{"id":12073,"date":"2019-01-21T19:37:07","date_gmt":"2019-01-22T00:37:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/?p=12073"},"modified":"2019-01-21T19:37:07","modified_gmt":"2019-01-22T00:37:07","slug":"its-not-you-jane-its-me","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/?p=12073","title":{"rendered":"It’s not you, Jane. It’s me."},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"\/<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

I can only attribute it<\/strong> to mental failure resulting from my advanced age. I thought I was doing a pretty good job keeping the brain nimble by doing challenging mental work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But if that\u2019s true, how do I explain being unable to read Jane Austen\u2019s Emma<\/a><\/em>?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019ve read Austen in the past. I recall enjoying Pride and Prejudice<\/em> quite a lot. I made it through Sense and Sensibility<\/em>, which I\u2019m told is not the author\u2019s best. Everyone speaks well of Emma<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But I couldn\u2019t bear it. It bored me sick. I didn\u2019t find much to like in any of the characters, except perhaps Mr. Knightly \u2013 and he isn\u2019t around that much in the first fifth of the book, which is as far as I got. I especially disliked Mr. Woodhouse. Since I subscribe to the Law of Perverse Criticism (a theory of my own invention, which says that anything that really irritates you is probably something you do yourself), that indicates I\u2019m probably a lot like that fussy old man.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I hereby turn in my Literary Snob card. I hang my head in\nshame.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now I\u2019m reading a book about the Lewis Chess Men. That one\u2019s keeping my lowbrow interest.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I can only attribute it to mental failure resulting from my advanced age. I thought I was doing a pretty good job keeping the brain nimble by doing challenging mental work. But if that\u2019s true, how do I explain being unable to read Jane Austen\u2019s Emma? I\u2019ve read Austen in the past. I recall enjoying … Continue reading It’s not you, Jane. It’s me.<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[2,7,13],"tags":[873,1394],"class_list":["post-12073","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-authors","category-fiction","category-reading","tag-emma","tag-jane-austen"],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12073","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=12073"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12073\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=12073"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=12073"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=12073"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}