1) Austen's books often leave you wondering if all of her matches are good ideas. Troubling couples may include: Marianne Dashwood and Colonel Brandon, Lydia Bennet and Wickham, Emma and Mr. Knightley, Louisa Musgrove and Captain Benwick. Do any of the matches in The Jane Austen Book Club create disquiet?
2) Do you like any of the movies based on Austen's books? Do you ever like movies based on books? Have you seen any of the adaptations of Austen's novels that star a Jack Russell terrier named Wishbone? Do you want to?
3) Is it rude to give a person a book as a gift and then ask later if they liked it? Would you ever do that?
1) We seldom go to elegant balls anymore, but high school proms still play a prominent (too prominent) role in our personal histories. Especially if we didn't attend them. Why does every teen romance movie end up at the prom?
2) Does any part of your answer have to do with dancing?
3) In The Jane Austen Book Club, I take two falls and visit two hospitals. Did you stop to wonder how a woman who supports herself making jewelry gets health insurance? Do you think we will ever have universal coverage in this country?
1) What I meant in that section about irony, is that, just because everyone finds their social level at the end of Emma, doesn't mean Austen approves of it. Like Shakespeare, it's hard to read Austen and know what her opinions really were about much of anything. Can the same be said of Karen Joy Fowler?
2) Il est plus honteux de se defier de ses amis, que d'en detre trompe. Agree or disagree?
3) Which of the women in "Sex in the City" is Dean really most like?
1) Jane Austen's books were initially published without the author's name and tagged "An Interesting Book," which alerted the reader that romance was involved. If Austen were publishing today would she be considered a romance writer?
v2) Austen lovers and science fiction readers feel a similar intense connection to books. Are there more book communities you know of that engage with a like passion? Why these and not others?
3) Many science fiction readers also love Austen. Why do you suppose this is true? Can the reverse also be said?
1) One of the reasons we don't know more about Austen is that her sister, Cassandra, destroyed many of her letters, finding them too personal, or feeling they reflected badly on her. How does this make you feel about Cassandra?
2) Do you think it adds to a book to know about the author? Do you care if no author photo is included? Do you assume the author looks nothing like her photo anyway?
3) Do you believe in happy endings? Are they harder to believe in than sad ones? When do you generally read the ending of a book? After the beginning and middle or before? Defend this choice.
1) How many generations back can you go in your own family tree? Are you interested in genealogy? Why or why not?
2) Is love better the second time around? Is a good book better the second time around? Is the book you love the most, also the one you reread the most? Is the person you love most, the person you want to spend the most time with?
3) Do you ever wish your partner had been written by some other writer, had better dialogue and a more charming way of suffering?
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