heart and conduct yourself in a manner befitting a lady.

In October 1980 ExxonMobil Masterpiece Theatre began airing a five-part dramatization of Pride and Prejudice on PBS. Mom and I anxiously sat together on the sofa every Sunday evening to watch the story come alive on the screen. About a year ago, I was channel surfing and happened across one of the episodes from that series. Of all things, it was the scene from that production I remembered most vividly for all these years because it was the scene my mother had criticized.

At the point in the book where Elizabeth Bennet received a letter from her sister Jane detailing the news about their sister Lydia's ruin, Elizabeth is reading the letter when Mr. Darcy happens to pay her a call. However, in the PBS version, Elizabeth reads the letter, and then goes running to Pemberley in search of Mr. Darcy. Mom said that Elizabeth Bennet would never have behaved in such a manner. She would never have gone to Mr. Darcy and told him of her family's misfortune nor have asked for his assistance.

Needless to say, when the BBC's version appeared, I watched it most carefully to see if it remained true to the book. It certainly did, and every time I watch it I can only think of how much my mother would have enjoyed this version of her favorite book.

Mom's volume of The Complete Novels of Jane Austen is now mine, and I too often find happy escape by rereading the novels, most particularly Pride and Prejudice. I enjoy looking for the peculiarities of human nature so vividly portrayed in Jane Austen's writing, and often compare the characters to people I know.

Novels by Jane Austen
from Everyman's Library

Each volume is printed on acid-free, cream-wove paper with full-cloth sewn bindings, gold stamping, and silk ribbon markers.

Sense and Sensibility (First Published 1811).	Pride and Prejudice (First Published 1813)	Mansfield Park (First Published 1814)
Emma (First Published 1816)	Northhanger Abbey (First Published 1818)	Persuasion (First Published 1818)

Jane Austen On the Screen

Sense and Sensibility on DVD	BBC's Pride and Prejudice on DVD	Mansfield Park on DVD
Emma on DVD	Northanger Abbey DVD	Persuasion on DVD
Sense and Sensibility on VHS	BBC's Pride and Prejudice on VHS	Mansfield Park on VHS
Emma on VHS	Northanger Abbey VHS	Persuasion on VHS
BBC Jane Austen Collection on DVD as seen on PBS (Sense & Sensibility / Emma / Persuasion / Mansfield Park / Pride & Prejudice / Northanger Abbey)

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