Books #76 and 77: Persuasion and Mansfield Park by Jane Austen

Like I said after reading Wives and Daughters, I started wanting to re-read all the Jane Austen novels, so these were the first two I picked up. I'm saving Pride and Prejudice for last, and I started with the two that I couldn't remember at all. And I realize WHY I didn't remember them, really--because the two main characters are SO BORING. I mean, the story is really good (in both novels), but Anne and Fanny are basically the same person--quiet and shy to the point of total silence around anyone else, 100% concerned with their duty and propriety, letting everyone walk all over them and say rude things to them without ever responding in any way. And I guess that's what the ideal was for women back then (or at least that's the way the books make it seem), but it kind of gets old. I wanted Fanny to tell Mrs. Norris to stop being rude, and wanted Anne to tell Mary to shut up. But of course they're too perfect to do that. But these books were great to read again! I do love Jane Austen's style--I think someone should write a book in her style but about modern people. I'm definitely not the person to do that, although I wish I were. Someone else get on that!