I take your criticism about Jacky, certainly. She could have been given those same hints of depth that are so deftly deployed for secondary characters like Tibby, and she was not. I think that as far as the Schlegels' perspective on Jacky goes, though, of course the sisters don't consider her interiority—they access Jacky (and the lower class) through Leonard only, and Leonard doesn't consider his own wife to have interiority. I was not impressed by him, on the whole.
You make a good point about the restrictions on women during the era Persuasion is set, and this was something Lety and I talked over during our book club debrief. I get it, rationally, but I struggle with the payoff, emotionally. There's that line early on where Wentworth talks about wanting a woman who has strength of personality and perhaps I read too much into it, I know it was also meant as a dig at how Anne left him the first time around, but it established an expectation for me that Anne would prove herself less susceptible to persuasion in a bigger way. She has one nice moment of it near the end, but it felt too small. As you say, there is so much additional context around this book to explain irregularities, thematic vagueness, etc., and overall I definitely enjoyed reading it! So much so that I plan to do the rest of Austen, whereas before I was an avowed 'never' on that front. But my enjoyment was absolutely not down to the romance, which surprised me.
I read "Two Gentlemen..." as well! (That and the longer modern AU, which I don't especially recommend—it didn't carry its word count, imo.) TG was part of my development of the idea that in a genderswap AU, both Anne and Elizabeth must be male. It is too vital to my conception of Anne that she lives a life of leisure without purpose, and being the only or eldest son, inheriting the family home and property, would take that passivity away from her.
Those other m/m pairings sound really fun! I also considered Wentworth/Harville, especially before we met his wife—Wentworth talks very prettily about his loyalty to Harville!
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Date: 2024-05-24 03:30 pm (UTC)You make a good point about the restrictions on women during the era Persuasion is set, and this was something Lety and I talked over during our book club debrief. I get it, rationally, but I struggle with the payoff, emotionally. There's that line early on where Wentworth talks about wanting a woman who has strength of personality and perhaps I read too much into it, I know it was also meant as a dig at how Anne left him the first time around, but it established an expectation for me that Anne would prove herself less susceptible to persuasion in a bigger way. She has one nice moment of it near the end, but it felt too small. As you say, there is so much additional context around this book to explain irregularities, thematic vagueness, etc., and overall I definitely enjoyed reading it! So much so that I plan to do the rest of Austen, whereas before I was an avowed 'never' on that front. But my enjoyment was absolutely not down to the romance, which surprised me.
I read "Two Gentlemen..." as well! (That and the longer modern AU, which I don't especially recommend—it didn't carry its word count, imo.) TG was part of my development of the idea that in a genderswap AU, both Anne and Elizabeth must be male. It is too vital to my conception of Anne that she lives a life of leisure without purpose, and being the only or eldest son, inheriting the family home and property, would take that passivity away from her.
Those other m/m pairings sound really fun! I also considered Wentworth/Harville, especially before we met his wife—Wentworth talks very prettily about his loyalty to Harville!