Thumbs Up

I am sure that my vast readership has been very anxious for my ruling on Pride and Prejudice. My observation about the book several days back was less than complimentary, but I finished the book Tuesday and would recommend the book to all - - indeed, I believe I could recommend this book with almost the same zeal with which I encouraged all to see that fine American film "Napoleon Dynamite." That said, my "The Modern Library Classics" edition of P&P contained a quote from Mark Twain that gives somewhat of a different take. "When I take up one of Jane Austen's books . . . such as Pride and Prejudice, I feel like a barkeeper entering the kingdom of heaven. I know what his sensation would be and his private comments. He would not find the place to his taste, and he would probably say so." [From a conversation between 1900-1907, as reported by Albert Bigelow in "Mark Twain, a Biography: The Personal and Literary Life of Samuel Longhorne Clemons," vol. III (New York: Harper & Brothers, 1912)]